The Port Of Antwerp News

AsstrA-Associated Traffic AG, a provider of logistics and transportation solutions, successfully completed the first stage of transporting Outside Battery Limits (OSBL) modules for the INEOS Project ONE, an initiative to build an ethane cracker at the port of Antwerp, Belgium.In September, AsstrA's Industrial Project Logistics (IPL) team delivered multiple cargos, including eight modules measuring up to 39 x 12 x 11 meters, from Bauan, Philippines, to Antwerp, Belgium, via the Cape of Good Hope.

Six new electric tugboats, including the groundbreaking Volta 1, have arrived in the Port of Antwerp-Bruges, with t e Volta 1, Europe’s first fully electric RSD tugboat, serving as the poster child for the port’s ambition to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.The electric tugboat Volta 1 is a European first. With a bollard pull of 70 tons and powerful batteries that can fully recharge in just two hours via a 1.5 MW charging station, this tugboat is completely emission-free. In addition to the Volta 1, five diesel-powered tugboats also arrived in Antwerp today.

Damen Shipyards has delivered six RSD Tugs 2513 to the Port of Antwerp-Bruges in Belgium, including the first fully electric tug that will operate in a European port.The delivery consists of five RSD Tugs 2513 and one RSD-E Tug 2513.With its fully electric propulsion, the RSD-E Tug 2513 paves the way to zero emission operations. The remaining five vessels are also contributing to cleaner operations.As part of the contract scope, Damen has delivered and commissioned the electric tug’s 1.5 megawatt charger and onshore electric infrastructure.

Sallaum Lines has ordered six additional Pure Car and Truck Carrier (PCTC) vessels from China, two with Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding Co Ltd. (2 x 7,500 RT SDARI design) and four with China Merchants Jinling Shipyard (Nanjing) Co. Ltd. (4 x 7,400 RT Deltamarin design). Each vessel has a capacity ranging from 7,400 to 7,500 Car Equivalent Unit (CEU) Pure Car and Truck Carrier (PCTC) design. By incorporating dual-fuel LNG technology, the newbuilds deliver a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by at least 25%In addition…

Vessel owners are making new fuel choices, but increasingly, they have options to help reduce the risk of doing so.The latest engine developments aim to make it easier for owners to avoid the chicken-and-egg fuel price and availability risks of new fuels.As Roger Holm, President of Wärtsilä Marine and Executive Vice President at Wärtsilä Corporation recently pointed out, the challenge is that owners won’t commit to a fuel today that is expensive, only produced in small quantities and may be usurped by another fuel that scales faster and more affordably.

Brabo, a provider of pilot and port services in Antwerp, Belgium, has entered into a deal with maritime technology firm Artemis Technologies to add an Artemis EF-12 Pilot boat to its fleet. This cutting-edge, fully electric foiling vessel is set to be delivered in late summer 2025.Engineered with feedback from pilotage professionals worldwide, the Artemis EF-12 complies with ES-TRIN standards (European Standard for Technical Requirements for Inland Navigation vessels).With its 100% electric operation…

Representatives from Ports of Indiana and Port of Antwerp-Bruges have signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to advance key economic and environmental port initiatives.The agreement formalizes a plan to work together to advance economic development, container shipping, decarbonization, port security and technology integration.The agreement was a result of past collaborations between the ports, a recent trade mission by Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb to Belgium in June, and an MoU between the State of Indiana and the Government of Flanders signed Dec.

Authorities at the port of Antwerp have closed a dock and are using drones to monitor the fallout from an oil spill that occurred while a ship was bunkering at one of its docks, a port spokesperson said on Friday."We are doing everything we can to make sure the oil stays locally," the spokesperson said.Belgium's biggest port closed its Deurganck Dock as well as the Kieldrecht lock, the largest lock in the world when considering water volume, to prevent the spill's spread.The port spokesperson said 20 ships needed to be cleaned from the oil before they could leave the dock…

Antwerp Euroterminal (AET) is installing two shore power connections which, when operational in 2026, will be the first in Belgium for seagoing vessels.The two fixed shore power connections will be used by car carriers and con-ro vessels. AET is Europe's largest multipurpose terminal and one of 24 terminals of the Grimaldi Group. Although the European obligation to provide shore power for container vessels by 2030 does not apply to ro-ro and con-ro vessels, AET deliberately chooses…

Today, a 'world first' was unveiled in the Port of Antwerp-Bruges: the Methatug, a tugboat which runs on methanol, part of a 'greening program' for the port's fleet. The project is financed by the European research program Horizon 2020 and is part of the FASTWATER project, which aims to demonstrate the feasibility of methanol as a sustainable fuel for the shipping industry.The 30-m-long tugboat has a traction force of 50 tons and can store 12,000 liters of methanol, enough for two weeks of tug work.

In 2018, convicted cocaine trafficker Slobodan Kostovski fled a Brazilian prison and made his way back to Europe with a fake passport.The Serbian senior quickly fell into old habits, police allege. Last August, Kostovski was arrested in Belgrade, accused of shipping 2.7 metric tonnes of cocaine from Brazil aboard a 22-meter vessel apprehended near Spain’s Canary Islands.Nicknamed “the General” by his associates, he had been trafficking “large amounts” of powder to “Europe for a long period of time,” Serbian police wrote in a 2022 intelligence report obtained exclusively by Reuters.

Damen Shipyards has launched the second of its fully electric RSD-E Tugs 2513 at Damen Song Cam Shipyard.The tug is being built for the Port of Antwerp-Bruges, together with five conventional RSD Tugs 2513.When delivered later this year, it will be the first fully electric tug to operate in European waters.The port was one of the first to operate a conventional RSD Tug 2513 following Damen’s release of the vessel onto the market in 2018.The Port of Antwerp-Bruges, one of the busiest in Europe…

The FBI said on Monday it opened a criminal probe into the collapse of a Baltimore bridge in March when a ship crashed into a bridge support, while local officials confirmed the recovery of a fourth body from the incident.FBI agents boarded the cargo ship Dali to conduct court-authorized law enforcement activity regarding the crash, an FBI spokesperson said. The spokesperson said there was no other public information available and the bureau will have no further comment.The body…

X-Press Feeders has signed of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with six European ports: Port of Antwerp Bruges (Belgium), Port of Tallinn (Estonia), Port of Helsinki (Finland), Port of HaminaKotka (Finland), Freeport of Riga (Latvia) and Klaipeda Port (Lithuania).The agreement signifies a joint commitment to accelerate the establishment of green shipping corridors and the broader decarbonization of the marine sector in Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea.X-Press Feeders and the…

Rescuers have lost hope of finding more survivors of the Baltimore bridge collapse, the coast guard said, as efforts switched on Wednesday to looking for bodies of the missing and more answers to why a container ship smashed into the span.Search divers were expected to return near dawn to the waters surrounding the twisted ruins of the bridge in Baltimore Harbor to search for six workers missing and now presumed dead.The disaster has forced the indefinite closure of the Port of Baltimore, one of the busiest on the U.S.

Search divers were expected to return near dawn on Wednesday to the waters surrounding the twisted ruins of a bridge knocked down in Baltimore Harbor by a faltering cargo ship, leaving six workers missing and presumed dead.The disaster also forced the indefinite closure of the Port of Baltimore, one of the busiest on the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, and created a traffic quagmire for Baltimore and the surrounding region.As the odds of their survival vanished, the search for the six workers was suspended on Tuesday evening…

Six workers were missing and presumed dead from a bridge that collapsed in Baltimore Harbor early on Tuesday after a massive cargo ship crippled by a power loss rammed into the structure, forcing the closure of one of the busiest ports on the U.S. Eastern Seaboard.With dive teams facing increasingly treacherous conditions in the darkened, wreckage-strewn waters, active search-and-rescue operations were suspended about 18 hours after the accident, U.S. Coast Guard and Maryland…

A massive cargo ship smashed into a bridge while sailing out of Baltimore early on Tuesday, sending cars and people into the river below and closing one of the busiest ports on the U.S. Eastern Seaboard.Rescuers pulled out two survivors, one of whom was hospitalized, and searched for more in the Patapsco River after huge metal spans of the 1.6-mile (2.57 km) Francis Scott Key Bridge crumpled into the icy water around 1:30 a.m. (0530 GMT).The ship reported a power issue before impact…

The ship that caused the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore early on Tuesday was also involved in an accident in the port of Antwerp, Belgium, in 2016.The Antwerp port authorities said the container ship Dali hit a quay on July 11, 2016, as it tried to exit the North Sea container terminal.The port authority could give no details about the cause of the accident, but said the ship had remained at the dock for repairs for some time after the incident."As a general rule, these accidents are investigated and ships are only allowed to leave after experts have determined it is saf

Operations at the port of Antwerp, one of Europe's biggest container ports, were seriously impacted on Tuesday as hundreds of farmers on tractors blocked the roads around the port to demand better pay and working conditions, officials said.The protest follows a large number of similar actions by angry farmers in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and beyond, as farmers also demand looser environmental rules and better protection against cheap imports."Operations are heavily disrupted," Stephan Van Fraechem, the director of the association of port companies Alfaport VOKA, told Reuters.

Port of Antwerp-Bruges and CMB.TECH have announced a world first: the Hydrotug 1, the first hydrogen-powered tugboat, is ready for operation in the Antwerp port area.The Hydrotug 1 is the first tugboat in the world to be powered by combustion engines that burn hydrogen in combination with traditional fuel. It is the first vessel that uses the BeHydro V12 dual fuel medium speed engines – each providing 2MW – with the latest EU Stage V emissions aftertreatment.With these engines…

Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry are co-leading an international initiative to accelerate reduction of emissions from the shipping sector, and on December 1, during COP28, they chaired a new round of announcements under that initiative, the Green Shipping Challenge.Various countries and organizations proposed measures to reduce emissions from shipping. This year’s announcements include:• Amazon: Amazon and other…

A whale carcass was discovered on Tuesday in Belgium's Port of Antwerp.Responders are working to remove the 7- to 10-meter long whale from the water after it was found near DP World's container terminal. The port said whale deaths in the area are rare.Follownig a failed attempt to get the animal ashore using an AMT vessel and crane, the port is now using Brabo, a floating derrick crane capable of lifting up to 800 tonnes.After the whale is brought on land, the cadaver will be…