Being Europe’s second-largest seaport, situated 80km inland, the Port of Antwerp-Bruges (PoAB) is located in the provinces of Antwerp and East Flanders, and is the intersection of three TEN-T corridors: North Sea-Mediterranean, North Sea-Baltic and Rhine-Alpine. Its position allows regular and quick connections to a wide hinterland and their unique strategy is to be the largest integrated maritime, logistics and industrial platform in Europe with the ambition of becoming a sustainable port.
The diversity of PoAB’s integrated services provides a great context for innovation, stated by the multiple innovation communities in or near the port area. The port is also used as a physical innovation platform and is the house of the largest onshore wind park in Belgium. Evolving and looking for the most efficient and green practices is a challenge for PoAB, and it is crucial to listen and to involve the community in those actions, in order to optimize processes.
Port of Barcelona
Located in Catalonia, Spain, the Port of Barcelona (PoB) is an influencer on the south and centre of Europe and North Africa and a logistic gateway that links markets as the far East and Latin America. The PoB represents an important node in the Mediterranean TEN-T corridor and is the world’s fourth-largest turnaround port. Their strategy consists of generating prosperity in its community, increasing competitiveness by providing efficient and sustainable logistics and transport services and becoming a leader in their sector following the European Green Deal objectives and visions.
Together, the port and its terminal operators take decisive steps towards energy transition, stated by the innovation ecosystem within the port and their development of renewable energy strategies that enable the generation of electricity and its subsequent exploitation.
Port of Constanta
The Port of Constanta (PoC), located in Constanta, Romania, is the 17th largest port in Europe and its road and rail connections with all major transport routes in the country constitute an important differentiation factor. By offering the shortest transport alternative to the centre of Europe, the PoC aims to encourage the cargo traffic and transform the port into an important transit centre as well as becoming a regional distributor centre leader for its hinterland.
By aiming to gradually switch to cleaner sources of energy, it’s crucial that the Port of Constanta implements continuous developments to their infrastructure. Additionally, the well-known and stable routes between the terminals and the inland depots represent an opportunity to implement autonomous and electrified vehicles.
Port Venlo
Located along one of the most important European freight corridors – the TEN-T Rhine-Alpine and North Sea-Mediterranean route –, the Port of Venlo plays a major role as a hub in the hinterland connections of the Rotterdam and Antwerp ports. By having a strong collaboration and cooperation at the port, Venlo aims to create more innovations and solutions in order to achieve the European Green Deal objectives and increase the added value of the port.
The port’s strategic location at the junction of different modalities represents an opportunity for tri-modality (road, rail, or water) and synchro-modality. The Port of Venlo ambitions to better facilitate or accommodate the incoming goods flows in the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp through cooperation within the hinterland as a network.