Belgian logistics group H.Essers has opened a €75m ($86.5m) inland container terminal in Bergen op Zoom with annual capacity of 325,000 TEU, according to H.Essers.
The Markiezaat Container Terminal is located on the Scheldt-Rhine Canal between the port of Antwerp-Bruges and the port of Rotterdam. It replaces H.Essers’ older inland terminal in Bergen op Zoom and is designed for larger inland vessels with 24-hour access.
The terminal has a 350-metre quay, 6.5 ha of terminal area and storage capacity for 2,500 containers, including refrigerated units and ADR cargo.
H.Essers is also adding 40,000 sq m of warehouse capacity, increasing its Bergen op Zoom footprint to about 200,000 sq m.
The company plans two daily inland waterway connections from the terminal to both Rotterdam and Antwerp. The terminal is expected to create 150 direct jobs and 300 indirect jobs. H.Essers said the shift to inland shipping should remove about 260 truck movements a day from roads in and around Bergen op Zoom.
The site includes zero-emission gantry cranes, 19,000 solar panels and shore power for inland vessels, allowing ships at berth to switch off diesel generators. “The modal shift to inland shipping should lead to a daily reduction of around 260 truck movements in the region,” H.Essers chief executive Gert Bervoets said.
“We are investing €75m here today in the terminal on the one hand and the logistics warehouses that we are additionally developing on this site on the other,” said Carlo Theunissen, H.Essers’ chief operating officer for warehousing.
H.Essers is a privately held Belgian family logistics group headquartered in Genk. Founded in 1928 by Henri Essers, the company provides transport, warehousing and value-added logistics services across sectors including chemicals, healthcare, pharma, infrastructure and parts.