Port of Brussels shows resilience
While waterway transport is under pressure because of the economic slowdown caused by pandemic, overall traffic in the port of Brussels moved sideways in 2020 (+0.3%). The port handled 4.95 million t of cargo for Brussels in 2020 (5.22 million t in 2019) and 1.7 million t in transit (1.7 million t in 2019).
Thus, the loss in goods proper for Brussels was more than balanced by transit traffic, which came back in 2020 with a surge of more than 20% after a drop in 2019. The 5.3% loss of traffic for Brussels was not that serious, since the confinement of the first quarter of 2020 led to a sharp slowdown in port activity. The loss of container traffic could be reduced to 5%, from approximately 44,500 teu in 2019 to 42,500 teu in 2020.
Altogether, the port of Brussels recorded its third-best year in terms of clean traffic since it was created as a regional company in 1993. (cd)