Record year for Rotterdam port, due to global oil markets
Friday 28 December 2012
The amount of goods shipped through Rotterdam port reached a record 442 million tonnes this year, 1.7% up on 2011, the port authority said on Friday.
The growth was largely driven by an increase in crude oil and oil products, due to extra Dutch refining capacity, Nos television said.
‘Rotterdam is increasingly becoming a hub for world trade,’ port president Hans Smits told the broadcaster. ‘That helps the port to continue growing, because world trade is developing faster than the Dutch and European economies.’
For example, Russian fuel oil is shipped to Asia via Rotterdam.
While oil throughput was up, grain shipments and raw materials for animal feed were down, largely due to the poor harvests outside Europe, Smit said.
© DutchNews.nl
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this would explain the inceasing numbers of trucks blocking up the motorways and causing accidents and huge long traffic jams on the Dutch and Belgian roads
By notnef | 28 December 2012 11:19 AM