Rotterdam Port Expands Inland Shipping

Netherlands-based Port of Rotterdam, the largest port in Europe, has signed a partnership with the North Brabant region, the region of Eindhoven, north of Belgium, to realise increased container transport via inland shipping.

In 2018, over 8.6 million containers were transhipped in the Port of Rotterdam (14.5 million TEU). With over 1 million containers, North Brabant is one of Rotterdam’s most important hinterland regions, but with a relatively high share of road transport is facing increasing pressure on its road networks.

More freight volume per inland shipping instead of by truck (modal shift) will result in a more accessible port and region.

Emile Hoogsteden, Director of Containers, Breakbulk & Logistics at the Port of Rotterdam Authority said: "Smart connections between the Port of Rotterdam and Brabant will result in structurally higher multimodal transport reliability, and this will contribute to the sustainable accessibility and growth of one of the most important logistics hotspots in the Netherlands."

Hendrik-Jan van Engelen, Director of MCA Brabant: "Good connections by water with the Port of Rotterdam are essential in enabling the further growth of Brabant shippers and transport companies. This does not only take a lot of trucks off the roads; good connections also ensure the reliability of the total supply chain. We are very much looking forward to all initiatives that this partnership aims to set in motion."

One of the initiatives that the partners will be implementing in 2019 is the further scale-up of digital information exchange between the Port of Rotterdam and Brabant’s inland shipping terminals.

Sharing the correct information in time about such things as arrivals of sea-going vessels and containers enables both sides to plan more efficiently and results in fewer delays in transport by inland shipping. The parties will also investigate how transport between Brabant and Rotterdam can be accelerated sustainably, for instance by using container batteries to power inland vessels.

The partnership agreement builds on previous Port of Rotterdam Authority initiatives to bundle more container freight and to transport this using a fixed sailing schedule via point-to-point connections. This resulted in the establishment of the West-Brabant Corridor in 2018. This connection between the deep-sea container terminals on Maasvlakte and the Brabant inland shipping terminals in Moerdijk, Oosterhout and Tilburg has already resulted in 20% more freight via inland vessels and 35% shorter port stays for inland vessels.