News of: Thursday, January 26 2006,

Amsterdam takes over 3 container lines from Rotterdam

The much disputed Ceres Terminal in the harbour of Amsterdam will get 3 container lines that now work in Rotterdam.

The new lines are from Chile and China and South-East Asia.

The 3 new lines are an enormous relieve for the Ceres Terminal, which was financed by the City of Amsterdam.
The investment by Amsterdam in the terminal was 300 million Dutch guilders (EUR 136 million), but the first 3 years the terminal had no clients, leading to a lot of criticism on the judgement of the city's administration.

Last year, however, one shipping company contracted the Ceres Terminal, which was then a break-through. Now, several others are following.

The Ceres Terminal, located in the western harbour, is a terminal that can unload container ships, and it is special because it is the only container terminal in the world that can unload container ships from 2 sides simultaneously.

Rotterdam has one of the biggest harbours in the world (if not the biggest); compared to Rotterdam, Amsterdam's harbour is very small.