H.Essers opens new container terminal on key European transport corridor

Limburg-based logistics group H.Essers has opened a new container terminal in Bergen op Zoom, in the Netherlands, strategically positioned between the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam. The terminal represents an investment of 75 million euros, the company announced in a press release on Tuesday.

The new terminal is located on the Scheldt-Rhine Canal, between the Port of Antwerp-Bruges and the Port of Rotterdam, and replaces an existing inland terminal in Bergen op Zoom that served as a link between the North Sea and the Rhine to the north and the Mediterranean region to the south.

The old facility was situated inside the dykes, in a residential area, which limited access to smaller inland vessels only. The new terminal sits directly on the Scheldt-Rhine Canal, outside the dykes, and is accessible to larger vessels at any time of day. It offers 350 metres of quay and storage capacity for 2,500 containers.

Solving a structural bottleneck

The new terminal addresses a longstanding problem in inland waterway logistics. Both the Port of Antwerp-Bruges and the Port of Rotterdam impose minimum vessel sizes for inland ships calling at their terminals, meaning barges must arrive with a minimum number of containers to be permitted to use the quays.

"From an inland terminal, that volume is often not achievable," H.Essers explains. "As a result, containers still have to be transported by road to the seaports." The new terminal resolves this by consolidating smaller inland waterway flows onto larger vessels that meet the size requirements. "This way, the containers remain on the water from start to finish," the company says.

Climate friendly investment

Inland waterway transport consumes significantly less energy per kilometre than road transport, yet the sector has grown only slowly in recent years. H.Essers says it wants to help change that. The cranes at the new terminal produce no CO2 emissions, and the facility provides shore power, allowing moored vessels to switch off their diesel generators and run on electricity instead.

The terminal is situated between two Natura 2000 protected areas. As a nature compensation measure, 1.5 hectares of reed beds were relocated and transformed into three new islands in the surrounding waterway.

^{#FlandersNewsService | PHOTO © Handout / Zero Emission Service / AFP}

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