Scheldt · Antwerp
Fifty kilometres inland on the Scheldt, the Port of Antwerp-Bruges handled 266.5 million tonnes in 2025 — and retook the crown as the European Union’s number-one container port by tonnage.
Total throughput fell 4.1% to 266.5 million tonnes in 2025 — entirely a bulk story: liquid bulk dropped on a 19% fall in oil products, dry bulk -12%. General cargo, including containers, actually grew. Container traffic rose 0.7% to 13.63M TEU despite around 25 days of industrial action, congestion and alliance reshuffles — the port estimates strikes alone cost 2.4 million tonnes.
The structural read: Antwerp-Bruges remained the largest EU container port by tonnage in late 2025 even as its Hamburg–Le Havre market share slipped to 29.3% — the first decline since the Antwerp–Bruges merger, driven by capacity constraints, which is exactly why the Extra Container Capacity Antwerp expansion is now urgent.
The United States became the port’s largest trade partner at 31.3 million tonnes, powered by LNG imports that more than quadrupled to 3.7 million tonnes; container imports from China rose 3.8%. Antwerp is also Europe’s largest Ro-Ro port.
For travellers the port is a city quay: ocean cruise ships berth on Antwerp’s Scheldt waterfront within walking distance of the old town. The Zeebrugge cruise terminal welcomed 466,089 passengers in 2025 (-16.4%) as industrial action diverted some ships. Brussels itself, 80 km upstream, has no seaport — its river is an office view, not a dock.
The 2025 numbers tell a tale of two ports in one: the bulk half of Antwerp-Bruges is in structural decline with the energy transition, while the container half is capacity-constrained at full employment — that combination, not demand, explains the 29.3% share slip. For the travel economy the port matters differently: it is Antwerp’s industrial subsidy, funding a waterfront the size of a small city’s cultural budget. TIO’s watch item: the ECA expansion timeline. If capacity lands on schedule, Antwerp defends the crown; every year of delay hands boxes to Rotterdam and Hamburg.
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