The partners expect the Rhine hub to be handling more than 100,000 TEU within two years, fed by rail, road and waterway. D3T 'is the shipping industry’s response to the challenge of fast growing cargo flows and increasing congestion at sea ports', a statement said.

The new terminal is 450m long with quayside along its entire length and 120m wide. Water depths vary seasonally from several metres to less than a metre but the terminal is flood free. It features four rail/road tracks, each of half train length, on a total surface area of 37,500 m2.

Equipment includes the world’s largest inland container gantry crane, from German builder Hans Künz, which has already supplied three similar cranes to other Duisburg port facilities.

The D3T crane, which is also used by the adjacent Duisburg Intermodal Terminal (DIT,) has a track width of 57m and a track length of 137m. With a spreader lifting capacity of 40 tons, a lifting height of 18m and maximum crane height of 36.7m, the new unit has an outreach of 36m.

Firms involved in the removal of a former Krupp steel plant on the site as well as in ground preparation, harbour basin expansion and terminal construction between the middle of last year and March this year were Fonteyne, Tief- und Straßenbau, Oehm, Schreck-Mieves and GBM Gleisbau Maas.

Duisport spokesman Tobias Metten told MJ the old Krupp Harbour was dredged and de-silted before the new quayside was built, faced with sheet piling and capable of carrying the weight of container cranes.

By Tom Todd