1/3 Container terminal Veghel gets stuck (photo: Jos Verkuijlen
Hundreds of containers are waiting on the site of the container terminal in Veghel. They cannot leave because there is no room at the port in Rotterdam. Moreover, there are not enough inland vessels to transport them to Rotterdam. As a result, the transport of products from Veghel comes to a complete standstill.
Director Michel van Dijk of Inland Terminal-Van Berkel walks to a container that is somewhere at the bottom of the stack. It’s a refrigerated container. He points to a screen. “It is a constant 15 degrees in this container. There’s chocolate in it. Of course you don’t want it to melt.”
“This container has been there for more than two weeks.”
The container, probably full of Mars bars, would normally be gone within two days. “Now it has been there for more than two weeks.”
A container full of pig noses and ears has also been waiting for a while for its next destination. The frozen pig noses are a delicacy in China, but can’t get there. The situation in Veghel shows how the complex chain of world trade is currently completely bogged down.
This is why the containers cannot leave Veghel:
Sea-going vessels full of containers are waiting off the coast. But they cannot unload because there is no space in the port of Rotterdam. As a result, they cannot take containers from the port to make room again.
There are too few inland vessels to bring the containers to Rotterdam. This is because Germany needs a lot of coal for its energy supply now that there is less gas. In addition, grain is transported from Ukraine by inland vessel across the Danube instead of by container vessel across the Black Sea.
And then there is also the low water level on the rivers, which means that far fewer containers can be transported per ship.
It is also not possible to remove the containers with trucks. There is no access to trucks and drivers. In addition, you will still not be able to dispose of the container in Rotterdam.
“We are a transshipment location, not a storage location.”
As a result, the container terminal is completely full. The company has now taken two additional sites into use to temporarily store containers. “But we are a transshipment location, not a storage location,” says director Michel van Dijk. “Containers must pass as quickly as possible.”
He is constantly trying to get it done. But it’s not easy. “Normally we have eight ships sailing. That could easily be ten now, but I only have five. Yes, it is still possible to transport about 1,300 containers per week. But there comes a time when the space runs out and we can’t get rid of them anymore.”
And companies around Veghel can suffer from this. Their warehouses are filling up because the products cannot get out, which even puts production at risk. “There are already companies that are scaling down production.” Nevertheless, Van Dijk remains optimistic: “We are in logistics and we will probably find a gap somewhere to get it done.”