Steel Sector Outlook Remains Challenging Amid Weak Demand in Europe
Breakbulk volumes at the Port of Antwerp-Bruges showed signs of recovery in this year’s first quarter, with throughput at the Belgian facility rising by 6.9 percent over the final quarter of 2023.
First quarter volumes were helped by a rebound in steel volumes, despite ongoing challenges for the market, said Gert Ickx, corporate communications advisor at Antwerp-Bruges.
“Steel volumes were rather flat until February, but March was better, with imports from India showing the strongest increase,” Ickx told Breakbulk. “(But) steel sector outlook remains challenging. A continued low European steel demand from the construction sector is expected in 2024.”
Compared with the first quarter of 2023, conventional breakbulk volumes decreased by 7.8 percent to 2.3 million tonnes. Throughput of iron and steel remained unchanged year-on-year, the port said, but “most other goods” posted a decline.
“Non-containerized volumes of forest products such as wood, wood pulp and paper were considerably lower than the first quarter of 2023,” Ickx said. “Increasing container freight rates due to Red Sea issues may lead to the decontainerization of (some of) these flows.”
In other sectors, Antwerp-Bruges’ first-quarter roll-on, roll-off (RoRo) traffic fell by 6.9 percent to 5.0 million tonnes, while container throughput increased by 8.6 percent to 36.8 million tonnes.
Total cargo throughput in the first three months rose by 2.4 percent year-on-year to 70.4 million tonnes, a result that reflected “resilience” amid a complex geopolitical and macroeconomic context, the port said. In the three months to March, some 4,855 sea-going vessels called at the port, down by 1.8 percent, with gross tonnage also falling by 2.4 percent.
“The fact that, as a world port, we are caught up in continuing challenges was once again highlighted in the last quarter,” said Jacques Vandermeiren, CEO Port of Antwerp-Bruges.
“The Red Sea unrest obliged container shipping companies, for security reasons, to divert their routes via the Cape of Good Hope on East-West routes, resulting in disruptions to logistics chains and irregular arrivals of container ships. This meant that all parties involved had to adapt, but diverted routes soon became the ‘new normal’. The fact that we can once again achieve growth despite everything proves our resilience in unpredictable times.”
Port of Antwerp-Bruges is a sponsor at Breakbulk Europe 2024.
