Europe
In Europe the main hub of short sea shipping is Rotterdam, also the largest European port, with Antwerp as a second. The Dutch play an important role in this. They have also developed a hybrid vessel, allowed to navigate the sea as well as the Rhine into the Ruhrgebiet. The Dutch and Belgian main waterways (Maas, Waal, Amsterdam-Rhine Canal, Scheldt) locks and bridges are built accordingly. Because of congestion in the larger ports, a number of smaller (container)ports have been developed, and the same goes for the Rhine-ports such as Duisburg and Dortmund in Germany. The ports of Hamburg, Felixstowe (now the largest port in the UK), Le Havre also play major roles.
In Holland the sector has seen rapid growth, aided by a tax enabled investment scheme. The traditional region for building coasters is the province of Groningen, where most wharfs have side-laying ship slides. The major trend is to have bare hulls cheaply made in Poland or Rumania and build them off in Holland.
Read more about this topic: Short Sea Shipping
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