*********** Port Of Rotterdam ***********

[Nemo]

New container terminal at Maasvlakte
23-11-2005

A new container terminal for feeders and inland navigation vessels is being constructed at the Maasvlakte in Rotterdam. The so-called Rotterdam Container Terminal (RCT) is part of the Kramer Group, which also operates two terminals for empty containers in the Eemhaven area and at the Maasvlakte. The Port of Rotterdam (PoR) will invest € 15 million in the construction of a 410-meter-long quay for the terminal. The RCT will have a capacity of approximately 300,000 containers (*) a year and can accommodate vessels with a draft of up to 10 meters. In the spring of 2006, the cranes will arrive; in August, the terminal is expected to come on stream.

At the Maasvlakte, within a radius of a couple of kilometers of the RCT, the capacity for the handling of deep-sea containers will up till 2012 be doubled to approximately 12 million TEU (ECT Delta, APM Rotterdam and the Euromax terminal).


De nieuwe terminal die direct naast ECT en Kramers Delta Depot komt te liggen heeft een deep water-verbinding. Ook grote containerschepen kunnen hierdoor direct bij Kramer afmeren.
Op deze artist-impression is op de voorgrond Kramers huidige Delta Depot zichtbaar. Rechtsboven ziet u een deel van het terrein van ECT. Direct daarachter, tussen het Delta Depot en de snelweg, ligt de nieuwe haven die momenteel in aanbouw is.
(Sorry >> Dutch only)

(*) “moves” = at least 500,000 TEU

Port of Rotterdam Authority

------------------------------------------

Netherlands the EU leader in rail transport growth
23-11-2005


Within the EU the Netherlands has achieved the greatest rail freight transportation growth between 1990 and 2003 (+54 per cent), according to Eurostat statistics. Data covering the tonnage carried in 2004 shows the continuation of this growth.

This is good news for the Betuwe route, which will come into service in about a year, says the ‘Rail in Figures’ report from the Rail Cargo information Netherlands information office. Growth in rail freight transportation has occurred primarily between Rotterdam and the German border. The realization figures and the adjusted forecasts point to a higher volume than anticipated with the decision to construct the Betuwe route.

In 1995 the Hermans Commission reconsidered the decision to construct the Betuwe route. After extensive research it issued a positive advisory and estimated the east-west axis volume in 2015 at a minimum of 33 million tonnes. Forecasts by the Port of Rotterdam Authority now suggest a total of around 33 million tonnes in 2015. By 2020 this will even have grown further to 40 million tonnes. Reasons for the strong growth in rail transport on the east-west axis lie in the strong increase in container transportation and the transport of coal to Germany.
© Nieuwsblad Transport

[Nemo]

The new Botlekspoortunnel/Botlek Railway Tunnel.(lenght 3km,depth 20m, open 2007)
Part of the new 'Betuwelijn-freight-line to Germany Ruhr.





www.railtheater.nl


www.rolandrail.net

The Botlek is a part of the Port of Rotterdam. It is mainly a cluster of many chemical industries like the Esso/Exxon refinery, AkzoNobel, Lyondell,AirProducts, Vopak, Huntsman and DSM plants.

[Nemo]

www.icona.nl/

[Nemo]

Port of Rotterdam continues to do extremely well (Stats!!)
30-12-2005


In 2005, 369 million tonnes of cargo passed through the port of Rotterdam, almost 5% more than in 2004 and a new record.


The volume of cargo leaving the port grew faster than that of cargo coming in, with 9% and 3% respectively, with general cargo enjoying 7% growth – almost twice the growth of bulk cargo. Ores and scrap metals (-5%), crude oil (-1%) roll on /roll off (-9%) and other general cargo (-3%) arrived and left in smaller volumes. However, handling of agri-bulk (+1%), coal (+7%), other dry bulk (+4%), other wet bulk (+4%), mineral oil products (+27%) and containers (+10%) showed very positive figures. In numbers, container movements increased by more than 12% to 9.3 million TEU (container units of 20 feet). In containers, coal, mineral oil products and in other wet bulk, records were realised.

Port of Rotterdam Authority CEO Hans Smits: "The port is doing extremely well. We are achieving or even exceeding the highest prognoses for volumes arriving in and leaving the port of Rotterdam. Capital expenditure is reaching almost 'Asian levels’. Added value is rising strongly and the same goes for the role played by the port in the Dutch and European economy.The flourishing transhipment volumes are driven by the containers, with another million units being added, and a 27% increase in mineral oil products. In this particular area, Rotterdam is already the world hub, with Russia and the Middle East as the ‘wings’. These regions still offer great perspectives and therefore play a major role in our commercial strategy and those of the companies operating in the port. My prognosis for the coming year is “realistic/optimistic”.We have quite a job on our hands to hang on to present levels, especially in the area of oil products. On the other hand, macro-economic growth expectations are becoming increasingly favourable. We will be happy if throughput in general in the port keep growing at roughly the same pace, say 3 to 4 %”

Dry bulk
The total volume of dry bulk cargoes remained stable at nearly 90 million tonnes. Transhipments of agri-bulk (grains, seeds, livestock feed raw materials) amount to around 10.7 million tonnes for the third successive year. Imports declined slightly in the past year because of disruptions in Gulf of Mexico ports caused by hurricanes. Quantitatively more important is a drop in tapioca imports because Thailand is exporting more of it to China. Exports of European (intervention) grains via Rotterdam, arriving by train, grew strongly.

The total volume of coal being handled in Rotterdam grew by 1.7 million tonnes. The demand from the main buyers, Dutch and German power generation plants, dropped. This was offset by the fact that the EECV terminal transhipped more coking coal, for steel production. Part of the coking coal came from ports surrounding us.Handling of ores and scrap metals declined by 5 % to 40 million tonnes. In the course of the year, European steel factories reduced production for a while because of rising stocks and to support steel prices. Apart from lower ore imports, scrap metal exports also declined as a result of the increased demand from European electro-steel factories.

Other dry bulk goods continued to maintain a rising line with a 4% increase this year to 12 million tonnes. In spite of the pressure on the manufacturing industry, major demand for ores, minerals and concentrates continues for the production of steel, metals, paper and chemical products. Especially ship-to-ship transhipments on the buoys were on the rise because of higher frequencies of "parcel services" from China and South Africa.

Wet bulk
The total volume of wet bulk handling rose by 6% to 170 million tonnes. The volume of crude oil arriving in Rotterdam dropped a little, by 1% to 100 million tonnes compared to the extremely good preceding year. The demand for refined products is high and refining margins are good. These fundamental factors ensure that crude oil supplies continue at a high level of 100 million tonnes or more. Fluctuations arise especially as a result of maintenance stops. This was also the reason why Total Antwerpen and Nerefco Rotterdam came to a standstill for some time this year. Shell Pernis suffered a shutdown that was unplanned.

Imports of oil products grew by 24% to 28 million tonnes, while the volume of oil products leaving Rotterdam grew by 36% to more than 15 million tonnes. A total of 42 million tonnes (+27%) were bought/sold. Supplies of (fuel/heating) oil from Russia, where Rotterdam has a market share of about 80%, grew once again.Of this, a larger proportion than usual was shipped to Asia, for which no fewer than 13 VLCCs were engaged. Imports of lighter products such as kerosene from, for in stance, are also on the rise for the time being. A structural shortage already exists in Western Europe and more and more refining capacity is concentrated in the Middle East.

Throughput of other wet bulk cargoes, mostly base chemicals, grew by 4% to 27 million tonnes (exports down 4%, imports up 9%). The somewhat lower export volume (prices rose) of chemical products was more than made up for by the growth in imports of "new"and usually "green"products. These are oilseed (for bio-diesel), ethanol (from Brazil, to Sweden and England), ETBE and palm oil. The palm oil comes especially from Malaysia and Indonesia and since autumn this year is also being refined in Rotterdam (Loders Croklaan, Maasvlakte). Palmoil is used in foodstuffs, in the chemical industry as, for instance, a hardener, and as a green fuel for power generation plants.

General cargo
The general cargo sector had a good year with a 7% increase of more than seven million tonnes to 110 million tonnes. This was due to the much larger volume of containers arriving (+11%) and leaving (+10%) the Port of Rotterdam. In weight, container handling grew by nine million tonnes to total 91 million tonnes. In numbers, the increase was 12%] to total 9.3 million TEU (+1 million).The forces driving this growth remain the Far East, South America and the Baltic region, more especially Russia. In the beginning of the year, growth was still very high, among other things as a result of the influx of textiles, but then gradually slowed. It appears that this (expected) development is caused especially by macro-economic conditions. The increased availability of transhipment capacity elsewhere in north-western Europe has, to date, had only a limited effect on Rotterdam.

“Roll-on/roll-off declined by 9 % to total 10 million tonnes. This drop is caused mostly by the fact that a Seawheel ro-ro service was turned into a container service. The growing popularity of shipping containers on ro-ro vessels is a trend. Other ferry companies were operating at levels that were slightly positive. Clearly positive is the development of automobile transhipments at Rotterdam Car terminal and those of paper (on cassettes). Other general cargo lost a little of gains made the year before: dropping 3% to 8.6 million tonnes. This decline is found mostly in export cargoes and in LASH transports. On top of that, some ships with fruit discharged their cargoes in Vlissingen, under a collaborative agreement between Seabex and Kloosterboer. Handling of steel and forest products enjoyed positive development.


More information: Minco van Heezen, Press officer. Tel + 31 10 252 1429.

Download: Throughput Port of Rotterdam 2004-2005 (PDF, 26 kb)
www.portofrotterdam.com

[Bond James Bond]

Wow, that rail tunnel thing looks cool!

[RTM84]

I love the port of Rotterdam, it's my daily work, and i travel each day to big and small vessels scatered over the port, the vessels for our agency call at all kinds of places, from the EMO maasvlakte and the EECV iron ore terminal europoort to the waalhaven and the parkkade.

Our agency is also often agent for the Berge Stahl, it's a very impssive ship!!, but also the Berge Nord and Berge Pacific are impessive.

Proud to be a agent in this port !!!

[Nemo]

NASA Eyes.

The image illustrates the close proximity of the Europoort to the surrounding cities of Hoek van Holland, Oostvoorne, Brielle. Between Oostvoorne and Brielle, a mixture of fertile and fallow agricultural fields create a green and tan checkboard. The presence of the port and its seawalls interrupts southward-flowing coastal currents, leading to accumulation of sediment to the south (lower left of image). Numerous ship wakes are visible within the port complex itself and in the North Sea, in the upper part of the image.

Astronaut photograph ISS011-E-7380 was acquired May 28, 2005, with a Kodak 760C digital camera with a 400 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and the Image Science & Analysis Group, Johnson Space Center. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/New...3?img_id=16944

[Nemo]

Coal throughput reaches record level

Last year, coal throughput in the port of Rotterdam rose by 4% (+ 1 mln. tons) to a record level of 26.3 million tons (*). This is largely thanks to the EECV coal terminal which went into full operation and ultimately handled around 4 million tons of coking coal. This coal was previously handled at the EMO terminal and competing ports.
The most important markets for coal imported via Rotterdam are power stations in Germany (70%) and the Netherlands (20%). There was little improvement to be seen here last year. A maintenance shutdown at the Essent Amercentrale reduced demand by 500,000 tons. German coal imports in the first nine months of 2005 were 10% below the level of last year.

However, imports are expected to increase in the coming years. At the beginning of 2006, the Warndt/Luisenthal coalmine in Saarland, with a production level of 2 million tons in 2004, will be closing down. This marks the first in a series of five mine closures between now and 2012. In its prognosis for the mid long term, the Port of Rotterdam Authority expects an average growth of coal throughput of 5.6% per year in the period 2005-2009. In 2009, almost 34 million tons can be handled.

Expansion EMO
The Dry Bulk Terminal EMO is investing with the aim of attracting part of this growth. Unloading capacity may rise from 36 to 42 million tons due to the installation of a 6th stacker/reclaimer. Storage capacity will hereby increase from 6 to 7 million tons. Delivery will take place in the second quarter of 2007. A large part of the extra coal imports will be transported to the hinterland by rail. EMO has therefore already started building a new train loading station and new rail infrastructure. These will be taken into operation in the 2nd quarter of 2006, well before the Betuwe Route goes into operation.

--------------------------



Port of Rotterdam and Vopak construct largest sea jetty
9-2-2006

Today’s ceremonial driving of the first pile marks the start of the construction work on the port of Rotterdam’s largest jetty to date. The Port of Rotterdam Authority and Vopak are collaborating in the construction of the new jetty at Vopak’s terminal in the Europoort (the 7e Petroleum haven). This new jetty is being constructed to accommodate the growth in deliveries of oil products to and from the Port of Rotterdam.

Hans Smits, Chairman of the Executive Board of the Port of Rotterdam Authority explains: "In the past the jetties were constructed by the companies. However, a few years ago the Port of Rotterdam Authority also began to invest in these facilities, usually in the substructure. Liquid bulk goods are a growth market, and the port of Rotterdam intends to grow with the market. In addition to their commercial appeal, sufficient jetties and bollards literally offer a safe haven for the board-to-board transhipments of oil products that currently take place on the open sea".

Rob Nijst, President of Vopak Oil EMEA, states: "We are extremely pleased with the construction of this new jetty, which constitutes an essential element of our growth strategy for Vopak's Rotterdam oil terminals. In response to the growing demand for the storage of oil products we are currently constructing additional tanks for the storage of fuel oil and the storage of jet fuel. This additional capacity gives cause to the need for a new jetty for efficient deliveries to and from the terminal."

Technical data
* Length: 653 metres
* 2 berths for seavessels up to 150.000 dwt (can be used for barges as well)
* 2 berths for barges up to 20.000dwt
* 4 fuel oil loading arms 12" for seavessels (2 per berth)
* 4 fuel oil loading arms 10" for barges (1 per berth)
* 1 jet/gasoil loading arm 12" for seavessels
* 2 jet loading arms 10" for barges
* 1 gasoil loading arm 10" for barges

The depth of this area of the port is such that extra long piles are required for the jetty. The jetty will rest on a total of 186 steel piles (of diameters of as much as nearly 1 m and lengths to almost 50 m). A further 43 steel piles (of diameters to 3m and lengths in excess of 50 m) will be required for the catwalks, fender walls and bollards.

The progress of the building activities of this jetty is shown at www.oilrotterdam.vopak.com

[mic of Orion]

impressive stuff

[RTM84]

@ Nemo,

The pictures featuring in your post about the EMO (vessel with blue CSU) is taken at the EECV terminal Europoort, not at the EMO. But thats only for information.
I' am almost ervery day at the EECV terminal, and almost all coal-vessels calling at the EECV terminal are for our agency, the concerned Bleu CSU in the picture is very impressive, but it is not realy working as it should be. It Will be improved over the next few years to reach the discharge rate the stedevore is aiming for.

b.t.w. beautifull nasa-vieuw, espacialy with the coulds overhead the maasvlakte, it makes the foto seem real-time.

[Nemo]

@RTM84
Ha! Thanks. I took that post right over from the Rotterdam Port Authority so I guess that pic is just to support the whole article about coal throughput in the port.
The CSU is indeed very impressive, but I still tend to like the big bridge-cranes like at the EMO-terminal better. Never understood the relatively smaller bridge-cranes at EECV while much bigger (Berge Stahl) ships visit this terminal.

[Kaiser]

beautiful port!

[Nemo]

Port of Rotterdam Authority building Euromax Terminal quay wall

*****
The Port Authority is currently hard at work building the new Euromax Terminal in the Yangtzehaven, on the Maasvlakte 1’s most northerly point immediately alongside the Maasvlakte Oil Terminal. The terminal is intended exclusively for container transshipment and is rented to Euromax B.V.

The quay wall in figures
In its first phase the terminal has a surface area of 125 hectares and can handle 3 million TEU annually. The quay wall is being built at a depth of 19.65 meters but is being dredged to a standard depth of 16.65 meters. This enables a quick and flexible increase in the depth and makes the terminal suitable for receiving the future generation of 12,500 TEU container ships. Construction of the quay wall is being carried out by BAM Civiel B.V. from Gouda. With the ‘design & construct contract’ for the almost two-kilometer long quay wall, an amount of around € 60 million is involved.

Special design
The quay wall has been designed by Delta Marine Consultants, the BAM Civiel engineering office. Noteworthy in the design is that the quay wall is being produced as a concrete deep-wall construction. This has never before been done in the Netherlands for a seawall. The deep wall stretches to a depth of -34 meters and is 1.20 meters wide. The quay wall is being built dry and will later be dredged. BAM Civiel will deliver the first 300 meters of quay wall in 12 months. The entire project will be completed by the end of 2007.

Current status
Contractor BAM is hard at work carrying out the deep-wall quay for Euromax on Maasvlakte 1. So far around 400 meters of deep-wall panels have been laid. BAM has started driving the piles which must lie under the discharge floor as a foundation. A start has also been made on framing the discharge floor.

This week Boskalis has also started the dredging operations for the first 300 meters of the quay wall. By September 1, 2006 the first 300 meters of the quay wall must have reached their depth to allow the first ship with Euromax cranes to be received.

_________

ZPMC/ABB scoop Euromax orders
ZPMC and ABB have won the orders for all cranes and automated stacking cranes (ASCs) for the new Euromax terminal in Rotterdam, with a total of 16 quay cranes and 59 ASCs to be delivered between November next year and December 2008.

ABB is supplying drives and crane management systems for all the equipment as well as the automation and controls for the ASCs which, as previously reported, will operate as pairs on the same rails per stack module....



_________

ABB crane systems help Rotterdam grow
2006-01-16 Rotterdam, the world’s second largest port by cargo volume, is expanding capacity by 25 percent to meet the global boom in container traffic. ABB is supplying advanced integrated automation and electrical systems for the 76 terminal cranes.
By Editorial services
The port of Rotterdam is booming. Container traffic in 2004 grew by 16 percent to 8.3 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), each unit corresponding to a 20-foot long shipping container.

With growth in traffic expected to continue, Europe Terminal Operators (ECT) and A.P. Moller - Maersk are building a new container complex that will expand capacity at Rotterdam by an additional two million TEU containers a year.

The new Euromax Terminal will make Rotterdam larger than the combined capacity of its three nearest European rivals – Antwerp, Hamburg and Marseille – and strengthen its position as one of the world’s most important container hubs.

Euromax will feature the most modern technology available 16 semi-automated quay cranes, 58 fully automatic rail-mounted stacking cranes, two cranes for loading and unloading rail wagons – all equipped with ABB’s advanced sensor, drive and automation technologies – and driverless vehicles for transporting containers from the quay.

The storage yard will house 40,000 TEU containers stacked up to five high by automatic stacking cranes with system features like message interface for automated order handling, container recognition for quick identification of containers, target positioning for the speedy location of containers and vehicles, load positioning for accurate container placement, and remote control for truck handling – all of which are key functions for rapid, accurate and safe operation.

ABB was awarded the order by Euromax and is working in conjunction with Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery Company (ZPMC), the world’s largest terminal crane contractor.
http://www.abb.dk/global

________

Cosco Guangzhou; The world's largest container-vessel has Rotterdam as first foreign port of call on its maiden trip.

Capacity: 9.449 TEU
Length: 350 m
Width: 42.80 m

The ship is one of five built at Hyundai-shipyards to be put in service between Rotterdam, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Dalian and Qingdao.

(Originally posted by @OURHERO

[EuroMaster]

Oh yeah! They're working on the new terminals! Progress!

[sonia_weng]

________

Cosco Guangzhou; The world's largest container-vessel has Rotterdam as first foreign port of call on its maiden trip.

Capacity: 9.449 TEU
Length: 350 m
Width: 42.80 m

The ship is one of five built at Hyundai-shipyards to be put in service between Rotterdam, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Dalian and Qingdao.


(Originally posted by @OURHERO
*[/QUOTE]

The vessel seems not in the full load

[Nemo]

Strong growth in sea/sea transshipment of containers

04-24-2006
Rotterdam is snapping at Hamburg’s heels as far as sea/sea transshipment of containers is concerned. This is cargo that is transferred from ocean vessels to feeder ships for transport to or from the smaller European ports.


During the past three years this number of transshipment containers has grown from 1.6 to 2.5 million standard units (TEUs). The biggest growth areas for Rotterdam are the Baltic region, Spain and Portugal. For this Northern European region, Hamburg is the most important port for many shipping companies.

“I know that Hamburg is market leader for this area, but Rotterdam has grown to become an attractive alternative,” announced commercial director Ger van Tongeren of the Port of Rotterdam Authority to shipping companies this week during a special lunch in Hamburg. Van Tongeren drew attention to the extra transshipment capacity that will become available in the near future in the Rotterdam port, thanks to the expansion of existing container terminals and opening of the new Rotterdam Container Terminal. The new short-sea and barge terminal at the Delta peninsula and the EuroMax terminal will also come into operation within two years.

Rotterdam has benefited in the past few years particularly from capacity problems at Le Havre, the English ports and, to a lesser extent, Hamburg. Now that most of the problems have been solved, Rotterdam fears a slight decline in sea/sea container transshipment. The expectation is that strong growth in the Russian market may compensate for this, although for the time being the modest capacity in the port of St. Petersburg is a limitation. The number of feeder services from Rotterdam to the Baltic region has also risen sharply in the past three years. In 2003 there were only 24 weekly sailings, and at present this is 41, thirteen of which call in at St. Petersburg each week.

[andyb56]

Why oh why do P&O and the Dutch Government not invest in a rail link into the P & O terminal (route between Europoort and Hull). I loathe everytime I travel into Europoort the extensive trip into Rotterdam by bus. Especially, after what I must say is one of the best ferry services in Europe, on one of the most impressive passenger ships in Europe. In addition, if the rail service ran into Rotterdam, as it does from the Hoek, it might increase visitor numbers into Rotterdam rather than those visitors ending up on the obligatory visit to Amsterdam. Your thoughts. Even for people who work in the Europoort area this might consitute as an improvement to public transport in the area.

http://yorkshirereview.wordpress.com/

[Nemo]

@Andyb57

I think you will understand that the Dutch railways are not going to operate a railwaylink to the Europoort, just to satisfty a few hundred travellers a day to the P&O NSF terminal, certainly in a time when the NS are closing a lot of existing lines because they are not profitable; connexions that have far more importance than a future link to the Europoort. If theres a sufficient bus-link, than thats o.k enough.
Most people to and from Hull are travelling by car all the way.

[hkskyline]

Trade is blooming like tulips in springtime
The huge port of Rotterdam is the Hong Kong of continental Europe
30 April 2006
South China Morning Post

HONG KONG IS the gateway to China; the Dutch city of Rotterdam is the gateway to Europe. Both ports serve vast hinterlands, said Jan Revis, Consul-General of the Netherlands, noting a striking similarity between his homeland and his present posting.

"We enjoy very healthy trade relations with Hong Kong. Shipments and exports from Hong Kong are huge, partly due to Rotterdam, the western hemisphere's largest port, and Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, one of Europe's most important aviation hubs."

The total value of exports from Hong Kong to the Netherlands was US$5.5 billion last year, with US$1.7 billion going in the other direction.

Mr Revis explained this imbalance: "European goods and services leave for Hong Kong from a variety of locations. But most Hong Kong and China goods and services are routed through Rotterdam, which gives an idea of the importance of the Netherlands' second city, not only nationally but across the European continent."

The Netherlands is Hong Kong's fourth-largest European partner after Germany, Britain and Italy, and slightly ahead of France. There are now about 250 Dutch companies represented in Hong Kong and business ties are strong, with a number of accords regulating what Mr Revis considers "excellent bilateral relations". One of these is an air services agreement that allows Dutch carriers 21 flights a week between the Netherlands and Hong Kong, seven of them being full freight.

The Netherlands' economy, like Hong Kong's, has long been open, outward-looking and dependent on foreign trade.

For centuries the Netherlands has been a maritime giant in global trade terms. Now, in common with its EU partners, Dutch business is eyeing profitable possibilities in China.

"There is a large and vibrant Dutch enterprise community in the Pearl River Delta; Shell across the border and other players - many IT and textile companies - enjoy the benefits of this increasingly integrated region of China," Mr Revis said.

By old world standards, and like Hong Kong, the Kingdom of the Netherlands is a relatively young entity, having been formed as recently as 1815, only 28 years before Hong Kong became a British Crown Colony. In 1830, Belgium seceded and formed a separate kingdom.

The fledgling nation's constitution was radically revised in 1848, making ministers accountable to an elected parliament rather than to the king. This was the first major political stirring of the famously liberal and progressive country that soon after the second world war become a founder member of Nato and the EEC (now known as the EU).

Despite the vicissitudes of history, the Netherlands' monarchy has endured, with the much-loved Queen Beatrix celebrating her 68th birthday today amid nationwide celebrations.

The Netherlands is a composite landscape of the primary colours of endless tulip and daffodil fields, with picturesque windmills dotted around one of the world's flattest topographies. But it is also one of the most densely populated countries and is heavily urbanised. Those tulip fields are shoe-horned between sprawling population centres.

Each of the Netherlands' major cities has a distinctive character, despite their proximity to each other. Amsterdam is the best known and attracts the most tourists. But the less-visited Haarlem, Utrecht, Groningen and Maastricht also have their share of beautiful old architecture and places of historic interest. Rotterdam, as a result of being heavily bombed during the second world war, is a strikingly modern cityscape, as exemplified by the Erasmus Bridge, known locally as The Swan.

The national language, Dutch, has had a more far-reaching influence than many may realise. Dutch is the mother tongue of more than 16 million people in the Netherlands and forms the basis of the Flemish dialects spoken in parts of Belgium.

Furthermore, Dutch is used widely in the former colony of Suriname, as well as in the Caribbean territories of Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles. In Indonesia, many lawyers and historians speak Dutch owing to historical ties and on the African continent, the South African tongue of Afrikaans has its roots in the Dutch language.

Closer to home, in the Frisian Islands along The Netherlands' coast, a separate language, Frisian, is spoken, and is the mother tongue of about 400,000 people. It is the second of the nation's two official languages. It is worth noting though, especially for those considering a visit, that English is widely understood everywhere.

As Mr Revis said: "We can also say that in addition to Rotterdam being the gateway to business Europe, Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport is the gateway to one of Europe's most enchanting countries."

[DiggerD21]

this is just a marketing-text. Everybody knows that Rotterdam is Europe's biggest port. But it is normal that every port tries to find a niche to present itself as market leader. For example the port of Hamburg claims to be Europe's most important seaport for Far East and China Cargoes. Any data how much tonnage and TEU's are shipped from China to Rotterdam?