20


Issue 4 2012


It takes more than concrete and containers to make a super port


There’s no denying that the port of Rotterdam is physically impressive – the massive container terminals and the heroic efforts to reclaim land from the sea. But it takes much more than quaywalls and gantry cranes to create an thriving port sector; equally important is a thriving and creative community of port entrepreneurs. “We like to emphasise the small


as well as the big operations,” says port spokesman Minco Van Heezen, pointing to a plant that has been set up to reprocess old asphalt, on the drive back from visiting the vast new reclaimed land area at the port’s western end. “Somewhere like that may generate only a relatively small amount of tonnage for the port, but it all adds up.” To paraphrase the old saying, look after the few thousand tonne loads and the hundreds of thousands will look after themselves. The


asphalt plant is only


one example of Rotterdam entrepreneurship. A very different sort of enterprise is the rail broker that can obtain slots, wagons and traction at short notice on the European rail system. Then there are operations that have been set up to address the problem of moving empty boxes back to where they can be reloaded, efficiently and economically. As Minco Van Heezen puts it: “You


could say that small firms like this are exactly the ‘grease’ that a port like ours needs to work efficiently. As a very large port authority, we’re good at things like planning but you can run the risk of losing sight of the things that really make the port work and thrive.”


In similar vein, the port of


Rotterdam has put a lot of effort into redeveloping some of its smaller, older areas in the inner part of the port nearer the city centre such as Waalhaven. It regards these places as ‘incubators’ for small operations that in some cases might grow into major users. The authority is also encouraging the relatively small number of non-port related businesses such as car dealerships to move out in order to release more space for logistics. The older, inner areas are also


ideal locations for some of the more specialised operations. At the moment, the port authority is contemplating a plan to create a new temperature-controlled products area to replace the current rather scattered sites. There are a couple of possibilities, but it would involve relocating


some companies and, in one of the two


versions, taking over part of ECT’s existing ‘Home’ container terminal – which is quite a big ask for a major established operation. The plan is also complicated by the fact that it depends partly on selling some land to the city redevelopment office for housing but with the current weak property market, that is proving difficult. At the moment, Rotterdam is


storing a lot of commodities such as various metals and agribulks. “It’s good that use is being made of the space, but on the other hand, as a port what we really want to see is movement in and out” - and with the sluggish state of many world markets, that isn’t happening much at the moment. Also to be addressed is the


sometimes thorny issue of truck parking. Rotterdam is in the process of reconstructing the existing parks and concentrating all of it on three properly-secured parks with a good range of driver facilities. Although commercially run, pricing will be pitched at a level that will encourage notoriously price-sensitive drivers – especially eastern Europeans – to actually use then. One of the new parks will be in Waalhaven and two in the Botlek area, which is where most of the East European trucks tend to congregate. (The container drivers at the outer port container facilities tend to be more locally- based and have much less need of long-term parking.) The old shipyard area in the


Waalhaven has long been a redevelopment headache but now the port has hit upon the idea of turning it into a project cargo centre. Rotterdam has not historically been a big player in this segment of the market, and there are other ports like Terneuzen and Vlissingen that can handle larger individual pieces but there is a niche for Rotterdam. The new project cargo area will


comprise covered and open storage, and some existing structures will be refurbished to cater to the needs of firms like ABB, Alstom and Siemens. There is housing in the area, and one of the advantages of project cargo is that, unlike bulk or container operations, “it doesn’t make a lot of noise,” explains Minco Van Heezen. In truth, the €50m redevelopment


of this area doesn’t meet the rates of return that the port would normally demand but it sees the project as part of its social responsibilities. There is a fourth building in this area, a large brick-built warehouse


right on the waterfront. It will remain empty for the foreseeable future. Really old buildings are in very short supply in Rotterdam as the place was bombed flat in World War II and, despite appearances, it is one of the area’s few genuinely historic structures. Moreover, the section of


the Rotterdam municipality


responsible for conserving old buildings has a clear view of it from across the water and is very anxious to see it restored but, with funds lacking, it remains something of a conundrum. Storage and movement of containers


empty has become


an important business in recent years and one of the port’s biggest container storage firms, United Waalhaven Terminal, has recently agreed to switch to a new, larger area. The deeper draft at the new location will enable it to handle more empty boxes by sea going vessel, especially from England, and the move will also allow it to develop its container stuffing and stripping activities – which in turn will help cut out truck movements to and from other stuffing/stripping areas. There is also growing interest in Rotterdam in doing this type of activity in the port area itself – the local version of


Portcentric logistics. Another firm that has applied


some creative thinking to the issue of empty space is northern Swedish specialist SCA. The solution to empty legs on its triangular routing between Sweden, Rotterdam and Tilbury is to stuff any empty space with nappies, which are apparently something of a global industry and it is currently filling something like 20-30 trucks a day. There is quite a competition


for space in the middle region of the port. Demand for space in the Pernis and Botlek areas, traditionally dominated by tank storage, is increasing and even the coal storage areas have been the subject of some intense machinations. Road


capacity through the


Europort area has long been an issue, but a scheme to add extra lanes to the A15 – the main motorway spine route through the area – is now going ahead. It should improve reliability of this essential road as well as cut the number of accidents. Less certain is the status of a planned new north-south tunnel across the Maas river just to the west of Rozenburg, which the government has currently put on ice.


///BENELUX Neighbourly relations


Rotterdam has for several years had a policy of cooperating with other ports in the Netherlands or even, in some cases, taking them over. Early this year it acquired the port of Dordrecht from the local municipality a few miles to the south of Rotterdam, the attraction being that it has some space left for distribution operations, which could also be expanded once work to fill in an old harbour basin is completed. Rotterdam has developed great expertise in redeveloping its own older port areas and this knowledge can be usefully transferred to other places. Dordrecht could also be a useful base for project cargo, a sector that


Rotterdam would like to expand in. The


attraction of doing


distribution operations in ‘satellite’ areas like Dordrecht is that it doesn’t add to congestion in the main port area. Dordrecht was one of the


few municipal ports left in the Netherlands; Rotterdam took over Vlaardingen and Schiedam some years ago. Other remaining locally- owned ports include Moerdijk, which Rotterdam has again recently approached, and Vlissingen, with whom Big Brother has had an on- off relationship over the years. A disagreement over development strategy led to links being severed but links may soon be re-established.


Getting one over Neptune


The port of Rotterdam held an official ceremony in 11 June to mark the reclaiming of the Maasvlakte II area from the sea. With the groundwork established, work can now begin on creating Europe’s largest and most modern container terminal, capable of handling the largest box ships afloat with ease. Rotterdam World Gateway – a


consortium of DP World plus the New World Alliance lines and CMA CGM – expects to open its first terminal in 2014, with test berthing expected in 2013, though issues over financing may delay opening slightly.


APM Terminals will operate


the other facility due to open at Maasvlakte II. The new operation will significantly


shift the balance of power in Rotterdam’s container trade, with ECT no longer the dominant operator. The terminals could give a boost to


Rotterdam’s container traffic, which has been at best static in the past year or so. Overall, the port’s total tonnage – including dry and liquid bulks - is up around 1% overall, a very creditable performance in a recession, especially considering that the previous year was a record performance.


Rotterdam ready for biomass boom


There are two strands to Rotterdam’s strategy on biomass, says the port’s business manager for energy and the process industry, Nicole van Klaveren. Firstly it is to cater for the needs of the dual fuel biomass and coal power stations in the port’s Maasvlakte. Eon already has a plant and GDF is building one capable of burning 30% and 50% biomass, respectively. But the second, and arguably more important aspect from a logistics point of view is to transform the port “into a biomass hub for northern Europe” - a place where large quantities of the fuel – basically wood pellets – can be brought in by large vessel, stored if necessary and then shipped out again on smaller ships. These would most likely be coasters or barges – containerisation of a large proportion of the trade is unlikely, in Nicole van Klaveren ‘s opinion, although boxes could have a role in moving the relatively small proportion of biomass burned in domestic grates. (The wood pellets also make excellent cat litter, another niche market.) It would also be possible to process wood pellets in the port and


one terminal is looking into doing so – power stations generally burn a compacted version of the pellets. There are already a number of


agribulk and biomass terminals throughout the Rotterdam Europort area, along with a number of biofuel processing plants. The port also has a cluster of fuel and chemical firms, many of which are working on various ‘green’ schemes – for example, Neste is looking at a way of making biofuels out of the ‘woody’ parts of plants that would otherwise be discarded rather than using the part that could be turned into food. One of the criticisms that have been levelled at the biofuel industry in the past is that it could lead to global food shortages if too much land is diverted from growing food to growing fuel instead. The biomass operation is only part


of a cluster of such activity and an area of the Maasvlakte has already been earmarked as part of an area that could also encompass, for instance, green chemicals, biofuels or even the temporary storage of carbon dioxide that has been captured from


other processes. As well as supplying the physical


means for moving biomass around the world, Rotterdam could also create the financial infrastructure too. In much the same way that Rotterdam Crude has become one of the bellwethers of the global oil market, Amsterdam has similar hopes for its biofuels trading index, launched last year. Rotterdam also has centuries of experience in trading coal. In some ways, though, handling


biofuels is more like the agri bulk trade, explains Nicole van Klaveren: “Wood pellets can’t be stored in the open air, and they can be quite difficult to store because of dust and there is a fire hazard.” Indeed, one of the difficulties that


the fledgling electricity-from-biomass industry is currently facing is a fire at the Tilbury power station that had been converted to burn the fuel. The power station is now out of action but operator RWE had already signed contracts for the fuel, which is now filling up every available silo and storage facility on both sides of the North Sea.


Nicole van Klaveren comments:


“The problem with the market at the moment is that it’s so small that one event like that can have a big impact; it wouldn’t happen if the market was larger and with more liquidity.” The other factor that is limiting is uncertainty over


growth


government policies on promoting the use of biofuels. The UK has at least committed itself in principle to Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) even if it has yet to decide the future shape and size of the system. “In the Netherlands it’s a bit more uncertain; the government hasn’t said too much about what system it wants to adopt and there are elections coming up in September,” says Nicole van Klaveren. “We would like a bit more clarity from government but if demand was secured, then production could be upscaled very quickly. But whatever the details, it look as


if biomass is here to stay. “We already move around 800,000 tonnes a year here in Rotterdam,” says Nicole van Klaveren, “but we expect 8m tonnes by 2020.”


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