Rotterdam remains Europe’s leading port serving China

Global – Last year, Rotterdam became the first European port since the start of the economic crisis in 2008 to handle more than 3 million 20-foot containers (TEUs) going to or coming from China, it was announced during the first-quarter meeting of the Rotterdam Port Promotion Council.

In 2008, Hamburg in northern Germany handled the most China-related containers with a total of 2.6 million against Rotterdam′s 2.2 million, noted the Port of Rotterdam Authority′s ceo Allard Castelein.

The German port suffered greatly as a result of the financial slump whereas Rotterdam′s throughput only ′declined moderately′. Since then, Rotterdam has been the main European port for China containers, although the lead over Hamburg is said to be small: in 2013, for example, Hamburg handled 2.3 million TEU compared to 2.4 million for Rotterdam.

Anticipating the definitive figures, the Port of Rotterdam Authority expects 2014 to show an increase of ′at least 10%′ over 2013. In 2015, the Chinese share of Rotterdam′s throughput will be ′significant′ and will likely increase again.

There are currently 18 container services per week between Chinese ports and Rotterdam. China has been identified as the main battleground: roughly 70% of all container traffic to Northern Europe comes from the Asian giant.

Adding in alliances, weekly trips to northern Europe from 10 ports in mainland China bring the total to 74. The freight carriers 2M (Maersk Line and MSC) clearly predominate as 27 vessels travel from China every week to northern Europe, beating the 18 vessels of Ocean Three, the 17 vessels of CKYHE and the 12 vessels of G6.

For more information, visit: www.rppc.nl/en

Source: supplychaindigital