In the month of March, the port of Rotterdam was the first port in Europe to handle 1 million containers in a month. The record was reached in the evening of the last day of March on the Ital Oriente. In total, 47 vessels were loaded and unloaded on that day: a total of nearly 50,000 TEU.

The Port of Rotterdam Authority is marking March’s milestone by donating an amount of money to the Red Cross in aid of the victims of the tsunami. Hans Smits, CEO of the Port Authority, handed over the symbolic cheque to Jeroen den Tex, the marketing director of the Netherlands Red Cross. This took place in the presence of representatives of the three big Japanese shipping companies: Grant Maclachlan (managing director of MOL), Paul Erftemeijer (managing director Benelux for NYK) and Masahiro Takahashi (senior executive for Japanese customer management for NYK), Fer Penders (managing director of ‘K’-line) and Mr. Sato (general sales manager for Europe for ‘K’-Line).

The ceremony took place next to a special container on the Holland-Amerika kade near the World Port Center.