Amsterdam reaps what Ceres sows

News-in-print 20 Jun 2001 by WCN Editorial

When the Ceres container terminal project was first mooted in Amsterdam, few outside the port took it seriously.

𝕏

With a throughput last year of 64 mill tonnes (mt), Amsterdam may be, as a spokesman for the port authority (GHA) claimed, the “world’s largest, non-container multi-discipline port,” but it lacks a big container tradition and has limited container “infrastructure” in terms of agents, forwarders, shipping line representatives, repairers, hauliers, etc.

And, of course, it is a mere stone’s throw, in global shipping terms, from Rotterdam and Antwerp. Furthermore, the scheme flew in the face of the Dutch government’s strategy of two national entry ports – Rotterdam for sea cargo and Schiphol for air cargo.