With 2 million tonnes more transhipment Ghent registered a 4.4% growth. Ghent herewith confirms its position as a growing export port. Moreover, it again becomes clear that the diversity of Ghent port is a huge asset in order to obtain more traffic.
Seagoing and inland navigation
The overall cargo traffic in 2011 increased by 4.4% to 50 million tonnes, 2 million tonnes more than in the previous record year 2010. Cargo traffic by seagoing vessels clocked at 27.2 million tonnes and as such remained on the same level of the previous record year 2010. Cargo traffic by inland vessels acknowledged a 10.6% growth: from 20.7 million tonnes to 22.8 million tonnes or 2.1 million tonnes more.
In the first nine months of 2011 the port still achieved 5.5 % more trans-shipment than in 2010. In the last 3 months of 2011 the growth diminished.