Portugal & Belgium Strikes: What LSP Leaders Need to Do This Week (25 November 2025)

Port labour action in Portugal and a three-day national strike in Belgium are overlapping this week and into December.

For logistics service providers (LSPs), this directly affects berth windows, transshipment integrity, trucking capacity, and cost exposure on some of Europe’s most important gateways.

This alert summarises what’s happening now, what’s already scheduled, and how to respond in a practical way for your network and your customers.

Portugal: Port Administration Strikes Through Mid-December

Who is striking and where?

The National Union of Port Administration Workers (SNTAP) has called a series of 24-hour strikes covering port authority staff at all mainland Portuguese ports.

That includes:

Leixões / Viana do Castelo / Douro
Aveiro
Figueira da Foz
Lisbon
Setúbal
Sines
Algarve ports

Ports in Madeira and the Azores are outside the scope of this industrial action. Certain minimum services (e.g. specific fuel and LNG movements) are protected by arbitration, particularly at Sines, but these are narrow exceptions and not a guarantee of normal operations.

The dispute centres on a sector-wide pay agreement signed in December 2024 between SNTAP and all mainland port authorities. The agreement would add a new pay band and align hourly pay with Portugal’s Labour Code. The Finance Ministry has not authorised its implementation, triggering the escalation.

Strike schedule (as of 25 November 2025)

The current wave of stoppages runs in multiple 24-hour blocks:

25–26 November
28–29 November
2–4 December
9 December
12–13 December

Each period is a full 00:00–24:00 stoppage by port administration staff.

Earlier strike days in October and November produced near-total disruption of administration functions at affected ports, with reports of a very high percentage of vessels unable to operate as planned on those days. Ship agents and shippers have already recorded dozens of cancelled calls (notably cruise), significant schedule reshuffles for cargo vessels, and increased use of foreign ports as alternatives.

For planning purposes, it is prudent to assume material disruption to:

Berth assignment and vessel clearance
Documentation and administrative processing
Coordination of pilotage and towage
Planning of container handling and gate operations

even if some physical cargo handling continues under local work-around arrangements.

Additional risk: 11 December general strike

Separately, Portugal’s largest union federations (CGTP and UGT) have called a national general strike for 11 December.

Scope: public services and transport more broadly (rail, public transport, some logistics).
SNTAP has indicated it does not expect significant participation from its members in this general strike, but wider disruption to inland transport and public services is still likely around that date.

For LSPs, the takeaway is that Week 50 (9–13 December) is especially high risk, with:

SNTAP port strikes on 9 and 12–13 December, and
A national general strike on 11 December.

Belgium: National Strike Disrupting Antwerp-Bruges and Zeebrugge (24–26 November)

National action across sectors

Belgium is in the middle of a three-day national strike (24–26 November) driven by union opposition to government austerity measures and pension reforms.

The pattern:

24 November (Monday): Partial disruption as unions support voluntary participation; public transport significantly affected.
25–26 November (Tuesday–Wednesday): Full nationwide strike across multiple sectors, including logistics and transport.

Negotiations have produced a budget deal, but the strike has gone ahead as planned, so disruption continues today and into tomorrow.

Port impact: Antwerp-Bruges and Zeebrugge

For LSPs, the main concern is the Port of Antwerp-Bruges, including Zeebrugge:

The port authority has flagged significant disruption to operations between 24–26 November.
Initial advisories suggested no formal strike action by pilots and traffic controllers in Antwerp, but more recent updates from port and industry sources point to:
- Pilotage disruption linked to the national strike and parallel pilot actions.
- Restricted access to some terminals during parts of the strike period.
- At Zeebrugge, actions by traffic control and the Vloot pilot transport service are expected and, in practice, are already constraining vessel movements.

Key operational consequences to plan for:

Vessels may be unable to enter or leave the port for parts of the strike window.
Berthing, loading, and discharge plans are subject to last-minute changes.
Trucking and intermodal connections around the port are experiencing delays and capacity reductions.

Airports and wider transport are also affected. For airfreight planners, Brussels and Charleroi face substantial cancellations and schedule changes on the official strike days.

Why This Matters for LSP Networks

Europe is already tight on capacity

Even before these strikes, European ports were operating with elevated but manageable congestion:

As of mid-November, no major European port was showing average wait times above three days, but many gateways were facing steady yard and berth pressure.
Ports like Valencia have been running around three days of average wait time, with others experiencing minor but persistent congestion.

Strikes in Portugal and Belgium effectively remove flexibility from the system:

Carriers may divert calls from Portuguese ports to Spanish or other European gateways, adding volume to already busy terminals.
In Antwerp-Bruges, even short pilotage stoppages create knock-on effects for window alignment, barge schedules, and rail links into the hinterland.

Rate and capacity environment

On the ocean freight side, the current disruption is occurring against a backdrop of:

Softening spot rates on the Asia–US trades, with recent reports of:
- Asia–US West Coast rates down around 6% week-on-week, and
- Daily prices dropping more than 20% from early-November levels back toward mid-October pricing.
- Carriers signalling they may reconsider December GRIs if downward pressure continues.

That combination—operational volatility but softer rates—creates a tricky environment:

carriers may lean on blank sailings, port omissions, and inducement calls to protect utilisation and schedule integrity, directly interacting with the strike-driven constraints described above.

Practical Actions for LSP Leaders

1. Shipments touching Portugal (now through mid-December)

Map exposure by port and strike window

Identify all bookings and routings involving Portugal discharge or load between now and 13 December.
Split into:
- Direct calls (e.g. Sines, Leixões, Lisbon, Setúbal), and
- Feeder or transshipment flows via Portuguese hubs.

Build structured buffers

For calls falling on strike dates, treat berthing and operations as high-risk.
For calls due within 24–48 hours after strike days, expect residual backlog and slower turnaround.
Build extra lead time into door-deliveries ex-Portugal, especially where inland legs are tight.

Evaluate alternative routings

Where commercially and operationally viable, consider:

Temporarily routing via Spanish or French ports (e.g. Vigo, Bilbao, Algeciras, Valencia, Le Havre) with strong inland connections to your consignees.
Using non-Portuguese transshipment hubs for flows to West Africa or Latin America that would normally pivot via Sines.

When considering diversions:

Check terminal congestion and trucking capacity at the alternative port; you don’t want to swap one bottleneck for another.
Recalculate total landed cost, including additional inland transport and potential demurrage/detention at new hubs.

Prioritise critical cargo

Agree with customers on priority shipments:

Time-sensitive or high-value cargo
Temperature-controlled or dangerous goods with tight compliance windows
Production-critical components

Use those priorities to drive:

Early gate-in (where sensible)
Space protection on alternative routings
Proactive discussions with carriers about contingency options

Tighten documentation discipline

On strike days, even if some physical operations continue, administrative throughput drops sharply. Reduce preventable friction by:

Ensuring all shipping instructions and VGM data are complete and on time.
Clearing any known customs or compliance issues before cargo reaches the port.
Standardising cut-off communication across your internal teams so nothing is left to “hope it goes through”.

2. Shipments touching Belgium (Antwerp-Bruges, Zeebrugge)

Because the Belgian strike window is shorter (24–26 November), the focus is on immediate triage.

Short-term (this week)

Identify all vessels scheduled to arrive or depart Antwerp-Bruges or Zeebrugge between 24–28 November.
Expect:
- Potential pilotage constraints limiting arrivals and departures.
- Last-minute berth and terminal changes.
- Slower truck turn-times into and out of terminals.

Concrete steps:

For export loads:
- Confirm gate-in status and acceptance with terminals for cargo planned this week.
- Where possible, advance or delay truck moves outside the peak strike hours and days.
For import cargo:
- Communicate realistic pickup windows to customers; avoid promising “same-day” release on vessels arriving during the strike.
- Consider short-term storage off-dock if terminals impose stricter free-time or operational restrictions.

Medium-term (next 2–3 weeks)

Even after 26 November, anticipate:

Residual berth and yard backlog.
Some carriers re-sequencing port rotations or temporarily adjusting Antwerp-Bruges calls to manage delays.

Actions:

Update internal planning tools with revised ETAs/ETDs as soon as carriers publish them.
Factor in the likelihood of missed barge or rail connections and add buffer for inland services.

3. Network & Procurement Considerations

Across both disruptions, LSP leaders should:

Re-assess lane risk

Mark lanes that depend heavily on Portuguese gateways or Antwerp-Bruges as temporarily higher-risk.
Review whether customer SLAs in those lanes need short-term amendments (e.g. relaxing on-time delivery targets during strike windows).

Coordinate centrally with carrier partners

Encourage structured updates from carriers:
- Planned port omissions or inducement calls.
- Changes in feeder connections to and from Portugal.
- Additional blank sailings introduced to stabilise schedules.
Use these to recalibrate:
- Capacity allocations, especially on origin ports where demand suddenly shifts away from affected gateways.
- Short-term rate strategies—for example, whether to lock in attractive spot levels now or wait for potential further softening.

Stress-test contingency plans

Treat this as a live test of your disruption playbook:

Can your teams quickly model alternative routings and cost scenarios when a port becomes unavailable?
Do you have standard templates for advising customers of delay risk by lane?
Are exceptions and work-arounds being logged in a way that improves your response the next time this happens?

How to Communicate With Customers

The information advantage for LSPs is not only knowing what is happening, but explaining it calmly and concretely.

Practical communication tips:

Lead with specifics, not headlines
- “Your shipments via Sines between 28 November and 4 December face elevated delay risk due to scheduled port authority strikes” is more useful than “Portugal ports in chaos”.
Time-stamp everything
- Always mention “as of 25 November 2025” (or the day of the update) so customers understand this is a moving situation.
Offer scenarios, not certainties
- Share a range: best-case, most likely, and worst-case delay estimates where possible.
- Be transparent about which parts are confirmed (e.g. strike dates) and which are projections (e.g. expected clearance times).
Pair bad news with concrete actions
- When you flag risk, also outline what you can do: alternative routings, extra lead time, priority handling, or temporary mode shifts for critical cargo.

Done well, disruption communication moves from “defensive damage control” to evidence of operational maturity.

Where TRADLINX Fits In

For shippers and forwarders, the hard part of weeks like this is not reading about strikes—it’s coordinating hundreds of small decisions across lanes, modes, and partners.

This is exactly where platforms like TRADLINX are designed to help:

Bringing together shipment, schedule, and exception data from multiple carriers and modes in one place.
Making it easier to compare alternative routings and ports when a gateway like Sines or Antwerp becomes unreliable.
Supporting your teams as they share consistent, data-backed updates with customers across sales, operations, and management.

If your network is exposed to Portugal, Belgium, or European transshipment hubs over the next few weeks, this is a good moment to:

Review how your TRADLINX workflows handle disruption alerts and re-routing, and
Align your internal playbook around a single, shared view of what’s happening and what you’ll do next.

The strikes will end; the value of a more resilient, data-driven response will remain.