Germany’s first deepwater container terminal has officially opened for business. By Paul Richardson, AJOT Jade Weser Port, Wilhemshaven, operated by Eurogate Container Terminal Wilhemshaven GmbH & Co KG, a joint venture between, Eurogate GmbH & Co, KGaA, KG, the holding company of the Eurogate Group, and APMT Wilhelmshaven GmbH, an indirect fully-owned subsidiary of the AP Moller-Maersk Group, is now fully operational. The new terminal is being developed in separate phases, with Phase 1 split into two time frame sectors. The so-called Phase 1A development is now completed, while the Phase 1B project should be ready and operational by September 2013. Under the Phase 1A development, there is 1,000m of quayside equipped with eight super post-panamax gantry cranes supplied by China’s ZPMC back up with on dock equipment that includes, 36 diesel straddle carriers. The Phase 1B development project comprises an extension of that 1,000m quayside by another 725m. But the Wilhelmshaven development goes even further because there is a potential depending of course on trade demand, to take it the terminal construction work up a notch and add Phase 2. Phase 2 will provide a further 1,000m + 725m of quay frontage, but this one is still at the blueprint stage. The German government has stated that the terminal has a projected annual throughput potential of 2.7m, but in reality terms that figure is more likely to be between 3.5m and 4m teu. Three container services presently use the terminal at the moment – all Maersk services and cover the Asia/Europe, Europe/Central America and local intra-Europe/Baltic trades Earlier this month, Maersk’s Europe feeder operator, Seago Line confirmed it was to call Wilhelmshaven on the Russia Express Service scheduled to arrive every Sunday The Maersk CRX service covering Europe/Central America, and presently including the Baltic in the service rotation, will continue to call Wilhelmshaven following the exclusion of the Baltic calls during the Winter season, and most recently the AE1 service covering the Asia/Europe trade, made its maiden call. According to agreements reached with the local authorities, the terminal is a common user facility, and therefore Maersk volumes have to be kept at below 50%. By 2015, most Asia/North Europe services will operate with vessels over 10,000-teu capacity, and to some ports, such as Hamburg, this poses a problem in not only cargo handling, but also limits berthing timeframes due to tidal restrictions and vessel handling during berthing and undocking. At Wilhelmshaven, the gantry cranes in place have an outreach of 25 containers, and importantly, are capable of handling the latest generation of container carriers. Starting from mid-2013, Maersk begins to take delivery of the first of a series of 18,000 teu vessels with an on-deck container stacking width of 23 containers, and these latest vessels are clearly heading for the Asia/Europe trade, most likely to be deployed on two existing services as replacements for smaller tonnage. Wilhelshaven’s gantry cranes are designed to have a height lifting capability of 43m, and given the most realistic tidal rise and fall, and this means the terminal will be more than capable of handling the new vessels. Maersk has 20 of these vessels due for delivery from Daewoo between June 2013 and the third quarter 2015, enough to deploy on two separate Asia/Europe services. Unlike Hamburg and Bremerhaven, Wilhelmshaven has no inland river connections to and from the major industrial areas, and thus, barge traffic handling is not included in the port’s operational portfolio. But, there are major plus points for Wilhelmshaven through other transportation methods, none the least, overland. First class rail freight and road connections exist to and from the major industrial centres such as Oldenburg, with a multi-track rail network in place and a closely located highway connection via the A29 Autobahn offering alternative connections to and from the major indust