Due to the growth of dry and liquid bulk, North Sea Port experienced a slight increase of 0.4% in freight throughput in 2025, the merged port announced today. The United Kingdom remains the most important trading partner, but – remarkably – Canada climbs to second place thanks to a trade increase of no less than 30%. We asked Cas König, CEO of North Sea Port, for a response.
“Trade with Canada has indeed increased significantly, almost a million tonnes more,” he says. “In this case, this is mainly iron ore that has entered the port for ArcelorMittal. At the same time, Canada is also looking for other ways out. This also applies to Brazil.”
As a trading partner of North Sea Port, the US drops from second to third place. Does that have to do with the trade tariffs that were introduced last year? “The decline in the US is partly the result of less imports of mainly fossil flows, so ‘naphtha’ for example. The fact that the chemical industry, which uses this ‘naphtha’, among other things, is having a very difficult time also plays a role. We have 60 companies in the chemical industry in our port and they are simply having a hard time as a result of energy prices. As a result, you also see fewer imports.”
Cas König also made an appeal to politicians during the press conference: ‘Ensure the expansion of the port infrastructure!’ “That is indeed super important, because this is how you create the optimal situation for the companies in our port. The economy follows the infrastructure, so make sure you have that infrastructure in order and then the economy will follow automatically. That is one of the reasons why I am asking the next cabinet in the Netherlands to install a minister of port, like here in Flanders. Here there is a ‘dedicated’ minister for industry and one for ports. The Flemish government has therefore recognized how important those domains are for the prosperity of the country. That is a very important step. good example for the Netherlands, they should do the same in my country.”
