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Rotterdam works to alleviate bad congestion and two large terminals

THE Port of Rotterdam has announced a series of measures to eliminate congestion at two large container terminals - ECT Delta Terminal and the Euromax Terminal - and free up quay and labour capacity.

Inland barges and feeder vessels have been experiencing delays at the two terminals for some time. "Improvements at these terminals have not had the desired effect up until now," said the port authority statement.

Congestion at the ECT Delta terminal, owned by Hong Kong's Hutchison Port Holdings, is blamed on the commissioning of five new automated super postpanamax gantry cranes and other equipment.

This forced the closure of the south-side terminal, which in turn has severely disrupted vessel schedules.

The shutdown of the south side has been compounded by deepsea ships arriving out-of-window during the past few months, putting more strain on Rotterdam's already stretched hinterland operations.

Rotterdam, like other ports in the region, is struggling to cope with the large volumes of cargo stemming from increasing vessel sizes.

Three measures to ease congestion will focus on improving the handling of inland shipping traffic in a bid to free up quay and labour capacity in favour of seagoing vessels.

First, inland waterway vessels, those transporting small numbers of containers, will now be handled at Rotterdam Container Terminal, located opposite the Delta Terminal.

Elsewhere, the port will make further use of the Port of Moerdijk, where a greater number of containers will be bundled. Subsequently, inland vessels with a high capacity will shuttle between Moerdijk and the Maasvlakte.

This option is already available, and can be scaled up even further, the port authority said.

The final measure will see the bundling of inland shipping containers, and if necessary road containers, at the Uniport Terminal in the Waalhaven area.

Hapag-Lloyd announced earlier this week that it will drop the Dutch port from its four-ship Europe-Asia Loop 4 service, operated within the G6 carrier alliance for at least four weeks from August 14. The service will now call at Antwerp's PSA-operated Deurganck Terminal.