The Maasvlakte is part of Europoort, a harbour and industrial area near the city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
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It was created in the 1960s by reclaiming land from the North Sea through dykes and sand suppletion. The sand for the suppletion was largely taken from the North Sea and the Lake of Oostvoorne. This lake was created by the construction of the Maasvlakte. Fossils were (and can still be) found in the sand.
Before the completion of the Maasvlakte it was a sandbank which was hazardous to shipping.
In 1973 EMO[1] started as first company at Maasvlakte, they are the biggest bulk terminal in western Europe located at the Mississippi-haven. In 1989 Frans Swarttouw start building a deepwaterterminal at the Amazonehaven in 1990 it was sold to EMO.
The Maasvlakte features various big companies and some smaller ones. Maersk, Europe Container Terminals (ECT) [a member of the Hutchison Port Holdings group (HPH)] and Euromax are three big container terminals located here. They can all accommodate the world's largest ships.
A special section has been reserved for big distribution centres, the Rotterdam Distribution Centre. The biggest are by the Reebok, DHL and Kloosterboer[2] companies. The Reebok Distribution Centre takes care of the distribution of shoes and apparel for entire Europe. Kloosterboer stores mostly fries from the nearby Farm Frites company.
On one side of the Maasvlakte is the Slufter.[3] Inside the Slufter, a very deep pit shielded from the surrounding areas, toxic waste and polluted sand is stored. When it is filled it will be covered and left there. It was expected to be fully filled around the year 2000, but by now it is only about 50% filled.
A power plant located in the area is run by the E.ON company.
There are direct train lines with entire Europe, mostly Germany.[4] Also the rivers Rhine and Maas enter the sea next to it. This creates good connections using smaller river ships. The highway A15 which runs right into Germany ends on the Maasvlakte as well. The Maasvlakte is also the starting point of the Betuweroute freight railway to Germany.
Maasvlakte is in 2010 and 2011 extended with Maasvlakte 2. Maasvlakte 2 will cover 1000 hectares net of industrial sites, located directly on deep water.