Rotterdam strong candidate in the race to become maritime capital of Europe

Norwegian research institute Menon has conducted a large survey on worldwide maritime capitals. In the third edition of The Leading Maritime Capitals report the 15 leading maritime city regions around the world are benchmarked for four maritime sectors: shipping, finance and law, technology and ports & logistics. This ranking is combined with an overall assessment of the cities’ attractiveness and competitiveness.

The uncontested world leader remains Singapore. Singapore is in a top-5 position within all the five pillars of this study and has increased its focus on R&D developments within the industry over the last few years. Singapore has also been able to develop a world-leading service industry that is less influenced by business cycles according to the Menon researchers.Rotterdam is currently at place six. This is an improvement over the position it held before. It is however stated in this independent report that the race to be the leading city in Europe is still open. Rotterdam is together with Hamburg, Oslo, and London the leading contender in this regional race.

Rotterdam scores very strong on several indicators. Rotterdam ranks number 2 when it comes to the value of the loans are allocated to banks who function as the lead arranger or the bookrunner. The value is allocated to cities based on banks’ functional maritime headquarters. When it comes to legal expertise Rotterdam scores a nice sixth position on the list. The ultimate strongpoint of Rotterdam is the close link to a very well performing port and logistics sector. Rotterdam has a unique combination of being a business centre and having a world class port, the biggest port in Europe.

RMSC is very happy with the results and continues, with all relevant parties, to further stimulate the position of Rotterdam as maritime capital for Europe.