Maasvlakte 3.38

The Maasvlakte is part of Europoort, a harbour and industrial area near the city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.CreationIt 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 spraying sand on the bottom of the North Sea. This project extended the port of Rotterdam by about 2,000 hectares.SectionsBulk HandlingIn 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.Container terminalsThe 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.