This drive contributed considerably to the staggering 2.5m tonnes growth in containers through Amsterdam in 2006, increasing from 923,000 in 2005 to 3.5m in 2006.

“The Ceres Paragon terminal had a very successful 2006,” says port authority spokesman Jesse Gosse.“It was the fastest growing container terminal in its region.Volumes have quadrupled since March 2006.”

The growth of the terminal also resulted in an increase in hinterland connections, with feeder services to Scandinavia, the UK, Spain, Portugal and the Baltic, rail shuttles three times a week to Duisburg and once a week to Coevorden, and 25 barges a week to Rotterdam, Antwerp, Basel and other Dutch, German and Belgian inland terminals.

Amsterdam’s final throughput figures for 2006 were not available at the time of writing – but the port authority expects growth of 14%, from 74.9m tonnes in 2005 to about 85m tonnes in 2006.

Oil was up by 5m tonnes and this growth is expected to continue over the next years, after Oiltanking and Europoint extended their capacity at the port. Also, Koninklijke Vopak has signed a declaration of intent for 35 hectares at the port, and this should translate into a firm contract in the first quarter of this year.

Samskip and terminal operator PSA HNN have announced that they are to cooperate in the development of the Port of Zeebrugge as an important hub for shortsea container activities in Northern Europe.

Following a joint market study evaluating the benefits and possibilities of expanding Samskip’s business by using a Belgian gateway, PSA HNN is to develop a dedicated solution for the operator. Samskip says it will use the container terminal facilities to expand its intra-European multimodal operations, using the excellent rail, road and barge links available to the European hinterland.

The development of a second Benelux hub port – Rotterdam is the other – is extremely important,says Paul Swaak,chief operating officer of Samskip Multimodal Container Logistics.

“Our business continues to expand and we knew that unlike most major European ports, Zeebrugge had spare capacity and room to grow as demand warranted.”

The Port of Zeebrugee handled a total of 39.3m tonnes last year, an increase of 13.6%. With container volumes increasing by 10% year-onyear, the port went ahead with a deepening of its access channel last year. This involved the deepening of the 9 km channel, access to the container terminals in the outer port and the P. Vandamme lock by one metre. The work will allow the port to handle container vessels with 14.5 metres draught at any state of the tide.

Coal was stable last year after a very strong 2005. Dry bulk terminal OBA extended its capacity by ten hectares at the end of 2006, and Rietlanden will move ahead with a 30-hectare extension in 2007. The first phase of the Rietlanden coal terminal in the Afrikahaven opened in December.

Meanwhile, Blue Ocean has signed a contract to develop an ethanol plant, to start operating in 2008, and another contract has been signed to develop a Greenmills recycling biodiesel plant, again for 2008.

Amsterdam’s growth is putting pressure on its locks – the number of ships that went through the locks increased by 15% last year. As a result, the maximum capacity of the locks will be reached earlier than expected, says Mr Gosse.A decision on a second big lock will have to be made soon – and certainly sooner than the original plan of 2008.