The new terminal in the northern part of the port is being built by chemical company BASF, the Swiss-based transport operator Hupac, and IFB, a division of the national rail authority NMBS. The companies have joined forces as the consortium Combinant.

The terminal is due to come into operation in early 2010, when it will be able to handle five trains at one time. That means that at full capacity it would be handling the equivalent of 150,000 container trucks a year, or 600 a day – trucks which would have had to transport the freight by road if the terminal did not exist.

Though the difference may seem substantial, every day some 19,000 trucks carry freight into and out of the port of Antwerp. But Combinant points out that the reduction will have an effect both on traffic congestion in and around Antwerp and on CO2 emissions. If 600 trucks were lined up end-to-end – as they very well might be on the Antwerp Ring – the resulting tailback would measure 10 kilometres.

Part of the deal between the consortium partners – a condition insisted upon by BASF – is that all train operators are free to use the terminal. That’s in contrast to existing rail terminals within the port, of which there are four: three run by IFB and one by Hupac. BASF hopes to stimulate competition by allowing other operators access, which would ideally push prices down.

If BASF were to transfer its entire current use of rail freight to the new terminal, this alone would account for 20% of the terminal’s capacity. According to BASF chairman Wouter De Geest, the company’s use of rail will also grow, from about 4% of all freight at the moment to 10% later.