Fifty year flashback

The port’s post-war expansion was given a boost on the right bank with the Ten Year Plan (1956-1965), which included the construction and full equipping of the fifth Haven dock, the Industrie dock, a turning basin, the sixth Haven dock and the Kanaal docks B1, B2 and B3.

The plan also provided for expansion of the loading bridge company, a mooring jetty for tankers and construction of a new sealock in Zandvliet.

In the Port of Rotterdam, about 40% was flattened in the Second World War and in the years that followed, a lot of energy was invested in its reconstruction.

Soon, the port was doing so well, that there was not enough room to accommodate all the companies and ships.

The decision was made to expand in a westerly direction – the area between Rotterdam and the Hook of Holland. Meanwhile, south of the Nieuwe Waterweg, the Eemhaven and Botlek areas emerged.

Meanwhile, in Zeebrugge

post-war repair works were not finished until 1951. In the 1950s, many industrial establishments flourished in the inland port of Bruges – such as the shipbuilding yards Rederij Hermans and Scheepswerven van Vlaanderen.

After the Suez crisis of 1956, Zeebrugge carried out adjustments in order to be able to receive the new larger oil tankers. The Sinclair Petroleum Terminal became operational in 1961.