Introduction

An important barometer for the performance of sea ports is transhipment. This is the quantity of goods that goes in and out of the port by sea. Since the creation of Zeeland Seaports through the merger of the ports of Terneuzen, Borsele and Vlissingen in 1998, transhipment has increased by almost 10 million tons. Next to seagoing shipping, inland shipping also holds an important position in Zeeland Seaports. This is apparent from the fact that almost as much goods goes in and out of our ports via inland shipping as via seagoing shipping.

After the record year of 2007, Zeeland Seaports has succeeded in again achieving a new record of 33.3 million tons for transhipment by sea in 2008. Not such a large percentage growth was achieved as the previous year, but in view of the global economic developments, particularly in the last quarter of 2008, this is still a result to be proud of.

Dry and wet bulk remain the most important types of goods. The coin has been flipped however, in 2007 wet bulk was the largest category and now it is dry bulk. For dry bulk one could think of items that are shipped separately in a hold, such as coal, sand and gravel. Wet bulk is shipped by tankers, such as oil and gas.

The largest relative growth last year was in additional piece goods. Additional piece goods are products that are not shipped separately and not in containers but, for example, in boxes on pallets. One could think of toys, foodstuffs, televisions, etc. Moreover, dry bulk rose and the other types of goods fell in 2007.

Just as in previous years, it turns out that Zeeland Seaports is primarily an importation port as far as transhipment by sea is concerned. One of the reasons for this is that the industries that are present, to a significant degree in Zeeland's ports, import a great deal of the raw materials they need by sea. Of the 33 million tons, 25 million were imported goods. It must be remarked here that with Ro-Ro (this is among other things, private cars) and containers, the proportions of import/export were almost equal.

A growth in the sea transhipment suggest an increasing number of sea-going vessels. However, the vessels that reach Zeeland Seaports are continuously becoming bigger. The actual number of vessels that visit the ports of Zeeland is therefore decreasing.