BTB - Update Congestion in the Ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp / February 2019

05 February 2019

In short: the situation has not changed and we are still suffering a lot of congestion. Unfortunately the deepsea terminals in Antwerp and Rotterdam still don’t have enough capacity to handle our barges. Waiting times vary between 24 – 96 hours.

Dear valued customer,

Through this mailing I would like to bring you up to date with the situation in the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp.
In short: the situation has not changed and we are still suffering a lot of congestion.

Unfortunately the deepsea terminals in Antwerp and Rotterdam still don’t have enough capacity to handle our barges. Waiting times vary between 24 – 96 hours.
The reasons differ: shortage of staff, hick-up in IT-systems, multiple berths of sea vessels, groundworks terminals, full stacks, transshipments and lower than expected productivity.
This has its influence on the delivery of your export containers and collection of your import containers. We try to load your export containers as early as possible, as to create more time for delivery. For the imports we are continuously in contact with the planning of the several terminals.
Whenever they have the opportunity to give us a call/appointment, we arrange a barge to be there, either with our own barge or with a chartered one. We also make use of our contacts at the shipping lines, but mostly, they are not able to change the situation.
Per deepsea terminal we try to make our call sizes as big as possible, to make it attractive to be handled. Also alternative services can be offered via Kramer, Waalhaven Botlek Terminal or Barge Center Waalhaven to get our import container off the terminal to stop demurrage or deliver your export container on time to the congested terminal. 
As the terminals are delaying our barges we don’t accept any costs resulting from this. We advise you not to send empties to congested terminals and try to contact your shipping company to discuss your free period for detention and demurrage. 
Per booking we will keep you informed about the specific situation and alternatives.
The overall situation continues to be unsatisfactory and has a negative impact on the costs of inland waterway transport. Therefore we are forced to continue applying a congestion surcharge. The handling problems in the ports lead to high costs for us and this surcharge only partly covers these extra costs.

With kind regards,

Barge Terminal Born

Norman Verstoep, Managing Director

T  +31-88-9440105, M +31-6-51215426 

E nverstoep@waalhaven-group.nl, www.bargeterminalborn.nl