Chinese Dominance Sparks EU Port Pairing

In order to confront China’s decision to invest in ports in Southern Europe, the Port of Antwerp has called for a partnership with the Port of Rotterdam, according to the Journal of Commerce.

The alliance would include cooperation on storage facilities to store cargo coming into central and Eastern Europe from Asia.

Eddy Bruyninckx, CEO of the Port of Antwerp, said: “We each play our part, but it would be wise to join forces to ship goods to Poland, the Czech Republic or Hungary.”

Frans Paul van der Pullen, Analyst at the Clingendeal Institute, said: “China wants to lessen its dependence on the northern European ports. China will eventually be able to ship products to central Europe more quickly via southern ports than Rotterdam or Antwerp.”

Previous reports by PTI discussed the interest shown by the Shanghai International Port group for investing in a number of European ports in order to manoeuvre the global challenges facing the shipping industry.

China’s interest also stretches as far as Cyprus’s ports, with the intention to transform the nation into a regional shipping hub.

Antwerp has also recently opted into a twinning agreement with the Port of Guangzhou which includes commercial collaboration to boost trade relationships between both ports.