ISSUE 1 2011


NETHERLANdS


25


Undaunted port of Amsterdam has another go at the box business


next door to the country’s largest city and consumption area, would be an ideal location for one of Rotterdam’s extended gates, linked by inland shipping. Another possibility is to set up a container transferium for domestic inland waterway movements. Short distance traffic has


already been building up, “and we think 150,000teu, maybe even 250,000teu is possible this year, which wouldn’t in fact be so far off our best-ever year” - not bad for a port that many people (most of them Rotterdammers admittedly) had completely written off a only short while ago.


“The other thing we hope to


In few countries does inter- urban rivalry reach such a pitch as it does in the Netherlands but in container shipping the ports of Amsterdam and Rotterdam are moving towards cooperation. Amsterdam’s state- of-the-art ECT/ACT terminal fits in very neatly with Rotterdam’s ‘extended gate’ strategy to shift some of its box activity to outlying areas and so relieve pressure on Europe’s biggest box port. The port of Amsterdam is also going through a commercialisation process that could allow faster, easier and more extensive collaboration with other parties such as the port of Rotterdam. The two ports


have already cooperated in two major projects – the Betuweline freight rail link from Holland to Germany and the Portbase maritime management system. Containerisation actually has


a long history in Amsterdam. In the 1970s, it was one of the world’s largest hubs - admittedly tiny by today’s standards. More recently, in 2002, it opened the ECT/ACT terminal. For a while, it did very well, being bought by NYK and attracting a major Grand Alliance string. Traffic built up in 2007/09, reaching a peak of 500,000teu a year. But then the recession bit,


the Grand Alliance withdrew the service and Hutchison – also


Combinex builds its network


Combinex, based in Zuid-Beijerland to the south of Rotterdam, has built up a network of about 150 trucking companies since Arie Troost started the company in June 2006. At the moment, it prefers to subcontract haulage, though that might change in the future, says sales manager Hans de Visser. “The cooperation with big shippers and all our main forwarders are all based on long term relationships, which is very important for us,” he says. “There is still a very good choice of trucking companies,


even though a lot of them have gone due to the financial situation,” he says. Retirements or large companies taking over smaller operators have reduced the number. Combinex offers groupage and full load services over


“pretty much all of Europe”, says Hans de Visser. “We’d also like to build up our business in the UK. We already have some companies that we cooperate with and we would be interested in the whole country, from the south to the north.” Germany, naturally, is still the biggest market for Combinex,


but it can serve the whole of the continent within two or three days or so, using a combination of tautliners, box trailers and fridges.


owners of Rotterdam’s ECT – took a major stake in ECT/ACT. This coincided with a move in the shipping industry to even larger box ships, many of them outstripping ECT/ACT’s maximum capacity of around 8,000teu. The port’s commercial unit manager for bulk, containers and logistics, Lex de Ridder, says: “We, together with Hutchison last year did a study to define our future strategy. Ships of 8,000teu or more are not the main market any more, with Maersk and all the other operators investing in much bigger container ships we aren’t going to be a player in the mainstream deepsea market.” However, Amsterdam port,


do is attract niche lines – perhaps South America or a transatlantic service. There are also new Chinese lines using smaller ships. But it is a tough market. To some extent all other European ports have been losing market share to Rotterdam.” The port is currently working on plans to design and build a new lock that would allow maximum ship size to increase to possibly 12,000teu or even 14,000. That wouldn’t quite bring Amsterdam into the top segment in terms of maximum ship size but the ECT/ ACT terminal is one of the most efficient in Europe, being one of very few designed to allow a ship to be worked from both


Dutchman for Damco


Damco, the logistics arm of the A.P. Moller – Maersk Group, has appointed Dutchman Diederick de Vroet as its global head of ocean freight. He brings over two decades of experience in sales, air, ocean and general management, and is based in Copenhagen. He said: “Forwarding is not rocket science. With a pragmatic approach, logical thinking, focus on results, healthy interest in business development, good communication and a passion to improve, anything is possible.”


sides – reputedly the fastest in the world. While some of the container equipment may be sold, and some personnel laid off, Hutchison have committed to keep sufficient equipment on site to allow a deepsea operation to start again. Amsterdam may not be


big in the box stakes, but it is nevertheless Europe’s fourth largest port in total tonnage terms. Needless to say, most of the traffic consists of bulks including cocoa – Amsterdam is still pre-eminent here – refined oil products, coal, fertilizers and building materials. Imported coal has surged with the closure of many of the German mines. On top of that refined oil product became the main transhipped commodity in the past five years. Containers in fact account for just a very small part of its total throughput. Apart from short- sea, most of them are related to the cocoa trade to and from West Africa, on the likes of Delmas, Nile Dutch, Grimaldi and Zim. Amsterdam is also quite an important trade car port. It used to be Nissan’s main point of entry for Europe but following the Japanese manufacturer’s tie-up with Renault, some of that business has gone elsewhere and it is now a multi- brand port handling a range of manufacturers – currently


around 120,000-130,000 cars a year through the Koopman Car Terminal. The port is in fact handling more cars than it did 3- 4 years ago, and it has built up a strong pre-delivery inspection operation. Amsterdam is also developing


an extended gate concept of its own. It recently signed a deal with the inland port of Lelystad to study an inland terminal for containers and agricultural products and there could be more to come. “We think there will be a need perhaps 4-6 such terminals in the north of Holland,” says De Ridder. “However, every region is starting up inland ports so we have to be careful that we don’t dilute the market too much.” Also, the challenges of completely changing logistics away from trucks to inland shipping shouldn’t be underestimated. However, if it is to come


about, other ports will play a vital role. “Holland is one of the most densely populated areas in the world, and at the same time it’s Europe’s goods gateway. It would be impossible to have all this movement through this country without spreading it out from Rotterdam.” De Ridder says: “Our ambition


is to have just over 1m teu by 2020 and we don’t think we’re being overambitious – that’s realistic.”


CILT in Benelux


The Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport has set up a new regional group for the Benelux region. It was due to hold an inaugural event on 8 February in the Netherlands, with speakers including CILT chief executive, Steve Agg, and Edwin van der Meerendonk, VP European Operations, Walt Disney. Discussion topics included how the Netherlands planned to maintain


its pivotal role in European logistics and cooperation between the private sector and academia to drive logistics innovation. The event also introduced the new Dutch Institute of Advanced Logistics (Dinalog), which will promote research and development in logistics and the supply chain in the Netherlands.


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