A total of €20 million is to be spent on expanding coal handling capacity at the Europoort terminal in Rotterdam, which is managed by EECV. This will involve boosting storage capacity by 50% and increasing transshipment of coking coal by around a third by 2013. According to EECV, this revamp of its terminal is a reaction to the decision to reduce the amount of coal mined in Germany by 2018.
EECV parent company,ThyssenKrupp, currently imports 25mt (million tonnes) of iron ore and 5mt of coking coal annually, of which 90% goes through EECV. The majority of the iron ore is inbound from Brazil, while 50% of the coal is sourced in North America and much of the rest from Australia.