It is, the Dutch will happily tell you, Germany’s biggest port.
The Port of Rotterdam is the third biggest in the world, after Shanghai and Singapore*. And it is bigger than you can imagine, even after scanning maps and aerials – actually five distinct port areas and three distribution parks.
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It is a stunning, if bleak, industrial landscape that stretches some 40 kilometres along the Maas River, something more than just a series of docks and quays piled high with containers from the major exporting nations of the world, feeding the world’s largest market. It is a huge industrial cluster; it is a petro-port; it is the Netherlands bread and butter.
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When Germany’s Ruhr valley surged as a steel-making centre in the 19th century, they needed a way to get more coal and iron ore in, and the finished products out. While they had north-south rail connections to their own ports, they needed an east-west connection that took advantage of the Rhine River and its estuary. Guess who occupied that?
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And while the Germans may have unhappily occupied the Netherlands on occasion, the relationship seems to be working quite agreeably today. Indeed, the Dutch even wanted, with Antwerp, to buy a piece of the Duisberg inland port in Germany as an adjunct to their sea-based operations.
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The Port of Rotterdam has always been looking outward, whether across oceans or up rivers – and into the future. It needs to know its customers expectations seven or eight years in advance, and develop plans for two decades hence. It always assumes growth – from 450 million tonnes a year now (Vancouver: 124 million) to 600 or 700 million tonnes in 20 years.
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And since it is a government corporation jointly owned by the municipality of Rotterdam and the Dutch State, it has an easier time of it than PortMetroVancouver.
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* Depending on what and how and who is measuring. Rotterdam says it’s third; others say fourth. The World Shipping Council rates Rotterdam as the 10th busiest container port. Vancouver? 50th.
Interesting post. I look forward to your opinion on rotterdam as it provides a possible model for metro vancouver to develop its port while adhering to relatively high environemntal standards. 2 questions off the bat: – does rotterdam export/import coal? -what does the environment look like around the port? developed suburbs in trouble/out of trouble? industrial parks petering out to pastures?