Minco van Heezen, Rotterdam Port Authority’s press officer, says: “We are still working towards the original schedule, which means we hope to start handling the first containers in 2013.”

The first phase of the work will be the construction of a dyke – expected to take two years – containing a new “lake”, within which the new port land will be steadily reclaimed according to market demand.

Operations are slated to start with two container terminals,one of which will be operated by APM Terminals,  which has already signed a contract with the port. The APM facility will be built in three phases,with the first part amounting to 60 hectares and the final total 167 hectares, under the condition that an agreed amount of containers will be handled on the terminal. It will have 2,400 metres of quay with a depth of up  to 20 metres and a barge quay of 500 metres with a depth of more than 10 metres. Total capacity will be approximately 4.5m teu – the capacity of APM’s existing terminal in Rotterdam is about 2.5m teu.

The other first phase terminal at Maasvlakte 2, totalling 138 hectares, is the subject of a tendering process, with five consortia of shipping companies and stevedores competing. A contract is expected to be finalised in mid 2007.

Rotterdam’s year-end figures for 2006 were another  record, with volumes up 1.5% to 377m tonnes. Containers were up by 4%, to 9.6m teu, and new records were set in four other sectors – mineral oil products, which were up 8%, coal, up 3%, other dry bulks, up 8%, and other liquid bulks, up 14%.

However, imports and exports of ore and scrap were down 6%,agribulks were down 14%,and crude oil fell 3%. “Virtually the whole of the port is continuing to operate at full capacity,” says port authority chief executive Hans Smits. “With the current terminal capabilities, it’s possible to approach the maximum growth scenario.Only when the major expansions,such as the EMO coal terminal and the Euromax container terminal, have been completed will it be possible to accelerate the growth.This is sorely needed.”

Mr Smits says it doesn’t matter how big the site is, there are always a number of candidates from a number different sectors.“Virtually every global player wants a strategic position with deep water and plenty of rail capacity. Rotterdam is therefore in great demand and the Betuwe Route plays an important role here.” However, he warns, container throughput will be physically limited again in 2007, so that growth of 6% would be realistic. Of course, there was huge relief when Maasvlakte 2 was finally approved – but it is still, after all, only on paper.

Container handling is concentrated in two areas of the port – directly on the North Sea on the Maasvlakte, and closer to the city in the Waalhaven/Eemhaven area. The large deepsea terminals on the Maasvlakte are expanding – by 2013,ECT’s Delta Terminal and the APM Terminal will have 9m teu capacity between them, compared with 6.3m in 2006.

Meanwhile, the first phase of the new Euromax Terminal, a joint venture between Nedlloyd and ECT to the north of the Maasvlakte, is due to become operational at the end of this year, bringing a further 2.9m teu capacity. The first phase will have 1,900 metres of quay with 16.65 metres depth, and capacity to increase this to 19.65 metres depth.

The Port of Antwerp, unsurprisingly, is keen to point out that Maasvlakte 2 is still in planning. “With the Deurganck dock we have capacity right now – we don’t have to announce it.We have it and we can immediately offer it to the market.And we still have further opportunities of expansion,” says Eddy  Bruyninckx, chief executive of Antwerp Port Authority. “A further advantage for us is that there is congestion in Rotterdam.”

He also says that any advantage for Rotterdam’s with the Betuwe Line has yet to come:“There is quite a lot of publicity about the Betuwe Line, and now there is one problem after another. Now it is said it will be fully operational at the end of 2007 – between promises and announcements.”

The two terminals at Antwerp’s Deurganck dock,one operated by PSA, the other by DP World, facing each other across the water,have a joint capacity of 7.5m teu. In 2006, they handled 800,000 teu between them – never before have new handling facilities in Flanders achieved such a high degree of utilisation in their first year of operation, says the port authority. 

Container volumes grew by 8% through Antwerp last year, to around 7m teu; trade with other European countries and North America in particular continued to grow strongly, as did imports from the Far East. For Antwerp,the issue that is top of the agenda is the deepening of the Scheldt.This work is expected to start  towards the end of 2007 and take just over a year. 

“We need the deepening right now. It is really a defensive project,” says Mr Bruyninckx. It has been a long time making its way through the Dutch process, “and after all, it is absolutely not in line with what you would expect from the European spirit and attitude”,he says.“The Dutch government used everything to slow it down. But at least we are moving forward now.”