Tokyo: As the prelude to a full-blown jv, Asia's CKYH (Cosco, "K" Line, Yang Ming and Hanjin) Alliance has signed an MOU with Europe Container Terminals (ECT) to enter into long-term cooperation at the Euromax Terminal - claimed to be the world's most modern container facility - under construction on Rotterdam's Maasvlakte.
Designed as a 'high performance' terminal, Euromax will have initial capacity of 2.3m teu, rising to 5.6m teu under the final Maasvlakte 2 phase, and will therefore have sufficient capacity to handle the cargo growth of CKYH member lines going forward.
Cosco's container line Coscon is member of the CKYH liner alliance - which currently operates 11 loops on Asia-European services (six serving North Europe) and four on TransAtlantic services. However, the MOU was signed by terminal arm Cosco Pacific, which already participates in and operates 23 terminals globally with an aggregate throughput of 26m teu in 2005, ranking it the world's fifth largest container terminal last year.
ECT, part of the Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) Group, already handles three quarters of all containers at Port of Rotterdam. It currently operates the ECT Delta Terminal on the Maasvlakte Peninsula (close to the North Sea), ECT Home Terminal and ECT Hanno Terminal in the Eemhaven/Waalhaven area (near the city centre), last year handling 5.6m teu. [21/12/06]
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