{"id":11048,"date":"2026-04-10T21:21:37","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T21:21:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/11048\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T21:21:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T21:21:37","slug":"antwerp-oil-spill-adds-to-pressure-on-congested-european-ports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/11048\/","title":{"rendered":"Antwerp Oil Spill Adds to Pressure on Congested European Ports"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tShipping traffic in and out of Belgium\u2019s Port of Antwerp-Bruges<\/a> was heavily disrupted for several hours Friday morning after an overnight oil spill occurred at its largest container terminal.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe leak occurred during a bunkering operation in the Deurganck Dock involving the container ship MSC Denmark VI Thursday night. Despite initial containment measures, oil spread from the dock into the Scheldt River, completely blocking the access route from the port to the North Sea.<\/p>\n

\n\tDue to the blockage, incoming and outgoing ships were at a standstill early Friday.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Scheldt was reopened to shipping by 1:30 p.m. local time. As of 7:30 p.m. local time, 29 outbound and 25 inbound vessels were waiting to pass through, the port said.<\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, the Deurganck Dock and its container terminal, the MSC PSA European Terminal, remain closed until further notice. The terminal has nine berths and over 12,000 feet of wharf, and has an annual handling capacity of 9 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs).<\/p>\n

\n\tPSA\u2019s Europaterminal and Noordzee Terminal were affected but remained open.<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to a statement, the port is prioritizing cleanup at all three terminals and the Berendrecht-Zandvliet lock complex, which also closed due to the oil slicks.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSpecialized vessels are actively engaged in cleaning up the oil,\u201d the port said. \u201cWe are making every effort to safely and swiftly resume operations at these key locations and to minimize and resolve disruptions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe port hopes to be fully operational by Saturday.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNormally, around 50 large seagoing vessels and a multitude of smaller inland vessels pass through daily, accounting for a total of about 100 to 200 ships per day. The economic impact is therefore significant,\u201d Port of Antwerp-Bruges spokesperson Lennart Verstappen told Het Laatste Nieuws.<\/p>\n

\n\tSeveral other Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC)<\/a> container vessels were in the vicinity of the spill, including the MSC Denmark V, the MSC Monterey V and the MSC Sara Elena, as well as several inland cargo ships. Directly involved oceangoing vessels were contained for active cleanup operations Friday morning, according to the port.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe CMA CGM Paranagua, MSC Anna Maria, and MSC Anshika VI were also berthed.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Port of Antwerp-Bruges is the second-busiest gateway in Europe<\/a> only behind the Port of Rotterdam, with total volume coming at 13.6 million TEUs in 2025. But the port has seen market share losses as more regional ports<\/a> vie for competition as cargo flows increase.<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to Port of Antwerp-Bruges CEO Jacques Vandermeiren, the gateway saw its market share among rivals from Hamburg, Germany to Le Havre, France slip 1.2 percentage points to 29.3 percent. For the year, container volumes handled at the port only increased 0.7 percent.<\/p>\n

\n\tAntwerp and Rotterdam have had to contend with more prevalent congestion<\/a> woes in recent years amid increasing container volumes, ongoing labor unrest, as well as infrastructure strain responsible for inland transportation delays and bottlenecks.<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to a 2025 port performance survey released by supply chain emissions intelligence platform VesselBot<\/a> in March, vessels remained at anchorage in Northern European ports<\/a> 39 percent longer than they did the year prior.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat outpaced their Mediterranean counterparts, where vessels waited at anchorage 32.9 percent longer than in 2024.<\/p>\n

\n\tChinese and east Asian ports saw a 16.7 percent increase in time at anchorage, while the North American West and East Coasts saw the only decrease of the ports measure, with ships anchored for 21.7 percent and 9.5 percent fewer hours respectively, VesselBot said.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith hopes to relieve the congestion concerns, leadership at the Port of Antwerp-Bruges has said the recent disruptions have accelerated plans for about $6 billion in capacity expansion projects throughout the gateway.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn total, the port expects to add 7.1 million TEUs of container capacity, with construction expected to start this year, and finished by 2032.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe largest project is a second tidal dock that connects to the Deurganck Dock, as well as expansion of the Noordzee Terminal.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe port will construct at least five berths for inland container shipping<\/a>, as well as an additional waiting area for trains and a new road. The project will also update nearby railways.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Belgian government approved the rail and road infrastructure projects in October, but still must approve the construction of the container handling infrastructure. A decision is expected to be made this spring, with a public inquiry set to be organized after.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shipping traffic in and out of Belgium\u2019s Port of Antwerp-Bruges was heavily disrupted for several hours Friday morning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[6],"tags":[19,7573,69,7574,2671],"class_list":["post-11048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-antwerp","tag-antwerp","tag-container-shipping","tag-europe","tag-mediterranean-shipping-company-msc","tag-ports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116382510957105165","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}