General Description
Location: Situated in the municipality of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the Maasvlakte is built on land reclaimed from the North Sea.
General overview: Maasvlakte is a sub port of Rotterdam. The Maasvlakte is a massive man-made westward extension of the Europoort port and industrial facility within the Port of Rotterdam.
Maasvlakte 2 is a major civil engineering project involving the construction of a new port area and supporting infrastructure on reclaimed land. A 20 feet deep port was created with space for deep sea related container activities, distribution and chemical industry. Approximately 2000 ha was reclaimed behind a 3.5km long breakwater/seawall. When fully developed, Maasvlakte 2 will add 1000 ha of port area. The other 1,000 ha consists of infrastructure such as seawall, waterways, railways, roads and harbours. The basic infrastructure was completed in 2013. The port area is home to container terminals of APM Terminals and Rotterdam World Gateway (operated by DP World). Both terminals opened in 2015.
Container terminal operators APM Terminals and Rotterdam World Gateway began construction of their terminals in 2012. The APM terminal opened in April 2015. Rotterdam World Gateway (RWG) is the main competitor for European Container Terminals (ECT), currently the biggest operator of a container terminal in Rotterdam. RWG's terminal includes a 20-meter deep dock and its own railroad station, and would be capable of handling 2.35 million containers annually.
Load line zone: North Atlantic Winter Seasonal Zone II, Winter Nov 1 to Mar 31, Summer Apr 1 to Oct 31.
Max. size: The largest vessel called at the port: LOA: 400 m, draught: 17 m, deadweight: 499,125 t.