In an interview given to Refining & Petrochemicals Middle East, Xavier Vanrolleghem, explains that with its unique position at the heart of the European oil and chemical industry, Port of Antwerp offers world-class logistics and storage facilities with unsurpassed operational excellence and customer focus.
What are the unique offerings of Port of Antwerp for the refining and petrochemical manufacturing industries?
Port of Antwerp is the largest European integrated petrochemical cluster. The large refinery hub that is located in Antwerp, is being complemented by a downstream chemical industry. This makes the cluster very diverse and offers customers a large string of products that not only are being stored but also handled here. In addition to the diverse and integrated cluster, Port of Antwerp can also count on the expertise of its workforce with many years of experience.
What are your advantages of being located at the heart of the European oil and chemical industry?
We are linked within the broader chemical industry of Europe, the corner stone of the European pipeline network with strong connections to Germany, the Netherlands, France and beyond. The fact that we are a deep-sea port, with excellent hinterland locations and short distances to the end-customer, is a big advantage for the supply chains. Goods arrive in Port of Antwerp and are distributed all over the rest of Europe via quadrimodal transport, namely pipelines, barges, railways and trucks. This makes Port of Antwerp the preferred hub for import flows of chemicals and plastics, for example.
How does the Middle Eastern downstream industry utilise Port of Antwerp in its logistic needs?
Several large companies of the Middle East use Port of Antwerp as their import hub for Europe. For example, Sadara, Muntajat, SABIC, Borouge and Saudi Aramco are using Port of Antwerp as the import hub. Most of the large producers and even traders from the Middle East are using Port of Antwerp for the import flows of the companies.
Please give us the details of the oil and chemical industry products moved through Port of Antwerp in 2016…
In 2016, Port of Antwerp handled 214 million tonnes of goods of which 69 million tonnes were liquid bulk and 118 million tonnes of container. We surpassed the 10 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit) for the first time. Looking at the petrochemical industry, almost every type of products passes through our port – from polymers and base chemicals to fine chemicals and commodities.
What are your expansion plans in the pipeline?
We are working currently on the expansion of the port on the left bank. For example, the Saeftinghe development area, but this is not the only project we are looking at. We see that many large investors still believe in Port of Antwerp – for example ExxonMobil and Total made large investments in our port. And more recently BASF, Ineos and Nippon Shokubai announced to increase the activities in our port. We are working hard on alternative energy solutions and raw materials, but we do believe that fossil fuels will remain important in the future as well.
