Amsterdam Port Area achieves robust growth

In the first half of 2008, the cargo throughput in the Amsterdam Port Area (comprises the Ports of Amsterdam, IJmuiden, Velsen, Beverwijk and Zaanstad) grew by 6.6% from 44.7 million metric tons to 47.6 million metric tons.

The cargo throughput in Port of Amsterdam itself expanded by a stunning 10%. This explosive growth can be attributed in particular to oil, containers and agribulk.

This strong performance has strengthened the Amsterdam Port Area’s position as the fourth-largest port in Northwest Europe.

 

Amsterdam unaffected by economic slowdown

Despite a worldwide economic malaise, the whole Amsterdam Port Area kept up its momentum in the first six months of the year. Exports in the Amsterdam Port Area rose by 21% to 14.3 million tons, while imports increased by 1.4% to 33.3 million tons.

Freek Ossel, Amsterdam Alderman for Port Affairs, is pleased with the port area’s performance, “These figures show that the Amsterdam Port Area remains a stable factor within the regional economy and is becoming increasingly important to the whole Dutch economy. What works to the advantage of the Port of Amsterdam is that its performance does not depend on a single sector of the economy.”

The Port Vision 2008-2020 policy document forecasts an annual growth of 5% for the Port of Amsterdam during that timeframe. This continuing expansion will create 4,800 new jobs in the Port of Amsterdam in the coming years. Alderman Ossel says, “The Port now appears to be doing even better than expected. So with an even greater sense of urgency, we need to think about how to give shape to this growth in a sustainable fashion. In doing so, we also need to factor in the construction of a second sea lock in IJmuiden, which will further improve access to the Port of Amsterdam. An exploratory report is due out shortly. Equally important, together with companies and schools, I want to examine opportunities for creating even more employment in the port.”

 

Amsterdam

In the first half of 2008, the cargo throughput in the Port of Amsterdam (so not the whole region) grew by an impressive 10% to 37.9 million tons. Exports jumped by 22.7% to 12.4 million tons, while imports went up by 4.7% to 25.5 million tons.

 

Oil

The transshipment of oil products rose by 19.7% to 14.5 million tons. Exports went up by 2.4 million tons thanks to new tanks having come into service at Oiltanking and new jetties having been built at NuStar.

 

Coal

In first half of 2008, the transshipment of coal fell by 6.5% to 8.8 million tons in comparison to the same period last year, when growth was a staggering 20.8%. However, the overall trend remains upwards and in line with expectations.

 

Containers

Measured in TEUs (20-feet equivalent units), the transshipment of shipping containers expanded by 19.4% to 209,928 TEUs. The launch of the Grand Alliance’s EU5 service in April of this year contributed to this growth. This service, which starts in Shanghai, became the third one connecting Asia with Amsterdam. This third Asia service provides an extra 5,500 TEUs per month. The total transshipment of containers in the Port of Amsterdam is expected to reach over 450,000 TEUs by year-end.

 

Agribulk

The transshipment of agribulk increased by 18.3% to 4.9 million tons. The drivers behind this growth are:

The last months of 2007 saw bad grain harvests in Europe, which therefore needed to import greater quantities of grain in the first half of 2008

Growing production of biomass required the import of larger volumes of oilseed in particular

 

Beverwijk

The cargo throughput in the Port of Beverwijk expanded by 12,5% to 0.3 million tons. Imports went up by 19%, while exports grew by 9,4%. The latter resulted from the increased export of scrap metal and potatoes.

 

IJmuiden

The cargo throughput in the Port of IJmuiden (does not cover the activities in the fishing port) decreased by 5,3% to 9.4 million tons. This can be largely put down to the drop in import of scrap metal. In the first half of 2008, much scrap metal was shipped in using river barges and are not therefore not included in this cargo throughput figure, which confines itself to cargo transported by seagoing ships. The transshipment of coal rose by 6.3% to 2.5 million tons.

 

Zaanstad

In the first half of 2008, the cargo throughput in the Port of Zaanstad remained at 0.09 million tons, which is the same volume achieved in the same period last year

Source: American Shipper