Port of Rotterdam Handles Hulls

During the first six months of 2010, the Port of Rotterdam handled 245,000 metric tons of non-containerized general cargo, almost all of it project cargo, at the buoys in the Waalhaven basin. In 2009, the port handled only 111,000 metric tons at the same spot.

Much of this cargo consisted of hulls for inland vessels brought from China to be completed at Dutch ship yards. Most of the hulls arrived on towed pontoons, with the remainder coming as deck cargo on multipurpose vessels.

Many of the hulls were discharged using Rotterdam’s contingent of floating sheer leg cranes of varying lift capacities. In the accompanying photo, the cranes Matador 3 and GPS Apollo unload hulls at buoy 25 in the Waalhaven Basin.

Photo courtesy Port of Rotterdam