Sea-river shipping

C E N T R E H O L L A N DS H O RT S E A P R O M O T I O N

The main advantage of sea-river shipping is itsunique market range. Sea-river vessels canconnect the hinterland with overseas destinationswithout the need for intermediate transhipment.This results in lower transport costs and areduced risk of damage caused by additionalhandling. Minimum total load for transportation is about a1,000 tons. However, since separate holds enablesea-river vessels to carry various types of cargo atthe same time, there is tremendous flexibility inhow the total can be made up. There is also theadded benefit of floating stock - reducing theneed for storage in the company's silo orwarehouse. And finally, apart from being cheaper,transportation by water is also environmentallyfriendly.

The advantages

Sea-river shipping is one of the forms of

shortsea transport. Its concept is simple:

one vessel, sailing both coastal and inland

waters. Sea-river vessels share certain

specifications such as draught, height and

length, relating to the navigational

restrictions of rivers and canals. Sea-river

vessels do not normally exceed 3,000 dwt,

with draughts limited to 5 m and bridge

clearance to 9 m. They generally carry

conventional and bulk loads, although

container transport is now on the increase.

Sailing into Europe

➔

Portugal

lengthwidthdraughtair draughttonnage*

87 m11.4 m3.9 m7.5 m2000/2500

Douro till Sardouro

The European sea-river fleet (Eastern Europe notincluded) comprises about 400 vessels at anaverage deadweight capacity of 2,000 dwt. The Dutch fleet, currently about 80 vessels, issteadily growing.

Sea-river shipping in Europe

➔

➔

lengthwidthdraughtair draughttonnage*

135 m12 m3 m6.8 m1000/1500

The Netherlands

MEUSEDU

T

E

ALBERTKANAAL

MA

ASA

U R

HIN

Tilburg

Eindhoven

He

Den Bosch

N

ES)

Breda

MG

Maastricht

Charleroi

Turnhout

Genk

Hasselt

sendaal

G I U M

Born

B R A B A N T

LIM-BURG

E N

ANTWERPEN

VLAAMS

BRABANT

T

LIMBURG

Antwerpen

Delft

ALBERTKANAAL

MA

AS

BERGSE

MAAS

RIJN IJSSE

L

RHEIN

LEK

AU

RH

IN

Leiden

ue

Tilburg

Eindhoven

Enschede

Heerlen

Apeldoorn

Aachen

Oberhausen

Dordrecht

terdam

Gorinchem

Utrecht Amersfoort

Den Bosch

Arnhem

Emmerich

Breda

Duisburg

Krefeld D sseldor

Ess

M nchenGladbach

MaastrichtK ln

S

Turnhout

Genk

Hasselt

Gouda

NETHERLANDS

G I U M

Born

ZUID-

HOLLAND

O V E R I J S S E L

GELDER-

LAND

UTRECHT

N O O R D -

B R A B A N T

LIM-BURG

N O

W

ANTWERPEN

VLAAMS

BRABANT

LIMBURG

Venlo

Antwerpen

Nijmegen

135 m12 m3 m6.15 m1000/1500

Maas Juliana Canal

lengthwidthdraughtair draughttonnage

134 m12.5 m3.4 m6.7 m1500/2000

Albert Canal

United Kingdom

lengthwidthdraughtair draughttonnage*

110 m24.5 m5.5 mn.v.t.3000/4000

Humber till Goole

Stockton on Tees

YorkHull

Doncaster

Leeds

Nottingham

Middlesborough

Huddersfield

port

Derbynt

King’s Lynn

Mansfield

ate

S

OUSE

TRENT

HUMBER

LINCOLN

SHIRE

YORKSHIRE

N

FORD

DERBYSHIRE

Sheffield

Goole

Belgium

SCHELDE

nt

BRUSSEL

E L G I

O O S T -

A N D E R E N

ANTWERP

VLAAM

BRABA

Antwerpen

Puurs

lengthwidthdraughtair draughttonnage*

240 m24 m8.80 m44 m10000

Zeekanaal: Schelde till Ruisbroek -Puurs

lengthwidthdraughtair draughttonnage*

200 m23 m5.80 m33.4 m4500

Zeekanaal: Ruisbroek till Brussel (Voorhaven)

Germany

NNES

RH

EIN

MOSE

L

MEU

SE

C

AIS

NE

MEUSE

ALBERTKANAAL

MA

AS

BERGSE

MAAS RHEIN

SA

AR

AU

RH

IN

RH

EIN

Tilburg

Eindhoven

Heerlen

Li ge

Bastogne

Trier

Wiesbaden

Aachen

Koblenz

Oberhausen

M nster

Den Bosch

Nijmegen Emmerich

Namur

S)

Breda

Duisburg

Krefeld D sseldorf

Essen

M nchenGladbach

Maastricht

LUXEMBOURG

K ln

Solingen

Wuppertal

Bochum

Kaiserslautern

L d i h f

Mannheim

Darmstadt

Gernsheim

Worms

Mainz

Frankfurtam Main

Hagen

Dortmund

Hamm

Charleroi

Turnhout

Genk

Hasselt

Arlon

Thionville

daal

Venlo

G E R M A N Y

G I U M

LUXEMBOURG

Born

DN O O R D -

B R A B A N T

LIM-BURG

N O R D R H E I N -

W E S T F A L E N

R H E I N L A N D - P F A L Z

N

ANTWERPEN

VLAAMS

BRABANT

A M U R

L U X E M B O U R G

LIMBURG

L I È G E

P A G N E -

Antwerpen

Bonn

RH

EIN

MOSE

L

SA

AR

Trier

Wiesbaden

Koblenz

G

Saarbr cken

Kaiserslautern

Ludwigshafen

Germersheim

Mannheim

Heidelberg

Karlsruhe

Darmstadt

Gernsheim

Worms

Mainz

Frankfurtam Main

R H E I N L A N D - P F A L Z

SAARLAND

A L S A C EN E

lengthwidthdraughtair draughttonnage*

110 m11.4 m2.5 m6.8 m1000/1500

110 m14 m2.5 m8.3 m1000/1500

Upper Rhine Central Rhine Lower Rhine135 m22.4 m3.5 m9.1 m2000/4000

Ovar

Vila Real

Viana do Castelo

Braga

Porto (Leixoes)Villa Nova de Gaia

ViseuAveiro

P voa de Varzim Guimar es

Matosinhos

D O U R O

M I N H O

B E I R A

D O U R O

possibilities sea-

Sweden

lengthwidthdraughtair draughttonnage*

88 m13.2 m5.4 m27 m3000/4000

Trollhättan Canal

LA

GA

N

ERAK

KATTE

Karlstad

MariestadL

JönköpBorås

Uddevalla

Varberg

Halmstad

GÖTEBORG& BOHUS

Ä LV S

B O R G

SKARABORG

ÖSTER

HALLAND

JÖNKÖ

K

Göteborg

Vänersborg Sweden

lengthwidthdraughtair draughttonnage*

135 m19.6 m7.5 m41 m9000

Mälären Lake(Väsateras, Södertälje, Köping)B A

Gävle

Falun

dvikaAvesta

SalaUppsala

Västerås Stockholm

EskilstunaÖrebro

arlskoga

tadNyköping

Norrköping

Linköping Visby

GÄVLEBORG

D

EBRO

VÄSTMANLAND

UPPSALA STOCKHOLM

SKARA

ÖSTERGÖTTLAND

RG

135 m11.4 m3 m5.1 m1000/1500

Finland

lengthwidthdraughtair draughttonnage*

82 m11.8 m4.3 m24.5 m2000/2500

Saima Canal

France

lengthwidthdraughtair draughttonnage*

Seine till Gennevilliers (Paris)

Douai

Dunkerque

RoubaixBoulogne

Calais

LilleBéthune

Arras Valencie

Brusse(Bruxel

Amiens St. Quenti

CompiègneRouenLe Havre

Dieppe

en

Versailles

R

T

B E L G

PAS-DE-CALAIS

P I C A R D I E

O R M A N D I E

CHA

ARILE-DE-FRANCE

SEINEMARNE

H A N N E L

Paris

France

lengthwidthdraughtair draughttonnage*

135 m11.4 m3 m6.2 m1000/1500

Rhône Saône

G O L F E

rmont-rand

St. Etienne

Lyon

Grenoble

Annecy

Valence

Sète

Montpellier

NimesAvignon

Aix en Provence

MarseilleToulon

Mon

I

QUEDOC

E R G N ER H Ô N E -

A L P E S

RHÔNE

RH

ÔN

E

E

P R O V E N C E - A L P E S

C Ô T E D ’ A Z U R

* dependent of the water-level

120 m15.5 m3.5 m8.7 m1500/2000

-river shipping

Y M I

A

a

Karhula

Lappeenranta

Imatra

Mikkeli

St. Pe

Vyborg

F F I N L A N D

Sea-river vessels carry mainlybulk loads such as coal, grain,raw building materials andfertilizer. They also carry neo-bulk loads such as steel, steelproducts, sawn timber andpaper, and are used forcontainer transportation. The two major users of sea-river shipping are the Germansteel industry, which isconcentrated in the Ruhr area,and the Swedish and Finnishtimber industries. These regionsof origin are determining thepredominant transport patternin this market. Steel productsflow downstream on the Rhine,while Scandinavian timber andpaper products go upstream,both destined for all parts ofEurope. Transportation of bulkproducts such as grain and ore,in the form of return loads fromthe Ruhr area and to Scan-dinavia, is also considerable.

Type of load

Although sea-river transporthas been a forgotten marketsegment for some time, wehave recently been witnessingrenewed and considerableinvestment in this area, withvarious (Dutch) shippingcompanies placing orders fornew sea-river ships. Newtechnology hasresulted in increasedbridge clearanceand lower draughtdevelopments,which have made agrowing number ofEuropean inland destinationsmore easily accessible.Trends in shipbuildingoften lead to biggervessels, but thiswould be counter-productive for thistype of coastalshipping as increasedsize would almost certainlyresult in a decrease in shippingreach. The new generation ofsea-river vessels is also smallerby tonnage. An example of anew type of sea-river vessel isprinted on the back, showing avessel measuring 80 metres inlength, 6.3 metres in height and1,700 dwt in tonnage, all atjust 3.4 metres draught.Moreover, its box-shaped holdmakes it suitable for all typesof load, including containers.

Future

➔

➔

This brochure contains anoverview of sea-river shippingoptions within Europe.Although there are othershipping options apart from thecanals and rivers indicated,these are only navigable by asmall number of special sea-river vessels.The Humber in England and theTrollhattan canal in Sweden arealso navigable, either full-length or in part, by conven-tional coaster. So is the Neneriver and a few ports close toits estuary. Although Russia hasmany rivers allowing navigationby sea-river vessels, this is atpresent restricted to vesselsunder the Russian flag.

With its abundance of water-ways, our country theNetherlands has a number ofrivers and canals such as theRhine, Maas and IJssel riversand the Amsterdam-Rijnkanaal,all of which are accessible tosea-river vessels. However, theexistence of navigable water-ways is not enough in itself:loading and unloadingterminals are also required.For this reason, thedevelopment of so-called ROCs(Dutch for RegionalTranshipment Centres) isimportant. Already there areROCs in Kampen, Heijen, Steinand Oss, mainly for containerloading and unloadingpurposes, but also for handlingsea-river vessels withconventional loads.

Geographic reach

➔

Shortsea Promotion Centre Holland ■ P.O. Box 938 ■ 3160 AC Rhoon ■ The Netherlands ■ Tel: +31 10 5061931 ■ Fax: +31 10 5061935 ■ www.shortsea.nl ■ E-mail: shortsea@shortsea.nl

C E N T R E H O L L A N DS H O RT S E A P R O M O T I O N