News / Stevedore challenges €8bn Antwerp plan with faster, cheaper proposal

Photo Credit: Katoen Natie

Congestion continues to plague northern Europe, with its key waterways measuring delays in days, not hours, but Belgian terminal operator and stevedore Katoen Natie believes it can add 9m teu of capacity to Antwerp while saving the government €8bn in the process.

Following the Flemmish government’s greenlighting the Extra Container Handling Capacity Antwerp (ECA) plan, efforts are underway for a new 7m teu site through the construction of a new dock, the Tweede Getijdendok, scheduled to commence in 2030.

Launching its own counter proposal, Katoen Natie said: “2030 is far too late because the port needs the extra capacity now. Building and making the Tweede Getijdendok operational is also a major expense for the government.

“The price tag is estimated at €8bn. Because this is a tidal dock, it quickly silts up with sand and mud that the river Scheldt deposits in it. This makes it necessary to dredge regularly to ensure the required draft for the container ships, which also entails significant costs.”

Countering what it considers an excessive outlay for Tweede Getijdendok, the stevedore has suggested repurposing an existing mixed facility at Bevrijdingsdok (formerly Delwaidedok), which includes a tanker terminal and the SEA-Invest operated Antwerp Container Terminal.

In addition, Katoen Natie subsidiary Mexico Natie operates a general cargo and multipurpose pier, while Kateon is itself involved in renovating sections of the quay as it seeks approval to install four large container gantries.

“This alternative can be realised immediately. Construction of the new Tweede Getijdendok will probably take another 10 years, which will significantly increase the estimated construction costs,” Katoen Natie’s proposal stated.

“Because existing port infrastructure is being redeveloped, no additional land needs to be sacrificed. The annual capacity of the container terminal to be developed is 9 teu, 2m more than what the ECA plan provides.”

As this story went to press, SEA-Invest had not responded to a request for comment from The Loadstar on whether it saw any future in the proposal to loop in its 2016-acquired Antwerp Container Terminal (ACOT) with Katoen Natie’s plans.

Three services call at ACOT, according to eeSea, a Maersk/Hapag-Lloyd transatlantic service that is not a part of its Gemini tie-up, a CMA CGM feeder service, and an Asia-Europe string operated by Bahri.

Any effort to alleviate the chronic congestion that has plagued North European waterways in recent years will receive widespread support from a sector that cried out for change in recent years, this is particularly true on the inland side, often hobbled by excess boxship volumes.

Inland barge operator, Contargo, was posting delays of 41 hours at Antwerp and 71 hours at Rotterdam, the latter having almost doubled in the space of a fortnight, but nonetheless well within what has become the usual range over the past decade.

Sources have told The Loadstar that these issues existed prior to the introduction of the neo-panamax boxships, but said that the massive vessels dumping significant volumes on the ocean side of ports were seeing barge moves relegated again and again.