Port of Antwerp keen on tie-ups with Vizag exporters

The Antwerp Port Authority is keen on exploring the export cargo from Visakhapatnam to Antwerp, which is being showcased as the gateway to the Europe from the Asian ports. The Port of Antwerp, located near Brussels in Belgium and the largest after Rotterdam in the entire Europe, has deputed several high-level teams to Vizag to hold talks with the Visakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT), CII, APCCIF and others in the past few years.

Antwerp also boasts of having the largest petrochemical cluster in the Europe with 30 global units setting up their production and distribution facilities.

Scopes galore

A team led by Belgium Ambassador Jan Luykx, during its last visit to the city, had promised collaborative effort on container cargo, marine seafood exports, water treatment, renewable energy and solid waste management and construction of smart cities. Another team from Antwerp is expected to visit Visakhapatnam in the near future with a group of logistics service providers.

While interacting with exporters from Visakhapatnam SEZ, Duvvada on Saturday, India Representatives of Antwerp Port Authority explained the facilities available and how they could supply various products to Europe through Antwerp. Federation State president G. Sambasiva Rao, who visited Antwerp as part of delegation, said with a wide variety of strengths, Port of Antwerp, which is Europe’s most central seaport, had been playing a major role for centuries and hoped that exporters from the city would explore doing business with world-class port like Antwerp.

Cargo handling

India Representatives from Antwerp Port Raj Khalid and Malini Dutt stressed on the DNA of Antwerp being made of three pillars – cargo handling, value-added logistics and industry with a strong maritime connections of the port to 1,300 global ports and their strong hinterland connections to the rest of Europe.

They said Port of Antwerp was important not only for attracting new European markets for India, but also for its excellent deep sea connections with the West Africa and Latin America, which were also important growth markets for India.

Santosh Patnaik