Belgium: MSC Step Closer to Further Expansion in Port of Antwerp

The board of directors of Antwerp Port Authority has taken formal note of the results of the invitation to submit expressions of interest for developments in the Deurganck dock.

The invitation was issued in the interests of equal treatment, in response to an official request by the Swiss shipping company MSC to be allowed to expand further in the port of Antwerp.

MSC had announced in 2013 that in order to accommodate future growth in the port of Antwerp, they aimed to move its operations to the Deurganck dock as it had already reached its limits in the Delwaide dock, not only in terms of terminal capacity (last year it handled 4.6 million TEU there) but also in terms of the size of ships.

When MSC introduces vessels of 16,000 and 18,000 TEU in the near future it will be impossible for these to be handled behind the Berendrecht lock.

At the beginning of December invitations for expressions of interest were issued in order to determine whether there were any other practical opportunities of similar importance that would require space to be reserved in the Deurganck dock, or that might clash with the project proposed by MSC and its partners.

Based on the results of the inquiry, it now appears that no practical alternatives of similar importance are proposed.

The Port Authority board of directors has therefore granted authority to the management committee – with power of subdelegation – to carry out further discussions with the stakeholders concerned, in order to consider the way in which the proposed MSC project can be carried out in the port of Antwerp and in the Delwaide dock in particular.

[mappress]

Press Release, March 5, 2014