Family-owned Lagendijk has built a barge to shore crane for the BCTN inland barge terminal in Alblasserdam, east of Rotterdam. BCTN is part of the Inland Terminal Group (ITG).

Lagendijk is based in Wemeldinge in the province of Zeeland. The barge crane is a widespan design, the first the company has built, with a 27.5m outreach, 40m railspan and 13.5m backreach. Lifting capacity is 36t under the spreader and 48t under the hook. The crane was supplied with two Stinis gantry spreaders (type VATCII-G), one of which will be used with the BCTN’s existing crane.

The crane had a 1.5 year lead time and is now under commissioning following suc- cessful load tests in early May.

Speaking to WorldCargo News Lagendijk director Peter Lagendijk said the company decided to enter the cargo handling equip- ment sector in 2019 “on the basis of our experience in cranes for the offshore indus- try and in steel structures for the dredging industry.” The initial design was developed in-house and then refined with the aid of Dutch steel construction engineering spe- cialists Iv-Consult, with additional input from ITG.

Lagendijk’s offering includes STS cranes, RMGs, RTGs and special equipment such as mobile material handling cranes. The com- pany has no further orders at this point, but Peter Lagendijk is highly optimistic that having BCTN and ITG as its first customers will serve as a significant reference in the Benelux and German inland container ter- minal market.

For its part, ITG is happy to see another crane OEM step forward. “We felt that there weren’t too many vendors on the market”, ITG’s Willem van der Ark and purchasing manager Nick Koekkoek commented.

With the purchase of the new barge crane BCTN has doubled its quayside transhipment capacity. The terminal is now capable of handling two barges at the same time, producing about 40 berth moves per hour.

Improving terminal flexibility and achieving faster barge turnaround times at Alblasserdam were the key motives for the expansion. Initially, the terminal’s maximum capacity will remain at the current 140,000 TEU per annum, although future stack expansion is being considered.

The business model for the Alblasserdam terminal is largely based on the hub concept, where both import and export boxes are barged to and from the Maasvlakte deepsea container terminals. This saves trucks making the congested trip of fifty kilometres or longer through the Rotterdam port area. As a member of the Inland Terminal Group (ITG) Alblasserdam is well placed to tap into the company’s wider network to grow this business.

ITG was established by sole shareholders Infracapital – the infrastructure equity investment arm of M&G Plc – after it had acquired BCTN from Alinda Capital Partners LLC in June 2021.

The network continues to grow. BCTN, with a total of eleven terminals, has since been joined by inland terminal and barge shipping groups MCS and CTT, both in the north and east of the Netherlands. CTT was acquired in April 2024 and boosted ITG’s inland contain- er terminal network in Belgium and the Netherlands to 17. The combined quayside production of the 17 terminals has reached around 2.2m TEU, ITG’s COO Willem van der Ark said.

Family-owned Lagendijk has built a barge to shore crane for the BCTN inland barge terminal in Alblasserdam, east of Rotterdam. BCTN is part of the Inland Terminal Group (ITG).

Lagendijk is based in Wemeldinge in the province of Zeeland. The barge crane is a widespan design, the first the company has built, with a 27.5m outreach, 40m railspan and 13.5m backreach. Lifting capacity is 36t under the spreader and 48t under the hook. The crane was supplied with two Stinis gantry spreaders (type VATCII-G), one of which will be used with the BCTN’s existing crane.

The crane had a 1.5 year lead time and is now under commissioning following suc- cessful load tests in early May.

Speaking to WorldCargo News Lagendijk director Peter Lagendijk said the company decided to enter the cargo handling equip- ment sector in 2019 “on the basis of our experience in cranes for the offshore indus- try and in steel structures for the dredging industry.” The initial design was developed in-house and then refined with the aid of Dutch steel construction engineering spe- cialists Iv-Consult, with additional input from ITG.

Lagendijk’s offering includes STS cranes, RMGs, RTGs and special equipment such as mobile material handling cranes. The com- pany has no further orders at this point, but Peter Lagendijk is highly optimistic that having BCTN and ITG as its first customers will serve as a significant reference in the Benelux and German inland container ter- minal market.

For its part, ITG is happy to see another crane OEM step forward. “We felt that there weren’t too many vendors on the market”, ITG’s Willem van der Ark and purchasing manager Nick Koekkoek commented.

With the purchase of the new barge crane BCTN has doubled its quayside transhipment capacity. The terminal is now capable of handling two barges at the same time, producing about 40 berth moves per hour.

Improving terminal flexibility and achieving faster barge turnaround times at Alblasserdam were the key motives for the expansion. Initially, the terminal’s maximum capacity will remain at the current 140,000 TEU per annum, although future stack expansion is being considered.

The business model for the Alblasserdam terminal is largely based on the hub concept, where both import and export boxes are barged to and from the Maasvlakte deepsea container terminals. This saves trucks making the congested trip of fifty kilometres or longer through the Rotterdam port area. As a member of the Inland Terminal Group (ITG) Alblasserdam is well placed to tap into the company’s wider network to grow this business.

ITG was established by sole shareholders Infracapital – the infrastructure equity investment arm of M&G Plc – after it had acquired BCTN from Alinda Capital Partners LLC in June 2021.

The network continues to grow. BCTN, with a total of eleven terminals, has since been joined by inland terminal and barge shipping groups MCS and CTT, both in the north and east of the Netherlands. CTT was acquired in April 2024 and boosted ITG’s inland contain- er terminal network in Belgium and the Netherlands to 17. The combined quayside production of the 17 terminals has reached around 2.2m TEU, ITG’s COO Willem van der Ark said.