Rotterdam artists rendition


The first big event of the year will be the February rollout of the world’s first fully automated container terminal in Rotterdam, which threatens to unleash a rate war across the Le Havre-Hamburg range as carriers leverage the added capacity to beat down handling charges.

Europe’s ports face a rocky ride in 2015, dominated by a potential glut of container-handling capacity in the north that will only be partially offset by steadily rising transshipment traffic in the Mediterranean.

The leading hubs, mainly in Northwest Europe, also will have to deal with the accelerating influx of giant vessels capable of carrying 19,000 20-foot-equivalent units that regularly will load and unload as many as 7,000 containers on a single call.

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