When presenting the Port of Rotterdam's annual results for 2012, the Port of Rotterdam Authority's CEO Hans Smits had to grant that the port is leading as liquid bulk hub, but that so far throughput of LNG is next to nothing. "As it is, LNG is relatively expensive," he said. Throughput of mineral oil products rose by 12.1 per cent over the year to 82.3m tonnes and liquid bulk as a whole was up 7.7 per cent at 213.8m tonnes. Throughput of LNG, on the other hand, was flat at 560,000 tonnes. Smits knows why: "Trade of oil products shows differences in rates for bunker oil in Europe and Asia. It is rewarding to ship Russian bunker oil from Rotterdam to the Far East. Import of LNG, however, was virtually nil. It is shipped straight away to Japan, because of the high demand in that country. This can alter when Japan returns to nuclear energy, which is uncertain."
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