Port of Zeebrugge
www.shippingchina.com 2009-06-03 09:40:52
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is an honour for me to introduce the port of Zeebrugge before this select audience.
I would like to stress that Zeebrugge is a young and modern port. The lay-out of the port only dates from 1985.
Our port is not an industrial port, but an artificial port, constructed to the purpose of unit loads, i.e. roll-on/roll-off and container traffics.
The port is a transit or transhipment port : cargo arrives in the port in order to be transhipped onto another mode of transport to reach final destination in Europe.
Zeebrugge enjoys a favourable geographical position at the North Sea. The port is located at the heart of the European consumer markets and right on the crossroads of the European east-west trade axis and the north-south trade axis. The United Kingdom constitutes our main trading partner. In addition, Zeebrugge is increasingly linked to Scandinavia and Southern Europe, since cargo is more and more shifted from the crowded road to the sea.
Traffics
On an annual basis Zeebrugge handles a total cargo volume of 42 million tons. Our core business being the roro and container traffics.
The roll-on/roll-off sector accounts for 12 million tons on an annual basis. One million trucks and trailers pass through Zeebrugge every year.
Zeebrugge is a prominent intra-European roll-on/roll-off port with approximately 20 departures per day to the United Kingdom. 90 % of the cargo (trucks, trailers …) is unaccompanied transport / the driver does not embark.
Since 2003 Zeebrugge is without interruption the largest car handling port in the world, with an annual handling volume of more than 2,000,000 units.
Zeebrugge is located at the heart of many car production units in Western-Europa. We are serving a market of 8,000,000 vehicles.
The port of Zeebrugge is involved in car logistics, meaning that numerable car makes are prepared or adapted in Zeebrugge prior to delivery to the local markets.
Space and added value are ‘shifted’ from the car manufacturers to the port. Hence, Zeebrugge houses many car centers which are involved in pre delivery and inspection, car processing, vehicle holding, post production option and direct dealer delivery.
Almost 1,000 highly skilled people are involved in the automotive sector in Zeebrugge, guaranteeing the highest productivity! Zeebrugge handles no less than 7,000 cars/ha/year !
Zeebrugge is not only an intra-European roro port ; but also a port that is linked up to the four corners of the world by intercontinental liner services. It is about transport of cars, conventional cargo, and last but not least containers.
Zeebrugge is a fast growing container port, our trump card being our large maritime accessibility. The port guarantees in the access chenal and along the quays in the outer port an average water depth of 16 meters, regardless of the tide. Hence, Zeebrugge can receive the largest container carriers in the world, vessels up to 15,000 TEUs.
We owe our success as a container port directly to the growth economies in Asia. Every day a vessel leaves Zeebrugge for the Far East.
Zeebrugge has two state of the art container terminals for the handling of the largest container ships. They are equipped with super post panamax cranes.
Zeebrugge handles annually more than 2,000,000 TEUs. With the future development of the infrastructure at the Albert II dock we can double our volume up to 5,000,000 TEUs.
Because of the scaling-up of the container carriers, the shipping companies must limit the number of ports of call in Europe. As a result, many containers are transhipped in Zeebrugge onto smaller vessels, called feeder vessels, for transport to final destination in the UK, Scandinavia … turning our port into a real container hub for Europe.
Zeebrugge is also an important gas platform, covering 15 % of the Western European market.
We import liquefied natural gas by tankers originating from Qatar. This LNG is turned into gas in Zeebrugge and injected into the Belgian network. Zeebrugge is also connected to the Norwegian and British gas fields by pipeline.
The coastal port is also a passenger port thanks to two passenger ferry services to England and Scotland.
Zeebrugge’s maritime accessibility, the short port times and the proximity of Bruges exert an attraction on cruise passengers. Annually Zeebrugge welcomes around 60 cruise vessels, turning Zeebrugge into the first cruise port of Flanders.
Zeebrugge has also developed into a logistic centre for food cargo. In the Northern Inlet dock in the inner port there are quite a few companies specialising in labour-intensive niche-markets such as the handling and storing of fresh fruit, fresh fruit juices, wood pulp, potatoes and deepfrozen products. Together with the adjacent grounds of the Zeebrugge Fish Auction this zone forms the ‘European Food Centre’.
The port also accommodates multinationals that use Zeebrugge as distribution platform. From here they add value to their cargo :
The American fruit juice producer Tropicana runs a bottling plant in the inner port for fresh fruit juices. The juices are packed in drink cartons or PET bottles before transportation to the different European markets. The plant produces 200 million litres of packed fruit juice annually.
Sea-Invest has a packaging plant for the Zespri kiwifruit from New-Zealand. Zeebrugge is the most significant import point for the supply of the European market.
Several local transport companies in and around Zeebrugge have specialised in distribution to the United Kingdom. International manufacturers make use of their services to streamline their logistics. In this way they can supply the British supermarkets more efficiently and at a lower cost.
Transport company 2XL supplies the British market from Zeebrugge with among others, Evian water of the French Danone Group. The loads are delivered from France mainly by train. The warehouse is fitted with a 300 meter train line.
The Scandinavian paper producer StoraEnso transports paper reels daily from the Swedish port of Gothenburg, to the Zeebrugge distribution platform. This is done with extra large containers that can hold loads up to 80 tons. Annually there is a turnover of 2 million tons of forest products.
The European Logistic Centre of the Japanese tyre producer Bridgestone distributes annually from Zeebrugge 10 million tyres for passenger cars, trucks, industrial and agricultural applications.
The Port Authority has designated a zone of 120 ha for the establishment of new logistic activities. In the Maritime Logistic Zone there is an area available for companies that wish to use Zeebrugge for their European or worldwide import and export. The cargo will subsequently go through a logistic process (storage, stock management, processing, packaging and regrouping) before leaving for different destinations on the European continent or in the United Kingdom.
Hinterland connections
In order to safeguard the mobility of the cargo flows to and from the port and to secure the quality of life in the area, the port must have an excellent maritime accessibility and efficient hinterland connections.
In this respect the Port Authority aims at broadening and deepening the access channel to the port. Also adaptation works to the road system are carried out.
The stepping up of the train capacity should help to open up Zeebrugge.
The plans for the improvement of the hinterland connections are being studied by the Flemish Government. The port wishes to be permanently and optimally joined to the finely mazed network of European inland waterways.
In anticipation of this environmentally friendly hinterland connection, the first estuary container ships have been deployed.
