At present container barge transport in Rotterdam is faced with big delays in the processing of inland vessels in the port, resulting from the 24-hour strike at the Rotterdam container terminals which took place from 7 to 8 January 2016.

The worst delays are at the ECT Terminals (Delta and Euromax), averaging 4 to 7 days at present.

Waiting times of this magnitude caused by processing delays mean that we are no longer in a position to adhere to our existing service schedules.

The costs for demurrage that would be incurred by our customers would generally be higher than the cost of docking at another terminal and transferring containers to the terminal originally planned.  For this reason, and in order to reach the closings which may still be feasible, we are unfortunately regularly compelled to unload export containers at other terminals and then transfer them by truck to their scheduled terminal.

In a situation where congestion constitutes a hindrance to delivery in accordance with § 419 HGB (German Commercial Code) the law provides that costs resulting from the hindrance are borne by the cargo participants. In the cases where we are forced to perform truck transfers we therefore regret that we must invoice the additional costs to our customers. In this situation import container transports may have to be postponed to a later departure.

Of course in performing these necessary transfers we proceed with all due care and attention in order to protect your interests.

We will keep you informed of further developments.