Maasvlakte

The Maasvlakte (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈmaːsˌflɑktə]) is part of Europoort, a harbour and industrial area near the city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

It was created in the 1960s by reclaiming land from the North Sea through dykes and sand suppletion. The sand for the suppletion was largely taken from the North Sea and the Lake of Oostvoorne. This lake was created by the construction of the Maasvlakte. Fossils were (and can still be) found in the sand.

Before the completion of the Maasvlakte it was a sandbank which was hazardous to shipping.

An expansion called "Second Maasvlakte" or Maasvlakte 2 was built between September 2008 and May 2013 by spaying sand on the bottom of the North Sea. This project extended the port of Rotterdam by about 2,000 hectares.

In 1973 EMO started as the first company at Maasvlakte. They are the biggest bulk terminal in western Europe and are located at the Mississippihaven. In 1989 Frans Swarttouw started building a deep water terminal at the Amazonhaven which, in 1990, was sold to EMO.

Deep-water access to Rotterdam allows the world's largest ore carriers to visit Rotterdam.

The Maasvlakte features various big companies and some smaller ones. Maersk, Europe Container Terminals (ECT), which is a member of the Hutchison Port Holdings group, and Euromax are three big container terminals located here. They can all accommodate the world's largest ships.

On the new Maasvlakte new container terminals will be built. Danish shipping group Maersk has an existing terminal on the original Maasvlakte and will build a new terminal on the second Maasvlakte. With this new terminal Maersk will invest approximately €100 million.

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