The level of container transhipment continues to increase in the Port of Amsterdam. In addition to existing transhipment activities at other container terminals the Ceres Paragon container terminal is running at 60% of its capacity. As a result the number of scheduled services to and from Amsterdam increased substantially. Several deepsea container vessels and feeders sail from Amsterdam to ports across the world. The Port of Amsterdam is thus becoming an ever more important player in the container market in Northwest Europe, providing excellent facilities and space for growth.

Deepsea routes

The first scheduled deepsea service involving the Ceres terminal included the two loops of the Grand Alliance. (A loop is a fixed circuit sailed by as many container vessels as needed arriving at and departing from fixed ports at fixed times.) Recently there is a third scheduled loop at Ceres, the EU5. With this loop al China destinations can be reached from Amsterdam. The Grand Alliance is a joint venture between four intercontinental container shipping companies. These are NYK of Japan, Hapag Lloyd of Germany, OOCL of Hong Kong and Malaysia’s MISC. They sail the EU1, EU2 and EU5 loops. EU1 sails between Europe and Japan, EU2 and EU5 between Europe and China. Both involve weekly stops at Amsterdam. 

Shortsea routes

But containers also serve local territory. Several feeders take shortsea routes in Europe and use Amsterdam. The feeders of OOCL, the Scan Baltic Express 1, 2 and 3, sail to England, Germany, Scandinavia, Russia and the Baltic states. The X-Press Container Line sails to two destinations in Portugal. Both lines visit Amsterdam once a week. And MSC involves Amsterdam on several routes. For a complete list of shortsea destinations please click on Liner services.

Growth & developments

To the Ceres Paragon container terminal and the Port of Amsterdam all these services mean transhipment of a lot of containers; 305,000 TEU in 2006. Strong growth is forecasted for 2007.

All scheduled services and booking details can be found on the page called Liner services. From the container terminals several connections serve the hinterland. More information can be found on the page titled Intermodal connections.