News / Rethink on barge operations vital to ease congestion at Antwerp and Rotterdam

21/07/2017

Major cultural and structural changes are needed before the severe barge congestion at Antwerp and Rotterdam eases.

Shipping consultant SeasC4U owner Gunther Ginckels told The Loadstar a fragmented barge industry at the mercy of inland terminal operators was to blame for the delays at the European ports.

Dispersed underloaded discharge and loading sequences were the norm for the region, he added.

Mr Ginckels’ comments came as Rotterdam announced its 2017 first-half throughput had grown 9.3% year on year, to reach 6.66m teu, which is likely to put further pressure on ...

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Antonio Zuidwijk
July 21, 2017 at 4:45 pm
This note of Mr Ginckels is not only very important for the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam, where barge-traffic is the backbone of the “Intermodal Transport Policies of Europe”.
These are real examples of “Cheap and green supply-chains”, where all the costs that are generated to transport cargoes, are included:
Costs of infrastructure, congestion, accidents and negative impacts on the environment. Not only the freight charges by the transport-companies are taken into account as is done in many other regions. Many people are aware of the benefits that barge-óperations could show if better use of the riversystems would be made.
And one of the best examples is the River Paraguay-Parana in South America, which is hardly used for container-transportation. And those in Europe that now are rendering “consultancy” services in Buenos Aires, should make this information part of their good advices for the local authorities. Hope to see more of this kind of excelent information in the Loadstar. Antonio Zuidwijk http://www.antonioz.com.ar

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- Antonio Zuidwijk
  July 21, 2017 at 4:47 pm
  Many thanks for considering my note in the”moderation-process”.
  
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