After nearly two years of delay, ICO in Zeebrugge has broken ground on what will become Europe’s first fully automated multilevel parking system for finished vehicles. This €50-million-plus project marks a new chapter for the continent’s automotive logistics, ICO’s Japanese parent company NYK announced.
The installation, a collaboration between ICO and Belgian partners Stow Group and Ceratec, will rise to about 44 metres and provide space for around 10,000 cars. Getting the official green light took almost 2 years due to permitting procedures and a change of course in the draft design.
ICO, short for International Car Operators, is one of Europe’s largest automotive terminal operators, specializing in roll-on/roll-off logistics, the handling, storage, and processing of new vehicles that arrive or depart by ship.
Instead of a traditional concrete garage, the structure will function as a robotised rack system: vehicles arriving at the terminal are scanned, assigned to a slot, and automatically moved by cranes and shuttles. When ships are ready to load, the system retrieves the cars and delivers them to the correct zone, without a driver ever touching the wheel.
Project manager Niek Provoost calls it “a smarter, safer and more efficient way to use every square metre of the port.” The upgrade will lift ICO’s total handling capacity from 2.5 million to roughly 3 million vehicles a year, easing the chronic congestion that has plagued Zeebrugge in recent years. Completion is scheduled for the second half of 2027.
The project’s road to approval was long. Originally planned as a standard concrete car park, the design was re-engineered into a high-tech automated system — a change that required new permits and added nearly two years of waiting. Bruges city authorities granted the final environmental and building approvals only this autumn.
A critical node
Zeebrugge is more than a Belgian success story. Together with Antwerp, it forms the Port of Antwerp–Bruges, the world’s largest roll-on/roll-off hub according to its own website, handling over 3 million vehicles annually.
The port reports 974 ha of terminal space dedicated to automotive business and storage capacity of 365,200 vehicles. The port is a vital gateway for European carmakers and importers, linking Asia and North America with distribution networks that reach deep into the EU.
That role has become more complex as the market shifts toward electric vehicles. In 2024, one in six cars arriving in Zeebrugge came from China, up sharply from the year before.
With storage lots already bursting, several manufacturers — including BYD — temporarily diverted shipments to Rotterdam and Amsterdam. ICO’s vertical garage is designed to end that space crunch and recapture lost traffic.
Efficiency, sustainability and resilience
Beyond capacity, the new facility promises significant environmental gains. By reducing internal vehicle movements, it cuts fuel use, emissions and the risk of damage. The vertical design makes far denser use of scarce port land, while automation improves worker safety and turnaround times.
For Europe, the implications reach well beyond Belgium. If one of these hubs is congested or capacity-limited (as Zeebrugge has been), automotive supply-chains across Europe feel the impact (delays, diverted flows).
A decongested Zeebrugge strengthens the entire automotive supply chain, stabilises the fast-growing EV import market and helps keep high-value logistics activity within the EU. It also sets a precedent: if successful, the Zeebrugge model could become the blueprint for other constrained car ports across the continent.
Construction is now underway, with the steel structure and automation systems to be installed in stages through 2026. When the first vehicles roll into the automated racks in 2027, Zeebrugge will not just be Europe’s busiest car port — it will also be its ‘smartest’.
Japanese shipping giant NYK (Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha) plays a pivotal global role in car exports through its vast Ro-Ro fleet of around 120 vessels and its integrated land-based logistics network, including major European hubs like ICO Zeebrugge.
In contrast, China’s BYD, which has begun launching its own fleet of eight car carriers to ship EVs directly to Europe, symbolises a new trend of vertical integration: manufacturers controlling their logistics to secure capacity amid surging exports.
