Posted on May 1, 2023
The Port of Rotterdam Authority and HGK Shipping have signed a long-term cooperation agreement to promote sustainable concepts for inland waterway services leading to and from seaports.
The document primarily focuses on the energy revolution and logistics for hydrogen, as well as reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by using innovative drive concepts and digitalisation.
The agreement ensures that stable supply chains will continue between Germany and the Netherlands, and within Europe, according to the Port of Rotterdam.
As part of the cooperation arrangement, the Port of Rotterdam Authority and HGK Shipping will maintain close ties to share information and jointly examine the possibilities that open up for both partners.
The partners will analyse how the need for services to transport, store, and tranship alternative energy sources will likely develop.
Another important factor to be considered in this partnership is how to make the inland waterway fleet more ecologically friendly and draw up implementation concepts for renewable engine fuels.
HGK Shipping and the Port of Rotterdam Authority also intend to enhance transparency along supply chains in order to be able to organise procedures in a more efficient and sustainable manner.
This enhanced transparency will be done by involving stakeholders, in addition to exchanging information about the quantities and types of goods that are transported and transshipped.
This is set to take place through cooperation on digital platform initiatives, which support communications and the exchange of information for all the partners involved in the supply chain and which are working to achieve standardisation further inland.
Matthijs van Doorn, Vice-President Commercial at Port of Rotterdam Authority, said: “Cross border initiatives with strong and ambitious partners in the areas of energy transition and digitalisation are of paramount importance to reach our goal of becoming a CO2 neutral port by 2050.”
Steffen Bauer, the CEO of HGK Shipping, commented: “The Port of Rotterdam is assuming a key role in supplying European industries and the energy sector as the hydrogen economy is launched.
“As an important hydrogen port, it depends on efficient connections to destinations further inland – and we at HGK Shipping are able to handle them through our inland waterway system,” Bauer added.
The Port of Rotterdam has increasingly implemented measures, and formed partnerships that are conducive to its sustainability and environmental goals of the future.
Late last year, the port and Goodshipping launched a campaign to reduce carbon emissions through providing a vessel with sustainable fuel.
More recently, this month, the port announced that it is developing an 11-hectare site on the Maasvlakte suitable for the construction of a large green hydrogen plant.
