Economic importance of the Flemish maritime ports: Report 2002

36.0 p.c. in industry and by 51.9 p.c. in logistics services. On the other hand, in the maritime cluster and transport,investment advanced by 13.8 p.c. and 61.9 p.c. respectively.Changes by sectorFollowing several years of sustained increases in investments at the port of Zeebrugge, the period from 2000 to2002 was characterised by the opposite trend (table 38). Whereas in 1999, the amounts invested in cargohandling totalled 65.1 million euro, three years later this figure only came to 25.3 million euro. During this period,the port of Zeebrugge's most dynamic sectors in investment terms were cargo handling, fishing, the public sector,the electronics and energy industries (in 1998, record investment by Distrigas), other industries, other servicesand road transport. Following 2001, a year which was characterised by a pronounced fall in investments, thistrend was underlined in 2002, albeit to a lesser degree.At the port of Zeebrugge, the major changes recorded in 2002 for investment in the main sectors were as follows:• Investment in cargo handling was up by 7.5 p.c. to 25.3 million euro. This trend was underpinned inparticular by Sea Ro Terminal;• Following a somewhat lacklustre 2001, investment in fishing fell by 30.4 p.c., to 7.1 million euro. Sharpfalls were recorded at Sea Food Incorporation and Vertrouwen among others;• Following a year of growth, investment in the electronics industry fell by 52.0 p.c., to 6.5 million euro.Philips Industrial Activities posted the sharpest fall, with investment in 2002 of just 5.4 million euro, asopposed to 13.4 million euro a year earlier;• Investment in the energy industry fell by 48.4 p.c., to 4.0 million euro. At Electrabel, investments fell by75.0 p.c. on the previous year, and totalled just 1.3 million euro;• Investment in other industries decreased by 21.8 p.c. to 10.0 million euro;• Investment in other services grew by 9.5 p.c. to 23.8 million euro. Investment by the SNCB rose by128.6 p.c. to 4.7 million euro;• Following three rather uneventful years, investment in road transport recovered (+ 74.7 p.c.) to11.2 million euro. Among those to record increases were D.D. Trans and Vandamme Madoe (whichmore than doubled its figure of 2001);• Following several years of public investment, only 4.4 million euro were invested in the port ofZeebrugge in 2002, a decrease to the tune of 63.7 p.c. compared to the previous year. The greater partof this sum (41.7 p.c. of regional investment in the port) was spent on the channel deepening project andon the construction of the quay wall in the Wielingendok.64 NBB WORKING PAPER No.56 - JUNE 2004