Compared to the first half of last year, the figures of the tonnage handled by shortsea shipping during the first half of 2010 look particularly good for Ghent, Zeebrugge and Antwerp. Ostend, however, had to put up with a traffic shift towards Zeebrugge. Overall, shortsea transport did almost as well as in the first half of 2008. Now standing at 67.28 million tonnes, the total shortsea tonnage has risen 18.95% compared to last year.
Figures published by the Shortsea Promotion Centre Flanders show that Ghent has recovered dramatically, with an increase of 39.16% vis-à-vis the first half of 2009 and of 21.97% compared to 2008. During the first six months of this year Zeebrugge added 29.13% to its 2009 total (11.30% above 2008).
The considerable importance of shortsea shipping for Flanders is shown by three key figures, which can be deduced from the traffic performances up to 30 June:
• During the first half of 2010, 67,275,478 tonnes of merchandise were forwarded via shortsea shipping. That figure comes very close to that of the record year 2008, when 69,093,239 tonnes were handled. It is also 38.54% higher than eight years ago.
• More than half (52.66%) of all port traffic consists of shortsea shipping. That is a record.
• With 18.95% the growth of shortsea shipping is greater than that of the overall maritime traffic (15.66%).
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