ISSUE 1 2011 continued from previous page


One small site on its own may not be worth very much and the port authority does not want to create a seller’s market by appearing too eager to purchase adjoining lots so it is a case of waiting for opportunities to arise. Eemhaven is a slightly more


modern logistics area, being the first of three ‘Distriparks’ and was created about 20 years ago. While the concept was ground-breaking at the time, the Distriparks have been somewhat overtaken by later developments and much of the area was recently empty until Steinweg took on a lease for almost all the area. Tellingly, however, Steinweg will however use Eemhaven for storage, rather than distribution as such. “It’s not the original concept of


the Distripark,” says Van Heezen, “but the emphasis in distribution is changing towards a more dispersed model” - companies no longer necessarily want to centre all their logistics space in one area. “However, we don’t mind as long as the space is useful and it’s for a port-related activity. But we wouldn’t want it to end up being used as a bakery.” Next comes the Pernis area – actually below sea level but protected by a storm surge barrier. This is home to the Interforest paper terminal served by SCA (ro ro) and Star (lo lo vessels. The


former also take trailers back, saving a very long road haul to the far north of Sweden. Another region to the west


is the Botlek, another relatively old area. The docks, which were built in the 1950s, are narrow and remodelling of the area would be quite expensive. Nevertheless, the area plays a useful role and is home to a number of important operations, including Dutch- Chinese commodity trader VTT. “It’s another example of the Asian interest in Rotterdam,” explains Van Heezen. “There have been three major waves of investment here since the war. After 1945, we had the US, followed by Europe from the 1950s, and we are now seeing the start of the next wave, from Asia. The Japanese and Koreans are already present, of course, but now we’re seeing a lot of interest from the other Asian countries, like China.” He adds that local people


here sometimes fret about the Chinese ‘taking over’ Rotterdam but in fact, historically only a very small percentage of investment in the port has actually been from the within the Netherlands itself – 95% of it is from outside the country. Asians see investment in


logistics facilities as strategically important, perhaps more so than companies in many other parts of the world, he believes.


All roads lead to Rotterdam?


For all the talk of barge transport, roads are probably the Rotterdam freight industry’s biggest single concern at the moment. Some improvements are being being made to the network serving the Europort area, including heightening of a vital lifting bridge so that it doesn’t have to opened for shipping so often. However, it has long been felt that the four-lane A15/N15 needs improvement. In places it is the Europort peninsula’s only road link to the outside world and it inadequacies were brought home during the recent winter weather. An overturned truck carrying dangerous goods led to the A15 being closed in both directions for several hours and the whole area was effectively cut off for a time. In some areas, notably eastern


Europort, improvements could be difficult because the area is honeycombed with pipelines, electricity cables and rail tracks. However, the port authority believes that the road network would be made far more resilient by opening of a second, and preferably a third Maas crossing to complement the existing Benelux tunnel. This would link the A15 with the A20 on the north bank and would provide traffic with an alternative if there were problems on the south side. An announcement by the Netherlands transport minister is expected soon. In fact the port has offered


to take over the financing and planning role for the new tunnel from the Dutch ministry of transport, to ensure that it opens by 2018.


Benelux ports ponder


Duisburg stake Antwerp, Rotterdam and Amsterdam ports are considering a joint response to the planned sale of shares in Duisburg, Europe’s largest inland harbour, by the German government. They see it as a means of potentially increasing inland shipping and rail’s share in hinterland transport, particularly for containers. Cooperation with Duisburg would also be a key component of the ‘Wallonia project’ which includes the ports of Antwerp, Rotterdam, Liege, Paris and Duisburg.


NETHERLANdS


21


Flying Dutchmen speed UK imports


from the Far East and North America. Putting the two together makes a lot of sense, says Koring. Rotterdam’s advantages do not


stop with economy and speed of transport, he continues. “The Netherlands is a unique place for customs clearance,” he enthuses. “We can use our own VAT number to clear into the UK (or anywhere else in the EU) here. But a lot of UK companies still seem to be unaware of this.” There is no need to pay the


VAT until the goods reach the UK, though, and all VAT accounting will be at UK rates. “There could also be advantages for a UK-based company selling elsewhere in Europe. It could use our VAT number to transfer the VAT to the German client,” Koring adds. The company is adding further refinements, including making its transit documents electronic. Dutch


More UK importers should consider shipping via Rotterdam, says Martin Koring of Koring Freight Forwarders. “It can be quicker, and cheaper,” says the owner of the company that bears his name (it was founded by his father 40 years ago.) Handling charges and domestic haulage in the UK are very expensive, compared with Rotterdam. Ships also tend to make the Dutch gateway their first port of call in Europe, so there can be a 3-4 day time advantage too. With rapid stripping of groupage containers – typically 1-2 days compared with 4-5 days in Felixstowe, says Koring - consignments can be on their way to final destination in the UK in little more time than the ship takes to sail for a UK port. If the service to the UK is by transhipment, the time savings can be even greater, and this may well become an important factor if liner operators in future become reluctant to put their 14,000+teu monsters into UK ports. Koring not only runs daily groupage services to the UK – as well as all over Europe - but it also has an extensive NVOCC operation


customs is currently running a pilot which it plans to roll out to the general market fairly soon. Martin Koring says that the EU’s new import control system,


which has caused some angst among the UK freight forwarding community, seems to have been introduced in the Netherlands without any undue fuss. “It does give you an advantage to see what goods are arriving and, the more information you have, the quicker you can act. It will also give customs the same information that we have,” he explains. Koring is also adding a physical distribution aspect to its activities. “We don’t just want to do the transport from A to B. We want to offer a service so that a US company, for example, only has to put its sales people on the road in Europe, while we handle all the logistics. We can also do things like sending out invoices, and we can advise on buying and shipping terms.” As in Britain, the in-company shipping manager is becoming an endangered species in the Netherlands.


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