The Port of Rotterdam Authority has said its new automated cold storage facility will be completed and operational by January 2022, with construction beginning in mid-July 2020.
In a statement, the Port of Rotterdam Authority said the facility, called Kloosterboer Cool Port II, will be an upgrade on the previous facility, Kloosterboer Cool Port I.
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While Cool Port I already offers “a combination of cool and cold storage capacity”, Cool Port II will be “a state-of-the-art fully automated high-rise cold-storage warehouse”.
Additionally, approximately 2,700 roof solar panels will make Cool Port II up to 45% more energy efficient than a conventional cold storage facility.
The need for more innovative cold storage is down to increasing demand for agricultural products, also known as agrifood, for which the Port of Rotterdam is Europe’s port of import and export with approximately 19 million tonnes being handled every year.
The Rotterdam Port Authority says it will look to facilitate further growth in the sector by “offering new and existing companies in this segment ample room for the quick, safe and reliable storage and handling of agricultural food products”.
The development of Cool Port II – which will combine a capacity of 60,000 pallets for frozen cargo with an intermodal connection with Maasvlakte – will further strengthen Rotterdam’s position as an agrifood port.
Pallets of goods will be brought in on self-unloading or conventional trucks and are then automatically taken from the shipping hall via conveyer belts, turntables and sluices to the cold-storage facility, where cranes will automatically place the pallets in their designed position.
