Rotterdam is going to outdo competitors with this brand new container route
GERT VAN HARSKAMP
Amended. 54 mins ago 2 hours ago in FINANCIAL
ROTTERDAM – In de Rotterdamse haven wordt dinsdagmiddag dan eindelijk de Container Exchange Route (CER) geopend. Dit 17 kilometer lange peperdure asfalt over de Maasvlakte is lange tijd een hoofdpijndossier geweest van Havenbedrijf Rotterdam, maar bedrijven en douane zijn er nu heel blij mee.
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The 17 kilometre long CER connects terminals via a closed system.
It has been completed three years later than scheduled, is way over budget and is slightly less advanced than was intended, but as from tomorrow the CER will be officially in use. The CER connects container terminals and depots via a closed system. For the time being the network is going to be used by four users, namely the three container terminal businesses of ECT Delft, RWG and the Kramer Group, while the custom’s inspection location is also connected to the system.
The original idea was that the CER would be used by autonomous vehicles, but that turned out to be technologically impossible. This is because the various terminals all have their own system and it appears to be difficult to develop an autonomous driving system which would link up with those different container terminal systems.
Millions of investment
The CER should have been operational in 2020, but the tender for autonomous vehicles resulted in major delays and extra costs. Just last year the Port of Rotterdam revealed that it had written off €24.7 million from the CER project. Its total investment in the 17 kilometres of asphalt was €120 million.
“But this project has absolutely not been a failure”, explains Port Economist Bart Kuipers from the Erasmus University Rotterdam. ”There is no other project like it in the world. Given the construction plans of various terminal operators which would increase the Port’s container capacity from around 17.7 million containers currently to over 26 million in 2035, this can generate a huge competitive advantage. If the autonomous vehicle plans had been feasible, it would have been perfect. But it’s great that the route will make it possible to move huge numbers of containers between the various terminals.”
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The Port of Rotterdam invested €120 million in the Container Exchange Route (CER)
André Kramer, CEO of the Kramer Group, is also keen to emphasise the importance of the CER. “There’s nothing like it at any other port in the world. The benefit for us is that if a large ocean vessel docks, we no longer have to use the public highway to transport containers for inland shipping or deep-sea transportation separately to different terminals.”
The CER saves operators a great deal of red tape. There is no longer any need for paperwork because the CER is a closed system. Normally that paperwork would be essential whenever a container leaves the terminal.
Please click here for the description of the project »