Observers said the new facility would further ease the congestion which has troubled Rotterdam's feeder and inland traffic movement in recent years.

The port is ploughing 15m into building a new 410m quayside for the RCT, which will have a capacity of at least 500,000 TEUs a year and will accommodate ships drawing up to 10m.

The RCT is the second terminal with feeder and inland traffic handling capability to be announced in Rotterdam this year. In Spring, Rotterdam said it was joining hands with big terminal owner ECT to build the Delta Barge Feeder Terminal (DBF), also at Maasvlakte.

The DFB will have a quay of 800m on nearly 11m of water and cover some 7 hectares. Total investment is about 145m, of which a third is for quays and other infrastructure. The DFB could be ready in 2008.

Explaining the reasoning behind the new feeder and waterway terminals, the PoR has said that container volumes are growing so fast that quays are needed for deep-sea vessels.

The DBF and now the RCT will offer inland and feeder ships more flexibility while deepsea vessels will get more time on deepsea quays. As far as the DBF alone was concerned, that had resulted in a gain of capacity for existing terminals of almost 900,000 TEUs, the PoR said.

Total capacity for ocean going containers on the Maasvlakte site is tipped to double by 2012 to about 12m TEUs.