An impressive piece of technology recently stood in the port of Amsterdam: VCK Port Logistics’ All Weather Terminal 4 (AWT4). With an investment of €11 million, this is the largest covered transshipment facility of its kind in Europe. Thanks to the unique “one roof all weather concept,” weather-sensitive cargoes such as paper and steel can be transshipped dry under all conditions, without loss of quality or delay.

AWT4 is 106 meters long, 50 meters wide and 30 meters high. An overhead crane with 50-ton lifting capacity covers the entire 46.5-meter span. Clear headroom is 22.5 meters, with a guaranteed water depth of 8.5 meters. These facilities increase the covered transshipment capacity in Amsterdam by 1.5 to 2 million tons per year.

The structure consists of 800 tons of steel, including truss frames, columns, roof trusses, crane track girders and steel foundation piles up to 35 meters long. The steel was deliberately left in plain sight, which does full justice to its industrial character.