L'évolution récente du port d'Anvers

ABSTRACT The present-day development of the port of Antwerp is characterized by the constant improvement of access routes of all kinds, by the rapid development of and an appreciable growth in new modes of maritime transport, and finally by the development of its industrial function, linked with its sea traffic. While, on land, it is only a matter of maintaining and improving the old railway links, which were excellent, and the road links, modernized by the building of a whole modern motorway network, the same cannot be said for shipping routes, whether continental or maritime, which call for a far-reaching transformation because of the constantly increasing tonnage of barges and seagoing vessels : the junction with the Rhine will require extensive works, as will the extension of the seaward shipping channels. In any case the great petrol tankers cannot reach Antwerp, whence the need to lay oil pipe-lines from Rotterdam to improve the supplying of oil to the refineries. The imbalance between incomings and outgoings in Antwerp's overall activity is less marked than that of most major European ports, mainly because of general merchandise and goods in transit, two forms of traffic where outgoings are in excess of in comings. Besides the traditional importance of Antwerp in Belgian national trading or in international iransillinq to and from northwest Europe, it should be emphasized thai the port, with its excellent technical equipment, has seen the rapid growth of modern techniques in maritime traffic (loading by trailor-lruck and by container). Finally, the third important aspect of recent transformations in the port of Antwerp is the remarkable development of port industries such as the oil-refineries, which created a great and thriving chemical industry, until the 1973 crisis, and attracted motor-car production lines, which bring with them more jobs than the oil-based industries (refineries and peiro-chemicals). As for the future, Antwerp must above all find answers to the two problems posed by the port's links with its continental hinterland, an also with the sea.