After just over 50 years of conducting its own logistics operations in Rotterdam, SCA Logistics sold the business in 2019 to Dutch company Matrans Holdings B.V. SCA Logistics has now signed an agreement with the same company to maintain a continued long-term presence in Rotterdam.
The Port of Rotterdam was long the largest in the world. Today, it is the second largest but, with its strategic location on the Meuse and Rhine rivers offering easy access to large swathes of inland Europe, it remains the largest on the Continent.
SCA built its first terminal in this busy hub of European shipping in 1967, primarily to handle forest products but later expanded to accept general cargo and containers.
Fifty years later, in conjunction with the expansion of its terminals in northern Sweden, SCA chose to sell its Rotterdam terminal and instead buy the necessary services. The terminal was acquired by Matrans Holding B.V., already well-established in its own adjacent area of the port.
– "Since then, we have grown on all fronts", says Peter Barnhoorn, Managing Director of Logistics at Matrans, “with more cargo, more efficient handling and new warehousing. We handle larger vessels, have more cranes and a new IT system. We convey just over 200,000 TEU of containers and 3 million tonnes of general cargo from all over the world.”
When SCA began the procurement process for terminal services to secure a continued presence in Rotterdam, important factors included warehouse area, cost-efficiency, loading and unloading, IT maturity and smooth onward transport to customers around Europe and worldwide.
– “It is vital to ensure that levels of quality and service correspond to our own and our customers wishes,” says Nils-Johan Haraldsson, Vice President Marketing and Business Development at SCA Logistics, “and that there is potential for further growth.”
Given Matrans stated ambition to become an ever larger and more efficient stakeholder in the terminal flora of the Port of Rotterdam, and with the company having retained its expertise in handling forest products, an agreement has now been reached with SCA for a long-term collaboration.
– “SCA will thus remain in the Port of Rotterdam, where we have had a presence for over half a century,” affirms Nils-Johan Haraldsson. “Not only that, but we will do so in some of the same premises where we once conducted our own logistical operations.”
Text: Mats Wigardt