At the huge terminal in Rotterdam last year, 121 seagoing vessel movements unloaded iron ore which was then transferred to 11,609 barge movements travelling the inland waterways to the steelworks in Germany.

The total volume of iron ore passing through the terminal is 48 million tons a year – all figures from 2004. “The total volume will be much higher this year,” says J.W. Heinen, the port’s technical manager. In addition, the port handles four million tons of coal per year.
When we visited the port, some 3.5 million tons of iron ore were stored at the facility, but with a volume of 24 million tons imported at the deepwater quay, the same volume goes out again at the other side of the terminal on an armada of inland waterway self-propelled barges. The iron ore then goes to ThyssenKrupp, which owns the terminal. “The cargo comes mainly from Brazil, Canada, Australia and Sweden,” says Heinen. Huge and also quite long conveyor belts transfer the iron ore from the vessels to storage and then on to the inland waterway barges.
“We have three unloaders at the receiving end of the terminal, each with a lifting capacity of 60 tons. The unloaders use grabs for unloading iron ore, and the grabs typically lift a load of 33 to 35 tons per scoop. This means that the grabs handle some 2,300 tons each per hour,” says Heinen.
A tour of the terminal confirms the huge volumes handled, and we were quite impressed by the conveyor belts needed to handle the huge volume. The mere speed of the discharge grabs was equally impressive as we studied their operations close up on the deck of Bergesen’s M/S Berge Nord.

Date: 08 February 2008