Port of Liège Traffic
Port of Liege Traffic First Half Traffic 2020
L’Antenne reports that although Liège has experienced a 12% drop in traffic during the first half of 2020, volumes by waterway have been developing.
Liège has seen activity impacted by the health crisis. In the first half of 2020, its river and river-maritime traffic fell by 11% compared to the previous year, to reach only 7.06 Mt. The main decreases in tonnage, were for minerals (2.7 Mt, - 16%) and coal (526,470 t, -29%). These two categories combined thus lost 720,000 t of traffic during the first half of the year alone. This reflects the decline in steel industry activityas reflected in the 16% drop in water transport of metallurgical products (528,612 t).
Other bulk river traffic also experienced significant reductions in traffic: - 10% for petroleum products (1.49 Mt), - 43% for agricultural products (139,511 t), - 28% for chemicals ( 137,852 t). However, some traffic increased in the first half of 2020: waste and recyclable materials (857,756 t) thus saw their tonnage increase by 32%. The number of containers handled at the three terminals of the Autonomous Port of Liège reached 51,074 TEUs, or 7,309 boxes more, which represents an increase of 17% in river container transport compared to the first half of 2019.
The tonnage transported by river-sea is also increasing: the main inland port of Belgium and third inland port in Europe, thus welcomed 78 river-sea coasters against 69 units in 2019. These river-sea transportations mainly concern metallurgical products between Belgium, Spain and Great Britain.