Posted on July 22, 2026
APM Terminals Maasvlakte II, the container terminal at the Port of Rotterdam operated by the A.P. Moller-Maersk subsidiary, has completed the foundations of its new container yard and is already operating with twelve autonomous yard tractors (ATT) within the expansion project that will double the facility’s capacity. The terminal has marked its first year since the deployment of the first autonomous units and is working with a fleet that will reach 30 units by early 2027.
The twelve autonomous tractors currently in service are being tested for integration with the conventional traffic at the terminal, operated by manned vehicles. The company plans to complete the full deployment of the fleet by early 2027. The vehicles are Terberg YT203EV DBW (Drive by Wire) tractors, equipped with level 4 autonomous driving technology developed by Embotech, have hands-free charging, and are prepared for autonomous navigation and automatic loading operations.
APM Terminals Maasvlakte II has developed this integration together with Terberg Special Vehicles, Embotech, and ROCSYS. The autonomous tractors will operate in both the existing terminal and the expansion, handling the transport of containers between the ground stacks and the rail terminal.
On the other hand, the terminal has completed the final phase of the foundations for the new container yard. The work has been carried out by CareGo, a consortium made up of Dura Vermeer, GMB, and ABB. Construction began in May 2025 and the last concrete pour took place on July 14, 2026. In total, the execution required more than 300 workdays. According to the terminal, the design of the bases used fiber-reinforced concrete. ‘APMT and CareGo aimed to use materials in the most sustainable and efficient way possible, starting from the technical design phase,’ the company stated.
The area designated for automatically guided vehicles (AGV), including the transfer areas at the waterfront, covers 115,000 square meters, an area equivalent to more than sixteen football fields. According to calculations published by the terminal, the concrete used in the base of the container yard would fill more than seven Olympic-sized swimming pools, and the amount used for the entire expansion would exceed twenty-two.
The expansion project was officially launched in February 2025, in collaboration with the Port Authority of Rotterdam and the CareGo consortium, and aims to complete its first phase by the end of 2026. The project will double the terminal’s capacity and includes 31 stacking blocks for the storage and handling of containers. It also adds 51 hectares of terminal area, 1,000 meters of deep-water berthing line, facilities for truck and train handling, and new cargo handling equipment.
This year, the delivery of twelve ship-to-shore (STS) cranes manufactured by ZPMC is scheduled. All of them incorporate remote operation through the standardized Maasvlakte II control system developed by ABB. The cranes have a Safe Working Load (SWL) capacity of 65 tons, an outreach of 72 meters, and a lifting height of 30.48 meters. ABB and Kuenz also provide 62 ARMG (Automated Rail Mounted Gantry) cranes and an intermodal yard crane. In January 2026, the terminal received the first electric battery AGV with cargo capacity manufactured by Konecranes, as part of an order for 71 units placed in October 2024.
Financially, the terminal closed the 2025 fiscal year with a net profit of 24 million euros, compared to 11 million from the previous year, according to its annual accounts. The improvement in results, more than double compared to the previous fiscal year, is attributed to record container volumes, price increases, and the deployment of the Gemini network, the operational alliance between Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd that started in 2025. The company faced a complex start to the year.
Operationally, the terminal temporarily suspended part of its operations on June 24 due to high temperatures, which caused technical incidents in the equipment.
The APM Terminals Maasvlakte II expansion project is one of the largest container capacity expansion efforts currently underway in Northern Europe and one of the most advanced commitments in the European port sector towards the full automation of container handling.
