January 24, 2019

Ro-Ro, Port Of Zeebrugge’s Success Factor In 2018

In total, the port of Zeebrugge handled over 40 million tonnes of goods in 2018, a rise of 8 percent. This increase is mostly due to the volumes in ro-ro traffics and liquid natural gas, two very important sectors for the port of Zeebrugge. The container volumes are status quo, but the prospects in that sector for 2019 are very positive.

The ro-ro traffic rises 6.4% to a total volume of nearly 16 million tonnes. Growth occurs on the following destinations: UK (+5.7%), Ireland (+16.8%) and Spain (+21.4%). The increase in traffic on Spain is due to Cobelfret’s new connection to Santander and Finnlines’ scaling up of the ships on the Bilbao route. Deepsea roro-traffic also rises 10%.

The discontinuation of the service on Rosyth (-500,000 tonnes) was compensated by the growth on Teesport (+200,000 tonnes) and Hull (LoLo & Roro: + 250.000 tonnes). Zeebrugge handled 2,8 million new vehicles, which is the same result as in 2017.