The Port of Rotterdam, overall, is to expand its coal handling capacity, as demand in Europe continues to increase. The port already handles 60% of seaborne coal entering Europe and will handle around 27mt (million tonnes) of the product this year, compared to 24mt in 2010. As a reaction, €50 million is being invested to up coal capacity to 42mt by 2018, which is when Germany is scheduled to close its eight remaining coal mines. In addition, Germany is shutting many of its nuclear power plants in the near future and will be wholly dependent on other fuels by 2022.
In 2010, the largest coal terminal in the port, EMO, boosted capacity by 25ha. The other two coal terminals will also grow in size in 2011 to enable Rotterdam to have an additional 47ha of space given over to this product.