Bruce Barnard, Special Correspondent | May 25, 2012 10:40AM EDT
The port of Rotterdam is investing more than $18.75 million in a new heavy lift/project cargo terminal to keep pace with growing traffic and maintain its market share.
Work on expanding and modernizing an existing site in the inner port has already begun and the new facility will be operational by the third quarter of 2014, the Port Authority said.
The Heavy Lift Centre will have four high walls with 16,000 square meters (172,220 square feet) of space, overhead cranes with lifting capacity from 75 tons to 700 tons and 280,000 square feet of outside storage space
Cargoes weighing up to 1,800 tons will be able to be handled at a 985 feet long quay with a 34.5 feet draft.
The Port Authority said it has invested over $125 million in recent year on new breakbulk terminals and improvements to existing facilities for steel, iron, paper, metals, fruits, project cargo and roll on-roll off traffic.
Rotterdam claims to be European market leader, handling 25 million tons in the breakbulk/heavy lift/project cargo sector in 2011, ahead of Antwerp at 17 million tons and Zeebrugge at 14 million tons.
Contact Bruce Barnard at brucebarnard47@hotmail.com.
