Some 25% of containers handled at Rotterdam’s port are from China, data released by Statistics Netherlands showed.
The number of containers from China grew 9% in 2014 and the growth continued to early 2015 despite the Chinese economic downturn.
China-originated containers to the port rose 18.6% year on year in the first quarter of 2015, leading to a 10% growth in Rotterdam’s container throughput.
In 2014 Rotterdam handled 54 million tonnes of containerised goods, including from China (12.2 million tonnes), Singapore (3.2), the United States (3.0), the United Kingdom (2.8), Russia (2.2), Brazil (2.2), Ireland (2.0), Malaysia (1.7), Sweden, (1.6), and Hong Kong (1.5).
About 23.2% of the containers from China contain machinery and equipment, 15.2% are chemical products, 14.1% are textile, while foods, including fish, fruits, and vegetables, account for 7% of the total container cargo.
Rotterdam is also at the end of the new Asia-Europe continental bridge, which is an important part of China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ policy that aims to link China with Europe, Southeast Asian countries, Africa, and Europe in a bid to seek opportunities for common development.
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.