Belgian port predicts a radical shift in UK-EU shortsea shipping from ferry to container transport, with customs chief describing the expected rise in customs declarations as an ‘enormous challenge’.
Belgian port Antwerp has declared itself “ready for Brexit” and is predicting a radical shift in UK-European Union shortsea shipping from ferry to container transport, along with a massive rise in customs declarations.
Management at Europe’s second largest port by volume believes that goods entering or leaving the EU by ferry ports will “face more checks and red tape” once the UK leaves the EU. In a new ‘white paper’ published by Antwerp, the port warns that Brexit means more inspections of people, goods and documents, resulting in “higher costs, congestion and longer transit times for ferry transport”.
Port of Antwerp anticipates that accompanied trucks will increasingly be replaced by shortsea container transport, with unaccompanied goods loaded on board by crane. Management said that it is “gearing up” for further expansion of shortsea links with the UK, offering “at least part of the solution for the consequences of Brexit”.
Port of Antwerp chief executive Jacques Vandermeiren, welcoming a port visit by Martin Shearman, the new British ambassador to Belgium, said: “Good friends and trading partners continue to talk to each other even in difficult and uncertain times.”
With nearly 17m tonnes of freight, the UK was the second-largest trading partner for Antwerp in 2018. The main freight categories are chemicals, oil products and fast-moving consumer goods such as foodstuffs, toiletries and cosmetics.
The port added: “Existing and new shortsea services between Antwerp and the British Isles will undoubtedly gain in importance in the run-up to Brexit and after October 3, building on the present links with nine UK and Irish ports.”
Shortly after the British Brexit referendum in 2016, Port of Antwerp said its taskforce of ‘Brexperts’ has worked closely together with different stakeholders, including Belgian Customs, the Belgian Food Safety Agency and major port community and business representatives, to mitigate any negative consequences for the port.
Justin Atkin, the Port of Antwerp representative in the UK and Ireland, said: “Brexit creates not only challenges but also opportunities for trade between the UK and Ireland on the one hand and the European continent on the other. Having more shortsea solutions in the logistics chain will not only mean greater reliability, it will also diminish our dependence on trucks for ‘last mile’ transport, as well as reducing costs and CO2 emissions.”
Kristian Vanderwaeren, director general of Belgian Customs & Excise, outlined that the country’s customs authorities are also getting ready, noting: “We have already hired an additional 386 full-time employees in order to deal with Brexit. With 930,000 more import declarations and 4.5m more export declarations, the challenge facing us is enormous.”
The Antwerp white paper is aimed at “jolting companies” into taking a hard look at their logistics chain. It contains practical information on ways of using shortsea to reduce future uncertainties or delays or avoid them altogether.
GetLink, the Eurotunnel operator, also declared last week that it was ready for Brexit, outlining its infrastructure investments to handle the 5,000 trucks that pass daily through the Folkestone-Coquelles fixed link.
Source: Lloyd’s
