Port of Rotterdam to Raise Tariffs in 2016

The tariffs which visiting sea-going vessels pay in the port of Rotterdam will increase by 0.5% next year, half of the past year’s inflation rate, Rotterdam Port Authority said.

This is in accordance with the three-year agreement made last year between Deltalinqs, VRC, VNPI and the Port Authority on changes to the port tariffs.

At the time, the parties agreed to allow an increase in tariffs equal to half of the inflation rate, with a maximum of 1% per annum, for a period of three years.

In the container sector, the Port Authority said it would increase the discount for containers as it aims to increase the number of transhipment containers at the port.

The port tariff for such a container is about €8 on average. The current discount of €2.50 will be increased to €3.75 in 2016 per deepsea container. For feeder containers, the existing transhipment discount of €2.50 per container will remain in place for the coming two years.

The tariff discounts for deepsea container vessels (sailing between continents) that visit the port for the second time, which equals to 25% of the normal rate, will remain in place, the ports said. This encourages the largest, heavily laden container vessels arriving in Northwest Europe to first call at Rotterdam to unload part of their cargo, then dock in a few other ports before returning to Rotterdam on their way back to Asia, so that they can leave Europe fully laden.

In conformity with the three-year agreement made with the VNPI, the tariff for tankers carrying crude oil will remain 1.5% below inflation again in 2016. This means a 0.5% fall in the tariff in 2016.

The existing discount for clean ships, the Environmental Ship Index (ESI), will be continued. Ships which score 31 points on the index receive a 10% discount on the ship section of the port tariff. This discount is doubled if ships have relatively low nitrogen emissions.

As with the sea port tariffs, the port authority has agreed that in 2016 the inland port tariffs will be linked to the inflation index, at half the inflation rate, up to a maximum of 1% per annum.