News Release

7th October 2002

Millionth container on ECT Delta Dedicated West Terminal


07-Oct-2002

On Monday the 7th of October, the one millionth container was handled at the ECT Delta Dedicated West Terminal (DDW); the container was taken on board of the MOL Solution. This milestone comes well over 2.5 years after the opening of this latest, fully automated terminal on the Maasvlakte in Rotterdam.

At the DDW, ECT uses the largest cranes, capable of handling ships up to 22 rows wide. The transport on the quays takes place using Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs); moving containers in and out of the stack (the storage area) is done with Automated Stacking Cranes (ASCs). Jan Gelderland, managing director of the ECT Delta Terminal: “The recently introduced new operating system of the AGVs allows us to further increase productivity on the DDW. We therefore expect to handle the next million containers in an even shorter time span than the first million.” With the new operating system, Gelderland means the software program DynaCore. Thanks to DynaCore, the AGVs can now flexibly move across the terminal instead of being limited to a fixed route. This shortens and quickens the distance between stack and ship.

MOL Solution
The MOL Solution, which took the millionth container aboard, is one of the most modern ships of Japanese shipping company Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL). The ship, which has a capacity of 6,500 TEU, sails for The New World Alliance in the Japan Europe Express. The New World Alliance is a cooperation between shipping companies MOL, APL and Hyundai. Managing director of MOL Europe, Chris Bourne, is satisfied with the service offered by ECT on the DDW. “Over the last couple of years, ECT has increasingly focused on our wishes and requirements. The cooperation is good. ECT helps us to offer our clients an optimum level of service. And in these times that are difficult for everyone, which is something that also has to be said sometimes. But of course, there is always the need for improvement.”

ECT Delta Terminal
The DDW is part of the ECT Delta Terminal on the Maasvlakte. The other two ECT terminals here are the Delta Dedicated East Terminal (DDE) and the Delta Dedicated North Terminal (DDN). Directly next to the DDW, ECT still has room for further expansion at its disposal. The quay for this has already been constructed.