Seaports

Groningen seaports: Port of Delfzijl & Eemshaven

Port of Delfzijl: industrial port complex
Delfzijl offers every facility of the traditional seaport: well-equipped commercial quays (fully renovated in 2000), ample storage and transhipment capacity, modern loading and unloading facilities, as well as shipyard and repair provisions. Many specialist service industries and agencies have set up business around the port – pilot services, tugs and towboats, lashing services, stevedores, the Dutch Royal Military Police, and Customs.

Both in the port areas and their immediate vicinity, Groningen Seaports manages high-quality sites. Most of them are concentrated around industrial and logistic clusters such as the Chemical Park Delfzijl, the Metal Park, and Fivelpoort, an industrial park for sustainable industries

Eemshaven - Handelskade Eemshaven
Eemshaven is a relatively recent port. In 1973, this deep-sea port is officially opened by H.M. Queen Juliana. It develops hesitantly at first. By the late 1990s, this changes. The port is now fast developing into a logistic hub in the sea routes of northwest Europe. A fast increasing number of businesses are establishing in the port complex. Eemshaven is a full-service port.

Eemshaven is a multi-modal complex with high-quality industrial and logistic facilities. The port offers every provision for storage and transhipment of bulk goods, both wet and dry. With its high draught, short transit times and extensive facilities, Eemshaven is a fully-fledged deep-sea port. The port has a modern roll-on/roll-off terminal very close to the sea and offers full container handling facilities.

Handelskade Eemshaven is the area between the Julianaharbour and the Emmaharbour as well as the area to the west of the Emmaharbour. The commercial quay is 1150 meters long and three large stevedoring companies have established here: Royal Wagenborg, Sealane Coldstorage and Veem & Factor, which store and transship paper, frozen fish and meat products, sugar and general cargo. On a regular base the quay is also used to projects and other logistic activities, for example completing large cruise ships of the Meyer Werft. Furthermore a few small and medium sized enterprises have been established in Service Centre Eemshaven and next to that the seafarers house and the rescue squad are situated here as well.

Airports

Groningen Airport Eelde

Groningen Airport Eelde was founded in 1931. Over a period of three quarters of a century the northern airport has become a very complete international airport situated at no more than a stone’s throw from the city of Groningen.

With a high-quality package of facilities and a market-oriented approach, Groningen Airport Eelde wants to be the first airport of choice from which holidaymakers and business travellers from the North of the Netherlands want to fly. Groningen Airport Eelde is the airport for the region as well as of the region. The airport considers it its task to facilitate the region in the best possible way – in terms of economics, infrastructure and social relevance. The best possible way, nothing more, nothing less.
The nearness of the airport, its excellent accessibility, the favourable departure times and the short check-in times male Groningen Airport Eelde an attractive airport to the entire North as well as for the provinces of Overijssel and Gelderland and the German border area. This is exactly why an ever increasing number of holidaymakers and business travellers prefer Groningen Airport Eelde over the busy Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.

Charter flights and scheduled flights are the most common flight movements. But the airport also offers the opportunity to go out for round trips from Groningen Airport Eelde. They may be tourist flight, but they also have a promotional purpose. People who are interested may go on a round trip over the North of the Netherlands to look at their town or province from a different perspective.

Groningen Airport Eelde is also an airport for medical donor flights and for the emergency helicopter of the University Medical Centre Groningen, the UMCG. Rescue teams of the Ministry of Defence also use our facilities (for military operational flights).

Road & Rail

The Netherlands has an extensive, modern and well-maintained road and highway network that integrates seamlessly into the European one. And with around 12,000 transport companies ranging from very small, one-truck operations to large international players, ample services are available.
The Dutch transport industry has an excellent reputation, and thanks to free competition and minimal government intervention, Dutch transport companies offer the best price-quality ratio for transportation and distribution services in Europe.

Study results reveal that the Netherlands has retained its lead in road (FTL and LTL) transportation.
Transport tariffs to and from the Netherlands tend to be lower than in the other countries surveyed, making Dutch inbound (air, ocean, and barge) and outbound (road) transport industries more attractive to customers.

Road congestion is and will continue to be perceived as a problem in Western European countries in general, especially in port areas. The Rotterdam area was one of the first ports affected by this but also seems to be at the vanguard in devising solutions to this issue. Rotterdam was the first port in Europe to have a dedicated rail connection with the hinterland (Betuwelijn). Rotterdam is also very active in establishing inland container transfer points.

Although road transport is still by far the most popular mode of transport in Europe, in the past decade, the demand for rail freight has grown tremendously. The Dutch railway network is modern and well-connected and provides excellent links to major economic regions in the European hinterland.

The Netherlands is one of the leading countries within the EU as far as the introduction of competition in rail transportation is concerned. Users of rail transport in the Netherlands have a choice of fourteen competing train operating companies for rail freight services, offering door-to-door services and delivering traction for container shuttle services.  From the Port of Rotterdam, numerous freight trains leave on a daily basis to the major industrial centers in Europe, which can be reached within 24 hours. Furthermore, in June 2007, a brand-new railroad dedicated to rail freight transport, the Betuwe Line, was opened, offering uninterrupted and even faster connections than ever before. The Betuwe Line provides direct access to the trans-European rail freight network and runs from the ports of Rotterdam and Amsterdam straight to the German border. Forecasts show that Dutch volumes of rail transportation will rise to 78-110 million tons in the period of 2020-2040.

Source: http://www.ndl.nl/

Inland Shipping

Due to its location at the mouth of several important European rivers such as the Rhine, the Maas and the Schelde, the Netherlands is the gateway to the European hinterland.

The Netherlands, having a long history concerning inland shipping that goes back to even the 14th century, has  an excellent  natural infrastructure for waterborne transport and holds the largest market share in inland shipping in Europe. Inland shipping in the Netherlands accounts for more than 30% of all freight transport and over 50% of the entire  European fleet is owned by Dutch companies

The Dutch inland waterway system consists of more than 500 kilometres main transport waterways, almost 900 km of main waterways and 3600 km of other waterways. Together they connect all the 3500 industrial zones in The Netherlands of which around 250 have direct access to an inland terminal. As the number of inland terminals in the Netherlands continues to grow, the inland shipping network is becoming denser, making inland shipping increasingly attractive for transportation across short distances.

With 10% of the European main waterways situated in The Netherlands,  it is the logistics gateway to the European market. Many international companies serve their customers throughout Europe and even the Middle East, Africa, and beyond via a central distribution center in the Netherlands.

Having excellent sea- and airport and railway facilities, an advanced and extensive infrastructure, a highly developed logistics industry and being a very central location, the Netherlands offers excellent connections to all these markets via every mode of transport available.

Intermodal shipment is a new buzz word in Europe, which means the movement of goods by successive modes of transport but in the same loading unit, and is increasing enormously.

The changing of mode of transports happens in transshipment locations. In The Netherlands we have about 400 inland ports, where they mostly transship bulk cargo, and that serves as a regional industrial and logistic hub on waterways. The Netherlands also have 25 container terminals, where mostly containers are being transferred, but also pallets, general cargo, bulk and trailers. This way every region is accessible. All these terminals and inland ports are linked to the European hinterland consisting 96 (inland) terminals.

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