Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Speaker A: Hello, Freight Buyers Club. Mike King here. We're at the Port of Rotterdam's head office and I'm with Hannah Stelzel, who's Director of Containers at the Port of Rotterdam Authority. Welcome to the Freight Buyers Club, Hannah.
[00:00:14] Speaker B: Thank you very much and welcome to Rotterdam.
[00:00:17] Speaker A: Just before we start, a quick bit of housekeeping.
This episode is sponsored by OnTeagles Cloud, which helps freight forwarders save money. And please do like, subscribe and follow so we can keep providing you with content from around.
Okay, Rotterdam this year, Hannah, you had in the first half 7 million TEU, a slight bit of growth. Top container port in the in Europe. Top top port in in Europe, in fact, across all categories. But there's been a few hiccups along the way. Can you explain how things are in terms of yard utilization, in terms of mainline carrier delays and barge delays? How bad have they been this year and what's the situation right now?
[00:01:00] Speaker B: Indeed, we had a difficult start to 2025. Beginning of the year there were more closing days due to fog and bad weather that we normally experience. In the beginning of the year we had some strikes in the Port of Rotterdam and at the same time, the phase in and out of new schedules. So that made the beginning of the year very disruptive. Throughout the first half of 2025, we could also already see an improvement on the seaside. The waiting times declined, the schedule reliability increased. And by now we do see quite a stable situation with reliable waiting times or with stable waiting times, more reliable schedules. And we also do see the situation on hinterland improving.
[00:01:45] Speaker A: Can you give us a bit more detail on that? Does it vary by terminal in terms of mainline waiting times or barge waiting times or delays?
[00:01:53] Speaker B: Sometimes it does.
There can be differences. It's something where we do not always have the total insights. And of course certain disruptions can be very local, but then normally the effects will be stabilized more quickly. But I do think those structural impactful things like the setup of new alliances or strikes, they will definitely have a more significant impact.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: Exactly. There's been a lot going on in container shipping this year. You'd mentioned the alliance system. So we've had the formation of the Gemini cooperation between Maerskine and Hapag Lloyd MSC has gone it alone and the other alliances have changed slightly. So that's involved quite big network changes and fleet changes. Obviously. On top of that, we've had all of the uncertainty about the will it open, will it not? Houthi attacks on the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. At the moment most, almost all container traffic that comes to Rotterdam is being routed around Southern Africa.
And on top of that, we've also had tariffs from the US which has caused all sorts of changes in terms of fleet lineups and service structures, which, again, has had impact on Europe as well. So can you tell us how that's played out here for you guys?
[00:03:05] Speaker B: Definitely. So what you're describing is a very nice description of all the transitions that take place at the same time.
We are being faced with constant disruptions. There's no thing as a normal thing in today's supply chains. And I believe that every port and everyone participating in the container supply chain experiences that. What we did see in a general development is that coal sizes in Rotterdam increased drastically in the first half of 2025. We had, just to name one example, more than 100 container vessels above 12,000 TUs. And if you look at what that actually means for hinterland transportation, this is where the big challenge for a port lays. I'm always describing that, you know, in the port things become visible that happen in the container chain because you have to seaside with a rather lower number of players. They're quite progressed in the standards and the exchange of digital data. And then you have the hinterland, which is extremely complex with thousands of different players and a low digital maturity in a port. Both worlds collide, but we don't want them to collide. We want them to become smoothly integrated.
But this is a big challenge because if you look into a normal day in Rotterdam, that means that we are handling approximately 40 trains, more than 100 barges, more than 8,000 trucks, more than 20 feeder calls. And this is something that is a constant challenge for us to really bring those worlds together.
And the amount of scale on the seaside increase. That's something that we did see with those developments. And that brings another challenge for hinterland.
[00:04:46] Speaker A: Transportation just on Rotterdam's value proposition. So for those who don't know, we've got a lot of US listeners.
So Rotterdam's one of the key ports on the Asia Europe Northern range.
So your competitors are the likes of Antwerp and Hamburg. We're actually here on World Port today, and both of those ports are exhibiting behind us. You can see a lot of this going on in the window behind Hannah as well.
But can you explain how you see your value proposition both now and moving forward in terms of what you offer both container lines and their customers, in terms of reliability, in terms of services, in terms of those hinterland connections that you were mentioning there?
[00:05:27] Speaker B: Sure. And maybe let me start by saying in my personal perception I don't look at the ports, Antwerp and Hamburg as driverly ports or competitive ports, because in the end we do have the same task. We need to ensure that our societies do have crucial products that they are foreseen with food, with medicine, that our production in Europe keeps running and that we have secure energy supplies to the continent. And I think all those ports participating in that have the same role.
And then if we look into Rotterdam specifically, what we could see over the last years is that there is a general growth in the container segment. There's a growth in the container segment for northwest Europe.
And already several years ago in Rotterdam, we have decided to get ready for the growth and invest into our infrastructure and capacity. We're doubling the sizes of two terminals, RWG and apmt, and we're busy with a lot of other infrastructural projects that will help us to facilitate that growth. Because we believe that in Rotterdam we are able to have the biggest effect in terms of efficiency and sustainability if you bundle volumes. And that's why we are very busy with the, with the community in the port of Rotterdam. And I think that's something that is very special for Rotterdam. We have different communities, different tables where we get together with the complete chain and discuss. So, okay, there's new capacity, there's additional infrastructure. How do we make sure that the logistics and the whole logistics system is as efficient and sustainable as possible? And what do we need to do in order to make the most efficient usage of the existing infrastructure and modalities.
[00:07:12] Speaker A: Just on those interline connections? Because that is a key differentiator in terms of gateway status. I know we all serve captive domestic markets or local markets, but there is a battle for gateway traffic. How does your modal mix work out and specifically how important is inland barge traffic down the Rhine to you? Because there's been really low water levels. I think it's 100cm of cow this year. So that means half loading these barges. What's the knock on effect at the port and how do you substitute when that capacity is taken away? What's your rail and trucking options as.
[00:07:43] Speaker B: A port, but also as a container chain? You're always as strong as your weakest link.
I do believe in very general that the current situation in the hinterland logistics needs to be improved. We did see a drastical increase of trucking, also for long distance. We do see that there's a lot to gain for rail and also for barging. And if we look into barging, of course that's like the bloodline for us in the port of Rotterdam, it's an essential modality that makes our port work. At the same time, we did see a decline in the model split. So that's something we're very cautious of. The low water levels. At the same time, they did not worry us too much as a whole system.
What we did see, yes, there is more and more dry situations, but that's something that already happened in the past. And all those operators, especially on the river Rhine, but also in the rest of the Netherlands, they're very innovative and those companies have many, many years of experience in shipping. And we did see that even with water levels of 27 cm with push barges, the Rhine operators are able to transport large number of containers.
The example of 27cm was a company that still transported 650 TEUs in one barge with push barges at a water level that's very, very high.
[00:09:12] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:09:13] Speaker B: Pardon? That's very, very low.
[00:09:15] Speaker A: That's welly level.
[00:09:17] Speaker B: Exactly. Yeah, exactly. But it works so the ships keep running. Of course it does have an effect if the call sizes decrease, it has an effect in the handling in the port of Rotterdam. But we do see that the system keeps working. And even with very low water levels, the operators on the river Rhine are doing their very best to keep the volumes on water.
[00:09:41] Speaker A: But when that does happen, they keep the volumes on the water as best they can. But it seems to be happening more and more. Is there a long term plan to build up your rail capacity or other alternatives?
[00:09:51] Speaker B: We definitely build on rail capacity as well, but mainly because we do see there will be more volumes, more containers coming to Rotterdam in future. And of course you want to build resilient supply chains and that means for extreme situations you want to have the opportunity to switch between different modalities.
[00:10:10] Speaker A: Okay, thanks. Thanks, Hannah. Just switching back to one of the other topics I mentioned in the intro. They're tariffs.
There's been a trade deal. Now, I think we haven't got all the details between the EU and the US on tariffs.
This transatlantic trade though, this year it's been big swings in terms of what that policy from the White House has meant for diverse trades, including most products that are moved by containers, but also big products at Rotterdam more generally in autos, Roro steel. How has that been affecting operations this year? Has that been a disruptor for you?
[00:10:45] Speaker B: This is a question that is very, very hard to answer. I do believe that in general, of course, those tariffs are never good for trade. For us in the port of Rotterdam it is very difficult to localize the actual impact so far, the low water levels and the tariffs, we do not see significant impacts in the Port of Rotterdam. We do even see a growth in volumes to the US but we have new schedules and we have more.
So it's very difficult to make that differentiation.
We do see that with the introduction of tariffs for China, we had more volumes, a plus of 13% in July, coming from China to Rotterdam. So there are shifts in the market, there are disruptions, but for us, it is very, very difficult to localize because every sector will be impacted differently and we can't really forecast, foresee or measure what the actual impact is at the moment we're growing.
[00:11:45] Speaker A: So the impact of that US China tariffs has actually had a knock on effect as more imports have been coming into Europe from China, it would seem. But we don't know if that will continue in the future, is that what you're saying?
[00:11:57] Speaker B: Exactly. We don't know what's happening and I believe no one knows and we will not know. And the thing that we need to get ready for is being able to adjust your supply chains as quickly as possible. And as a port, we are very essential part in that one. So we are doing our best to move as quickly as possible if changes or disruptions occur.
[00:12:19] Speaker A: I think I'm right to say, Hannah, by 2050, Rotterdam's ambition is to be the cleanest port in the world, most sustainable port. Can you give us a breakdown of what that will mean for port users, for freight buyers, for shippers, for container lines in the next five to 10 years?
[00:12:36] Speaker B: Hopefully a positive impact on their scope. Three emissions.
We're getting ready for shore power for container vessels, but also bunkering alternative fuels is a very important thing where we are busy within our cluster since we're also an important energy port.
13% of energy for Europe goes through the Port of Rotterdam. But that means that also in terms of bunkering alternative fuels, we will be ready in the Port of Rotterdam.
And other than that, of course, it's also about efficient and sustainable logistics. Making use of the existing infrastructure, of existing modalities as efficient as possible will have an additional impact on sustainability as well.
[00:13:19] Speaker A: And is there any other investments that might affect that container shipping, ocean supply chain that we haven't covered already?
[00:13:26] Speaker B: Hannah, there are no huge investments that we haven't covered.
I do think it's important to say that within the community, we're mainly discussing and defining actions on how can we, for example, with the help of digital tools where we're investing in, make sure that we make the most efficient use of the infrastructure. So our investments also go into digital tools, for example tracking apps, into improving the whole rail, the whole rail infrastructure and rail logistics in the Port of Rotterdam. But of course also for barges lots.
[00:14:03] Speaker A: Going on at the Port of Rotterdam. Hannah Seltzel, Director of Containers at Port of Rotterdam Authority, thanks for joining me today on the Freight Buyers Club. Thank you very much and thank you all for listening. This is Mike King. Big thanks to Ontegos Cloud for supporting this content today and thank you all for listening. Please subscribe. See you soon.
