Rotterdam Still Battling Congestion Issues

Even though the Port of Rotterdam announced measures to eliminate congestion at the ECT Delta Terminal and the Euromax Terminal, some shippers have decided to cancel port calls at Rotterdam, like Hapag Lloyd that diverted its ships to Antwerp.
“It takes you more time, it costs you more money, without being sure that your containers are loaded on time,” Lodewijk Wisse from EVO told Lloyds List.
“The thing that ECT could improve, from our perspective, is communication to barge operators and truckers, but also to their indirect clients, who are the shippers.
“ECT still does not want to give any forecast on how long it will take to sort out the problem. They just don’t know, or they don’t want to say.”
What is more, barge operator Contargo and feedership operator Team Lines  announced congestion surcharges.
Hamburg seems to have been hit by the same problems, as inland waterway vessels and feeder vessels face delays.
Rotterdam identified the following measures to tackle the congestion issues  pursuant to meetings with ECT, LINC (inland container shipping sector), Uniport Terminal and the Kramer Group/RCT.

World Maritime News Staff, August 18, 2014