While the Port of Antwerp was already known as Europe’s 2nd-largest port, the merger with the Port of Zeebrugge will give rise to a unified port with an even greater list of facts and figures. Highlighting just a few examples, once the unification process is complete, the Port of Antwerp-Bruges will be:

• Europe’s most important container port (with an annual container shipping volume of 157 million tons);
• one of Europe’s largest breakbulk ports;
• the largest port for the throughput of vehicles in Europe;
• the biggest port for cruise ships in the Benelux;
• one of the world’s leading ports (with a total throughput of 278 million tons per year).

What’s more, the Port of Antwerp-Bruges will transit over 15% of Europe’s liquid natural gas, while remaining home to Europe’s largest and the world’s 2nd-largest petrochemical cluster.

Adding even more wind in their sails, the ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge will leverage each other’s strengths for a result where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. This is because the ports are largely complementary. While Antwerp specializes in the handling and storage of containers, breakbulk and chemical products, for instance, Zeebrugge is a major port for ro-ro traffic, container handling and liquid natural gas transshipment.

To maximize the added value of unification, the Port of Antwerp-Bruges will develop and make optimal use of the interconnectivity between Antwerp and Zeebrugge. In this respect, the focus will be on bundling the transportation of goods by rail between the two ports, optimizing estuary traffic (using inland vessels on the North Sea) and utilizing pipeline connections.