South Holland

Photo : D.R.

South Holland Province’s economy largely focuses on its two main cities, The Hague and Rotterdam. The first is known above all for playing host to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC). The second has an even greater economic impact on the region thanks to the Port of Rotterdam, Europe’s largest sea port and the world’s third biggest after Shanghai and Singapore.
Made up of a dozen “small” ports, the Port of Rotterdam is over 40 km long, contains an immense (11,000 ha) industrial zone, and employs, either directly or indirectly, over 80,000 people. It is thanks to the port’s activities that the province is ranked first amongst Europe’s regions, just as it was in 2005, in terms of freight transport, with over 400 million tonnes of merchandise loaded and unloaded in 2008, far ahead of Antwerp (Belgium). Rotterdam benefits from a advantageous geographical position. Located in the delta of 3 major rivers – the Escaut, the Meuse, and the Rhine – it provides direct access to the North Sea, one of the busiest maritime freight seaways in the world. The province’s hinterland, which stretches as far as Germany, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy, opens onto a market of over 400 million consumers. Yet the port’s management seems relatively pessimistic as far as 2009 is concerned.
Rotterdam, which last year tranship-ped over 100 million tonnes of crude oil, is facing a 5% decline in the sector. Meanwhile, the transhipping of chemical products should remain stable. According to an official port authority press release dated 30 December 2008, “the British, Irish and Icelandic economies began to slow down early and this has impacted inter-European freight transport (…). The negative factors described will probably continue to have an influence in 2009.”
Nevertheless, the Port of Rotterdam should have no trouble holding on to its dominant position. The Maasvlatke 2, a new terminal on the Meuse Plain, which is bound to give the local economy a second wind, is set for completion in 2013. 

Population: 3 461 435
Surface area: 3 418 km2
Maritime freight: 388 486 (Total goods loaded and unloaded in thousands of tons in 2008)