Third and fourth party logistics as the next growth pole in Rotterdam

Rotterdam has been the biggest and most important port in Europe for centuries now. The oil and chemical industries and later container transshipment have brought economic growth to the regional economy as well as creating a large share of the employment. However, the recent events of the economic crisis and the maturity of container transshipment has meant that the port industry cluster has started declining, and expansion of the Rotterdam region slowed down. Moreover, increasing congestion and inefficiency of the distribution channels in the Rotterdam hinterland has meant that the ports traditional activities can no longer be a growth pole for the regional economy. The Rotterdam Municipality has identified several clusters and by stimulating their development, it aims at reducing the gap in employment between the Netherlands and the Rotterdam region while also fostering economic growth. This work provides a framework for the analysis of these clusters while also giving a short overview of a number of the possible solutions. A further statistical analysis is strongly recommended to the future researchers.