ABSTRACT
Manufacturing is still a dominant part of the Rotterdam economy, and many manufacturing activities are strongly linked to the city’s port function. The transhipment function of the port makes it an attractive location for several types of industries. Rotterdam is specialised in capital-and space-intensive process industries, but the manufacturing of end-products is less developed. In the last decades, the share of manufacturing in the Rotterdam economy has steadily declined, especially in terms of employment. At the same time, manufacturing has become more knowledge intensive; there has been an increasing need for technical and managerial skills, and less demand for unskilled labour. From this perspective, the manufacturing industry has become part of the ‘knowledge-based economy’.
