- Port of Antwerp-Bruges secures temporary relief from strikes.
- Over 160 ships await to enter or depart the port.
- Clearing backlog from strikes to take several days.
Belgium’s key ports of Antwerp and Bruges have secured temporary relief from industrial actions, the port authority said Oct. 15, with maritime traffic expected to resume gradually in the coming days, reports Platts.
Pilot strikes causing delays
While National Strike Day, which fell on Oct. 14, was over, Flemish pilots’ union BVL has also suspended strikes until Oct. 24, according to the Port of Antwerp-Bruges.
“A gradual improvement will therefore become noticeable,” the port authority said on its website, adding that more than 60 ships were waiting to depart and around 100 ships were queuing to enter the port complex.
“It is too early to estimate how quickly the situation will improve,” it said in a web statement. “Clearing the backlog will take several days.”
The port authority said it was not immediately clear whether other organizations within the Pilots’ Front would also suspend their industrial actions. The unions have been protesting against the federal government’s planned pension reform, resulting in traffic disruption since Oct. 5.
“Pilot strikes [are] causing delays, with [the] port of Antwerp being the most affected,” bunker trader KPI OceanConnect said in a note.
“We have some people diverting from Antwerp to Rotterdam, but it’s not that easy to solve in the prompt,” a Europe-based jet fuel market player said, adding that there was congestion in Rotterdam too.
Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, last assessed the delivered bunker price for very low sulfur fuel oil at $432/metric ton in Antwerp on Oct. 14, compared with $434/mt on Oct. 6.
Market participants said earlier that the strikes were slowing down arrivals into Europe, with Antwerp being a major discharge location for jet fuel and diesel.
Antwerp, Europe’s second-largest port in cargo volumes and bunker deliveries, has faced several strikes in recent quarters. Past disruptions usually lasted for days and were limited, as ample notice was given.
Rotterdam operations
Separately, Rotterdam’s container terminals have resumed normal operations since Oct. 13 after lashers suspended their industrial action due to court intervention.
The dockworkers that fasten and unfasten containers, who began their strike Oct. 8, have the right to stop working Oct. 17 if they can’t reach a new collective labor agreement with their employers.
“The chosen solution is not ideal, but it will allow the port to reopen and the Netherlands to be resupplied,” the Port of Rotterdam said in a statement. “This will enable backlogs to be cleared to some extent and container ships to be handled over a four-day period.”
The industrial action has affected the Dutch port’s container operations but not its liquid, dry bulk terminals and bunker operations.
Rotterdam, Europe’s largest cargo and bunker port, reported a 2.7% year-over-year growth in container throughput to 7 million twenty-foot equivalent units in January-June.
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Source: Platts
