The port of Antwerp-Zeebrugge handled 3.4 million TEUs in the first quarter of 2025, +4.5 % year-on-year, temporarily placing itself ahead of Rotterdam among Europe’s top container ports.
The Dutch port handled 3.3 million TEUs in the same period, up 2.2% on January-March 2024.
Should the Antwerp-Zeebrugge port system confirm the growth trend it recorded in the first quarter for the rest of the year, it could definitively overtake Rotterdam and become Europe’s leading container port.
It would be the first time since the first scheduled container shipping services began in Europe (1966) that Rotterdam lost its top position.
Last year, the Dutch port recorded a 13.82 million TEU throughput, while Antwerp-Bruges handled 13.53 million TEUs.
Antwerp & Zeebrugge (which joined forces in 2022) have been making great strides towards closing the gap with Rotterdam ever since the 1990s. In 2008 the gap was effectively closed, but since 2011 the difference in traffic volumes has increased rapidly. After COVID-19 began, Antwerp-Bruges gradually started to close the gap again and is now on its way to overtaking its Dutch competitor.
Translation by Giles Foster