The Antwerp Port Authority has welcomed the start of work to deepen the Dutch side of the river Scheldt.

When completed, which is expected to be within 12 months from now, it will allow larger ships to access the port of Antwerp.

Dredging on the Belgian side of the river has already been completed.

"The deepening offers great advantages for the accessibility of the port of Antwerp," the port authority said in a press release.

"This dredging programme is extremely important for the port of Antwerp because it will allow us to have a more dominant position in the schedule of the biggest container vessels calling north-west European ports," commented Antwerp Port Authority CEO Eddy Bruyninckx.

"We will have to go further in order to be more attractive to our shipping line customers, so further deepening programmes will happen in the years to come," Bruyninckx was quoted saying.

It is expected that after the deepening work the maximum depth of container ships sailing to and from Antwerp on the river Scheldt can be increased to at least 15 metres.

The new maximum permitted draughts after the deepening work will be determined gradually, on the basis of tests in the hydrological laboratory, test sailings and the experience gained.

Measured in tonnes, the port of Antwerp saw a 17% decline in total transshipments in 2009.  Container volumes in tonnes fell by 14.1% year-on-year, and by 15.6% measured in twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).

Container ships are among the biggest bunkers buyers in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) region, so a decline in container shipping is particularly critical to bunker demand.

A local bunker market operator told Bunkerworld in January that he believed the drop in shipping volumes had translated into less bunkering activity.

He estimated that total bunker demand in Antwerp and other Belgian ports was down by at least 15% in 2009, or as much as 20%, and thought there had been a similar drop in demand in the nearby Dutch port of Rotterdam.

The Port of Rotterdam has since reported that 2009 bunker sales were down 6% year-on-year.