Port of Antwerp - Belgium

Introduction:

The Antwerp port in Flanders, Belgium is in the heart of Europe which is accessible to capsize ships. It is Europe’s second largest seaport. Rotterdam stands first. Antwerp stands at the upper end

of the tidal estuary of the Scheldt. The port’s inland location provides a more central location in Europe than the other North Sea ports. The port is well connected to the hinterland by rail, road, river and canal waterways. In past years the port has handled 14,220 sea trade ships with 190.8 million tons of cargo.


History:

Napoleon Bonaparte, the first person to identify the potential of the Antwerp Port. He later ordered the construction of port’s first lock and dock in 1811 which is called the Bonaparte Dock. Later the Dutch king built the second dock in 1813, called the Willem Dock. Since then the port has seen many changes and additions with advent of time and changes in the world over after the world wars. The golden age for the port was by 1908 when eight docks were built with Royers lock which allowed ships drawing water up to 31 feet to enter the existing docks.


Port Lay-out:

 The port lay –out is divided in to three parts. They are

• The Right Bank
• The Left Bank
• The Deurganck Dock

The Right Bank:

The development of the right bank dock complex started with the opening of the Berendrecht Lock in 1989. This lock is the largest lock in the world with a length of 500 m between the lock gates and a width of 68 m. The depth of the lock is 13.50m. The dock has two large container terminals: Europe Terminal which is operative from 1990 and the North Sea terminal from 1997. The older areas of the port have been modernized with the advent of time and requirements to handle modern cargo operations. The other upgradation includes the Amerika dock, the Albert dock, third harbour dock and Delwaide dock. This paved way for the port to be accessed by Panamax ships. The Southern part of the Delwaide dock which is called the MSC Home Terminal. This terminal is a partnership between PSA Hesse-Noord Natie and Mediterranean Shipping Company(MSC). The total quay length of more than 2kms allows several ships to be handled at the same time. Annual capacity of The MSC Home terminal is more than 3.6 million TEUs.

The Left Bank:

The development of the Waaslandhaven dock on the left bank started in 1960s. But actual work started in 1979 on the Kallo Lock and by the end of 1980 the basic outlines of the Waaslanndhaven were by and large complete. The main constituents of the left bank are Waasaland Canal, the Verrebroek dock and the Vrasene dock.

Later in 1990s other developments like sites in new docklands started. The Vrasene dock handles cargoes which include forest products, fruit juice, cars, plastic granules, scrap and bulk gas.

The Deurganck Dock:

With the existing container terminals on the right bank of the Scheldt reaching its maximum capacity and the continuous increase in container freight volume paved way for the new dock complex, The Deurganck Dock. The first terminal was opened on July 6, 2005. The estimated full capacity of the dock is 8 to 9 million TEU. The wharf length of the dock is 5.5 km. The Kieldrecht Lock, a new lock at the end of Deurganck dock was opened in June 2016 and is the largest dock in the world and gave access to the docks in the port area on the left bank. On the landward side the lock leads in to the Waasland canal. From there the ships have easy access to all other docks on the left bank, the Doel bank, the Verrebroek dock, the Vrasene dock and the North and South mooring docks.