In the month of March, the Port of Rotterdam was the first port in Europe to handle 1 million containers (TEU – standard sized 20-foot containers) in a month. The record was reached in the evening of the last day of March on the Ital Oriente. In total, 47 vessels were loaded and unloaded on that day: a total of nearly 50,000 TEU.

This is a significant milestone in the development of Rotterdam as a container port since 1966, and many shipping companies, shippers, terminals and countries have contributed to it. These days, however, we think particularly of our relationship with Japan, which actually began in Deshima and was continued by ‘our own’ shipping company, Nedlloyd, which considered Japan to be one of its core areas. Since 1898, the Japanese shipping companies NYK, ‘K’-Line and MOL and their Japanese shippers have been faithful clients of the port of Rotterdam, and in the past few years have also acquired part ownership in the large container terminals.

The ceremony took place next to a special container on the Holland-Amerika kade near the World Port Center.