The Belgian-Limburg logistics group H. Essers has opened a new inland waterway container terminal in Bergen op Zoom, the Netherlands.

Thanks to its location outside the dike, inland waterway containers can now remain on the water from start to finish between the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam.

The new terminal has a capacity of 250,000 TEU per year, compared to 140,000 TEU at the current location, and up to 220,000 square meters of warehouse space.

“We are investing 75 million euros in one of Europe’s most important transport corridors,” said H.Essers, who also notes that the terminal will take approximately 260 trucks off the road each day.

Direct impact

The location of the old H. Essers Terminal, also in Bergen op Zoom, was not ideal. It caused noise pollution for residents, and its location inside the dike meant that only smaller ships could reach the terminal because they had to pass through a narrow lock.

The new terminal, on the other hand, is located on the outer dike, directly on the heavily trafficked Scheldt-Rhine Canal, between the Port of Antwerp-Bruges and the Port of Rotterdam, and is therefore accessible to larger ships at any time of day.

The terminal, which serves as a hub for transport between the North Sea and the Rhine on the one hand, and the Mediterranean region on the other, has a reinforced quay wall measuring 350 meters in length.

Two container cranes handle stacking and moving operations. It has storage capacity for 2,500 containers, meaning the terminal has a direct impact on how containers move across Europe.

Containers remain on water from start to finish

Antwerp-Bruges and Rotterdam, in fact, enforce minimum sizes for all inland waterway vessels calling at their terminals.

Ships must therefore dock with a certain minimum number of containers to be allowed to use the quays, especially now that both seaports are struggling with increasing congestion.

“From an inland terminal, that volume is often not feasible,” says H. Essers. “As a result, containers still must be transported by road to the seaports.

The offshore container terminal addresses that problem. Smaller inland waterway shipments are consolidated here onto larger vessels that do meet the size requirements. This way, the containers remain on water from start to finish.”

Reducing the carbon footprint

This new logistics model should also immediately reduce the transport sector’s reliance on road transport and help alleviate traffic congestion in the surrounding urban areas. On the road network, this would translate to a daily reduction of 260 truck trips in and around Bergen op Zoom.

The cranes at the new terminal also emit no CO2, and shore power is provided. Moored ships can thus turn off their diesel generators and still use electricity.

There has been controversy over the construction of the inland shipping terminal since 2007, partly because it is sandwiched between two Natura 2000 areas.

After nearly 20 years, all permits have finally been approved, and the project has been completed, partly because H.Essers had to make a substantial investment in nature compensation: 1,5 hectares of reed beds were relocated and transformed into three new islands in the surrounding water area.

Shift more traffic to water and rail for specific routes

In general, H.Essers, with more than 7,600 employees across 89 locations in 18 countries, is regarded in the logistics sector as one of the more progressive companies in sustainability, with concrete investments and measurable goals, such as a focus on smart energy systems and alternative fuels.

Although the company itself acknowledges that it “has gained a reputation as a company that likes to cut down forests,” especially in Flanders, it disputes that framing. It points out that it prefers to use existing sites, such as the former Ford factory in Genk.

At the same time, it remains a major transport company, still largely dependent on road transport. H. Essers, ranking 15th among the top 20 largest European road haulers, currently operates a fleet of 1,497 tractor-trailers and 4,159 trailers, many of which are suitable for multimodal use. Still, the proportion of electric vehicles remains very small for now.

Inland waterway transport consumes significantly less energy per kilometer than road transport, yet the sector has grown only very slowly in recent years.

H. Essers’ strategy is not to replace road transport, but to gradually shift more traffic to water and rail for specific routes – especially long distances and connections between major ports. It hopes to boost container traffic in Bergen op Zoom from 140,000 TEU to 325,000 TEU per year through additional investments.