Network and ports | Halifax Holland Line

Map of the North Atlantic showing the route between Halifax, Nova Scotia and Rotterdam, the Netherlands

3,854 nautical miles by sea · about 11 days port to port

3854Nautical miles, Halifax to Rotterdam

11Days port to port, eastbound

1Weekly departure in each direction

14.2mTEU through Rotterdam in 2025

Distance and throughput figures are sourced on the sources page.

How we get the space

We buy slots on services that already call Halifax

We are a freight forwarder. We do not own ships, and any company our size that tells you it does is worth a second look.

What we hold is a contracted weekly allocation on transatlantic services calling PSA Halifax. Your cargo moves under our own house bill of lading, which means we carry the liability to you for it, and we are the ones you call when something goes wrong rather than an agent for somebody else's agent.

The practical effect is that the schedule is as reliable as the underlying service, and those services have been running the North Atlantic for decades. What we add is the part that usually goes wrong: the customs file, the origin position, and somebody who answers the phone in the right time zone.

Where this goes next

Dedicated tonnage, once the volume is there

Chartering a ship on a fixed rotation only makes sense with enough committed weekly cargo to fill it. That is the ambition, and it is the point at which the schedule becomes genuinely ours rather than borrowed.

Until then we would rather buy reliable space than run an empty ship on a nice-looking timetable.

Vessel names shown in the schedule are illustrative. On a slot booking the ship is whichever one the carrier has deployed that week, and we confirm it on the booking note.

The ports

Where the cargo touches land

Both terminals are operated by other companies. The specifications below are theirs, not ours.

Container terminal at Halifax with gantry cranes at dawn

Halifax, Nova Scotia

CAHAL

The closest North American port to Europe, which is why transatlantic strings use it as first port inbound and last port outbound. It is ice free in every month of the year, and rail runs directly off the dock.

Terminal: Fairview Cove
Operator: PSA Halifax
Depth alongside: 16.8 m minimum
Berth: 2,297 ft over 70 acres
Cranes: Four, three super post-panamax
On-dock rail: 11,000 ft, double stack

PSA International acquired the terminal in March 2022. Electric rail-mounted gantry cranes recently commissioned there are expected to take up to 75 per cent of port-generated truck traffic off city roads.

Automated cranes at a Rotterdam deep sea terminal

Rotterdam, the Netherlands

NLRTM

Europe's largest container port, and it stayed ahead of Antwerp-Bruges again last year. The value to a Canadian shipper is less the port itself than what sits behind it.

Throughput: 14.2m TEU in 2025, up 3.1%
Deep-sea terminals: APM Maasvlakte II, RWG, ECT Delta
Port area: 12,500 hectares over 42 km
Berths: Over 100 deep-sea and feeder
Liner services: More than 30 deep-sea
Inland: Betuwe rail line and Rhine barge

Barges leaving Rotterdam reach the Ruhr, Basel and northern France. The hinterland behind the port is usually put at around 500 million people.

Inland, Canada

Atlantic Canada and onward by rail

We collect by road across Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. Beyond that, the rail connection off the Halifax dock is the reason importers as far away as the Midwest route through here at all.

Bonded movement is available from the ship's side, so goods can travel inland before the duty is settled.

Rail transit times quoted by the port to Chicago, Detroit and St Paul run four to seven days. We will confirm the actual figure for your lane at the time of quoting rather than repeat a brochure number.

Inland, Europe

Road, rail and barge out of Rotterdam

Road across the Benelux and western Germany. Rail on the Betuwe freight corridor. Barge up the Rhine where the cargo is not urgent and the saving is worth a day or two.

We price all three side by side on the quotation, with the transit time next to each, so the choice is yours to make on the numbers.

Barge is usually the cheapest and slowest of the three. For most Nova Scotia seafood it is the wrong answer, and we will say so.

One lane, worked properly

We buy slots on services that already call Halifax

Dedicated tonnage, once the volume is there

Where the cargo touches land

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Atlantic Canada and onward by rail

Road, rail and barge out of Rotterdam

Two harbours, one file, one phone number.