Since it was established in 1997, Rotterdam Shortsea Terminals has made a name for itself as Europe’s largest shortsea shipping hub. Its facilities offer container handling, storage, and a comprehensive range of additional services including empty depot, cross-docking and more. This complete range of services is marked by the facility’s strong focus on efficiency and sustainability.
Rotterdam Shortsea Terminals is located at the heart of the Port of Rotterdam, in the centre of a comprehensive network of shortsea connections to and from Iceland, the Baltic states, Scandinavia, the UK, Ireland, Spain, Portugal and North Africa. The facility is home to 2,850 metres of quayside to accommodate ships with draughts up to 13.65 metres, and handles an average of over 50 shortsea vessels per week.
A Smaller Footprint
It is just over a year since we last took a look at this facility, and it has been busy in the meantime. Its volumes are significantly higher than last year’s. When we speak to him, Rotterdam Shortsea Terminals’ CEO, Arno Storm, forecasts that it will have processed 735,000 containers or 1.3 million TEU by the end of 2024.
“In 2023 we did 633000 containers, an increase of nearly 100,000 over the last year, so business has been good,” says Storm.
Talking to Storm it is clear his proudest achievements are not simply in how the business has grown, but in how it is doing business. Over the last year, Rotterdam Shortsea Terminal has made great strides in its work towards its sustainability goals.
“We set ourselves the goal of achieving CO2 neutrality by 2030 on Scope 1 and 2 emissions, and this year we have taken some big steps in that,” Storm tells us.
Rotterdam Shortsea Terminals has brought in a selection of new hybrid carriers, but even as this new equipment was being implemented the terminals’ senior management team began talking about using HVO 100 diesel to even further lower the company’s CO2 footprint.
“Around May we decided to do that for all the carriers running here,” Storm tells us. “By doing that, we have been able to cut CO2 emissions by 90%, and that is hugely helping our overall efforts towards carbon neutrality. It means that by the end of 2025, we will be CO2 neutral. Quite an achievement in one year! We are very proud of that.”
On top of this progress, Rotterdam Shortsea Terminals has pursued several other projects. Its main building and technical department building have both been covered with 1,700 solar panels. It is also contracting other sources of solar and wind power, continuing to allow the facility to make big steps towards its emission goals. The work is drawing widespread recognition.
“We have been able to get our third star on ‘Lean and Green’, a program in the Netherlands to reward companies reducing their CO2 footprint,” says Storm. “It is a five-star system, and we have jumped from one to three stars in the space of a single year.”
While the progress Rotterdam Shortsea Terminals has made is impressive, Storm is quick to point out that there is more work to do.
“By 2030, according to EU rules, we have to be able to provide shore power to the shipping lines,” Storm tells us. “We have been working on that, establishing what is needed to achieve that and what the impact of that will be. There is a particular challenge in the fact that each connection of a vehicle to shore power through the electric grid is highly costly, and requires a large investment. We are talking between 10 and 20 million euros for a terminal like ours.”
A Lean Machine
As well as working to become greener, Rotterdam Shortsea Terminals is finding ways to make its operations leaner, training staff through its internal “Lean Academy”. It has been doing this over the last two years to show its people an improved way of doing things, while maintaining a high level of service for its customers and giving staff the opportunity to develop themselves professionally.
But Storm is the first to acknowledge that guaranteeing that talent pipeline is becoming ever more difficult.
“There is a labour shortage in the Netherlands, and indeed across Europe,” says Storm. “We are focusing on our staff, listening very carefully and doing everything we can to make sure that we are an attractive employer.”
Ensuring a steady pipeline of new talent is only one of the challenges ahead of Rotterdam Shortsea Terminals. It must also navigate some distinctly 21st century security challenges.
“The port of Rotterdam is a target for cybercriminals,” Storm tells us. “We are attractive to try and get into, so we have been upgrading our cyber defences to ensure we are not attacked by outside players.”
While there are undoubtedly challenges ahead, Storm is optimistic that Rotterdam Shortsea Terminals will continue to enjoy the success it has already demonstrated in the pursuit of its new goals. The facility is set to be fully CO2 compliant by 2025, emphasising its role in upholding the sustainability of supply chains across Europe.
“The sustainability of the logistic supply chain in Europe via shipping lines and shortsea is very attractive, and we are going to play our role in that,” Storm says. “It will only be more important over the coming years. We will continue to develop our activities in that area, working towards carbon neutrality, but on top of that we are also looking at tackling Code 3 emissions. This will allow us to be a front-runner in this field, and a partner to other companies. We are planning several pilot projects to help develop our own solutions here. We are not just buying off-the-shelf solutions, we are developing new ways of doing things.”
Storm talks passionately about the new possibilities of hydrogen technology in achieving these solutions, and the role partnerships with firms such as Hyster will play in that. He also points to the acquisition of two ship-to-shore cranes that will be operational in 2025, freeing up half of the facility’s operational capacity by 2027.
All of this work is geared towards one goal.
“We want to deliver the best possible product to our customer,” says Storm.
