Throughput figures for the port of Rotterdam continue to show strong growth. In the first 9 months of this year, 277 million tonnes of cargo were handled, 4% more than in the same period of 2004. Growth is above the prognosis for this year as well as the expectations for the longer term, of 2–3 %. Container handling is doing even better with +14%. In weight, container handling went up from 61 million tonnes in 2004 to 68 million tonnes (+12%).Expressed in TEU (container units of 20 foot), this equals 6.9 million, a plus of 14% or 800,000 TEU. The relative large difference between TEU’s and tonnes, indicates that the number of empties rose with over twenty percent.