Port of Antwerp sees steel imports increase again

Steel traffic through one of Western Europe’s major steel ports, Antwerp, continued to grow for the fifth successive year in 2018, Kallanish learns from information published by the terminal. The volume of imports increased again year-on-year.

Iron and steel products categorised within non-containerised general cargo saw total movements in and out of the port rise by 3.9% from 8,350,565 tonnes in 2017 to 8,677,200t in 2018.

Iron and steel products arriving totalled 4,759,502t, up by 4.3% on-year. Exports amounted to 3,917,698t, a rise of 3.4% on those in 2018.

Up to 2015, the annual volume of iron and steel exports had exceeded imports through Antwerp. Since then the balance has swung firmly in the other direction, indicating a major contributory factor in the launching of steel safeguard measures by the EU last year.

The imported volume of 4.76mt of iron and steel through Antwerp in 2018 was also the highest such figure since 2008. It was still well behind the record figure for iron and steel arrivals via the terminal of 6.99mt seen in 2017.