The tariffs which visiting sea-going vessels pay in Rotterdam will increase by 0.5% in 2016, which is half of the past year’s inflation rate.
This is in accordance with the three-year agreement made in 2014 between Deltalinqs, VRC, VNPI and the Port Authority on changes to the port tariffs.
At the time, the parties agreed to allow an increase in tariffs equal to half of the inflation rate, with a maximum of 1% per annum, for a period of three years. In addition, the Port Authority applies a number of targeted measures to encourage specific sectors, such as container transhipment.
In the container sector, the Rotterdam Port Authority is aiming to increase the number of transhipment containers.
After these containers have arrived by sea-going vessel, they travel directly from the terminal to another European port by sea.
The Port Authority wants to encourage the market to ship a lot more transhipment cargo via Rotterdam.
When deep-sea container vessels visit the second time, the tariff is 25% of the normal rate. This encourages the largest, heavily laden container vessels arriving in Northwest Europe to first call at Rotterdam to unload part of their cargo, then dock in a few other ports before returning to Rotterdam on their way back to Asia, so that they can leave Europe fully laden.
The existing discount for clean ships, the Environmental Ship Index (ESI), will be continued. Ships which score 31 points on the index receive a 10% discount on the ship section of the port tariff.
This discount is doubled if ships have relatively low nitrogen emissions. This means that a ship must score at least 31 points on the NOx emission section of the ESI.
Since 1 January 2015 Rotterdam and the Drechtsteden have been classed as one area, so that skippers will only need one subscription instead of two and the statements will be simpler.
