Antwerp Port Tracker
Port of Antwerp · Belgium · UN/LOCODE BEANR
Free live Antwerp port congestion today: Scheldt vessel wait times, ships at anchor, berth occupancy and delay risk. Updated through the day.
Port of Antwerp conditions — last 24 hours (as of 22 Oct 2026, UTC)
Port of Antwerp was holding 6 commercial vessels at anchor. The median stay was 6.8 hours. 22% of port calls anchored at all; the rest went straight to a berth.
- Congestion level
- Moderate congestion
- Commercial vessels at anchor
- 6
- Median time at anchorage, excl. bunkering (last 24 hours)
- 6.8 hours
- Completed anchorage stays measured
- 31
- Median time at anchorage, excl. bunkering (last 7 days)
- 8.8 hours
- Berth occupancy
- 79%
- Port calls that anchored at all (last 30 days)
- 22% (2,408 of 10,975 measured calls)
Measured from public AIS data: time spent at anchor inside the port area by commercial vessels (IMO number, 100 m and longer), with bunkering anchorages excluded from the headline figure. It covers all anchorage time — including waiting for orders — not only the queue for a berth, so it is a different measure from the berth-queue figures published elsewhere and can read higher or lower than them. Ships that went straight to a berth are not in the median at all, so the share of calls that anchored is the denominator it should be read against — it is not comparable with a figure averaged over every arrival, or with whole-turnaround time. This is a dated snapshot; the live Port of Antwerp tracker updates continuously.
Port of Antwerp anchorage time by ship type — last 30 days (as of 22 Oct 2026, UTC)
| Ship type | Anchorage stays | Median time at anchorage |
|---|---|---|
| Tanker | 630 | 5.8 hours |
| Cargo | 295 | 8.2 hours |
| Container | 76 | 2.2 hours |
Same measurement as the headline figure — commercial vessels with an IMO number, 100 m and longer, measured from public AIS — grouped by the ship type each vessel broadcasts. Stays are tracked for at most 72 hours; where a share reaches that cap, the median understates the tail.
About Port of Antwerp
Port of Antwerp is Europe's second-largest container port, handling over 12 million TEUs annually. Located 80 km up the Scheldt estuary from the North Sea, it serves as a major gateway for chemicals, containers, and breakbulk cargo into Western Europe. Because every deep-sea call includes a river transit and a tidal window, Antwerp waiting patterns look different from coastal ports: vessels often hold at the Wandelaar or Steenbank pilot stations rather than in a classic anchorage queue.
Strengths
- Europe's largest integrated chemical cluster — petrochemicals are a major port strength
- Strong rail and inland barge connections to Germany and Eastern Europe
- Deep berths capable of receiving large container vessels despite inland location
- Deurganckdok lock and the right-bank terminals give Antwerp large, sheltered berth capacity insulated from North Sea swell
- Merged Antwerp-Bruges port authority adds Zeebrugge RoRo and LNG capacity under one operator
- Very high share of cargo moved by barge and rail, which limits road drayage bottlenecks compared to peer ports
Operational challenges
- Tidal scheduling on the Scheldt creates predictable congestion windows for large vessels
- 80 km river transit from the North Sea adds time to every port call
- Pilotage and tug availability on the river becomes the limiting factor during storm recovery, not berth capacity
- Lock operations at Kieldrecht and Berendrecht add waiting time for left-bank calls
- Terminal splits across left and right bank generate inter-terminal container moves for alliance services
Frequently asked questions about Port of Antwerp
What is the vessel waiting time at Antwerp port?
Among the shortest we measure, and the reason is the tide rather than the berth. Antwerp sits roughly 80 km up the Scheldt from the North Sea, and large vessels must coordinate arrival with a tidal window — so they time their approach rather than wait at anchor, and a missed window adds 6–12 hours before the next suitable tide. The table on this page gives the measured median by ship type for the last 30 days. About 23% of Antwerp port calls anchor at all.
How does tidal access affect Antwerp port?
Antwerp is located approximately 80 km up the Scheldt estuary from the North Sea. Large vessels (typically >13m draft) must navigate specific tidal windows to safely transit the river, so a missed window can add 6–12 hours before the next suitable tide.
Is Antwerp port congested right now?
PortInsight classifies Antwerp congestion as low, moderate, high or severe using live AIS vessel counts, anchorage and pilot-station waiting times, and berth occupancy refreshed every 3–5 minutes on the Antwerp page.
Where do vessels wait before entering Antwerp?
Inbound deep-sea vessels commonly wait near the Wandelaar and Steenbank pilot boarding areas off the Belgian and Dutch coast before starting the river transit, so Antwerp waiting time is measured across those holding areas as well as inside the port.
How long is a typical Antwerp port call?
A deep-sea container call at Antwerp typically runs 24–40 hours from pilot boarding to departure, including the river transit in both directions. PortInsight measures total port time from AIS entry to exit so you can compare current calls to the recent baseline.
What is the BEANR port code?
BEANR is the UN/LOCODE identifier for the Port of Antwerp, now part of Antwerp-Bruges following the 2022 merger with the Port of Bruges-Zeebrugge. It is Belgium's primary seaport and Europe's second-largest container port.
What does a delay at Antwerp cost?
Every hour a vessel waits outside Port of Antwerp accrues demurrage. The free Antwerp live demurrage cost counter converts the current anchorage queue into an estimated hourly and daily cost using vessel-type day rates, and the demurrage calculator lets you price your own container or voyage delay.