Why is Rotterdam the largest port in the world?

The Netherlands is only a small country, but Rotterdam was originally only a medium-sized city with a population of more than 1 million. But now, Rotterdam has become the largest seaport in the world.

Rotterdam is located in the "golden delta" formed by the Rhine, Maas and Scheldt rivers, and overlooks the British Isles across the sea. Rotterdam is not only an international seaport with access to the rest of the world, but also a hub for inland shipping. In addition, the Rhine River is connected to canals and other rivers. It is the busiest international river among European shipping rivers. The Rhine River alone is equivalent to the transportation volume of 20 to 30 railways. Moreover, Rotterdam has the unique characteristics of a seaport and a river port, so it is called the "Gateway of Europe".

The main body of Rotterdam is in the port area, covering an area of ??more than 100 square kilometers, and is larger than the urban area. It is about 30 kilometers away from the sea, and it relies on canalization of waterways, large-scale berths, and automated loading and unloading. The port water area is about 27.71 square kilometers, the land area is more than 800,000 square kilometers, and the water depth is about 6.7 to 22 meters. There are no gates in the waterway, and it will not freeze in winter, and the rivers will not be silted. Although the port area is in the westerly belt , but it is protected from wind and waves all year round. The sea ship terminal is about 56 kilometers long, and the river ship terminal is 33.6 kilometers long, and implements professional loading and unloading of petroleum, coal, ore, chemicals, grain, groceries, vegetables and fruits, wood, fish, automobiles, bulk and containers, with a total of There are approximately 651 berths. The warehouses and cargo sheds cover an area of ??approximately 1.03 million square meters. Moreover, the 100,000-ton giant ship can come and go freely day and night, and can berth a supertanker of up to 545,000 tons.

In the 1950s, the establishment of the European Economic Community and the economic development of Western European countries made the Port of Rotterdam a distribution center for most import and export goods, thus promoting Rotterdam to develop into a very modern port.

Rotterdam is the world's largest oil spot market. It is also the world's non-ferrous metal storage and transportation center and the European grain trade center. There are about 35,000 ocean-going ships and about 300,000 inland waterway ships entering and leaving the port every year. And on average, a ship will enter or leave the port every 6 minutes. The average annual cargo throughput is approximately 300 million tons, which is 2.5 times the total throughput of Shanghai Port.

In such a busy port, the traffic of ships is very orderly. Moreover, there are only 16,000 workers in the entire port area, including stevedores, but their work efficiency is extremely high. They rely on advanced scientific management, advanced equipment, and flexible scheduling. Moreover, there are many traffic command centers at Cape Holland at the seaport, and there are 9 radar stations that always monitor ships entering and leaving the port. Managers only need to sit in front of the screen to clearly see the general situation of the activities in the harbor, and Navigation and dispatch via radio. Generally at the ore terminal, a large bucket can hold 30 tons of ore in one shovel, which is then sent to the conveyor belt and then transported to the storage yard. 70,000 tons of ore can be unloaded in a day and night.

The port is connected with cargo yards, warehouses, stations, airports, banks, insurance companies and processing plants. It is very efficient and operates very fast. There is absolutely no waiting for berths or cargo yards. Moreover, the Port Authority's dedicated railway line is more than 400 kilometers long and leads directly to various terminals. Moreover, there are quite large shipyards, ship repair yards, refineries, metal processing plants, food processing plants, etc., and half of the goods entering the port will be processed into semi-finished products on site and then re-exported, which can greatly reduce the transportation volume. .

Rotterdam is the distribution center of the European automobile market. Many cars are transported to the terminal by trucks, trains, ships or river barges, and then transferred from here to France, Austria, Italy, the United Kingdom and Nordic countries.

After people board the 20-story Port Authority Building, they can have an unobstructed view of the Rotterdam Port: ships flying flags of various countries are always coming in and out, as if "catching up" for a festival. And different ships are different; there are many booms on the ship, and the ships come and go in a hurry, showing a busy scene.