The Antwerp and Zeebrugge port authorities have had constructive discussions about intensifying their current cooperation and synergies since the beginning of 2018. These discussions led to a joint economic complementarity and robustness study carried out by consultancy firms Deloitte and Laga.

The study evaluated:

• the current forms of cooperation;
• the possible added value of all potential forms of cooperation, including an economically interesting merger;
• potential management scenarios.

Both port authorities are willing to formally start negotiations in view of a possible (phased) merger. The entire process is expected to take around two years. Dirk De Fauw, chairman of the Port of Zeebrugge: “We have been talking with the Port of Antwerp for some time now to see how we can work more closely together with the aim of strengthening each other’s platforms. The ambition of both our port authorities is to form a future-proof port with a complete offering from A to Z. Based on the growing trust and the positive findings of the research report, we will start the formal discussions with our colleagues from the Port of Antwerp.”

Port of Antwerp Alderman Annick De Ridder: “Deloitte's research indicates that our ports are highly complementary and that we face similar challenges. Together, we can turn Antwerp and Zeebrugge into the port of the future faster and more effectively by focusing on domains such as energy transition, innovation and digitalization. We are starting formal merger talks with Zeebrugge because we are confident that this will enable us to reinforce our position as the main gateway to Europe.”