Portbase runs the Port Community System (PCS) for the Dutch seaports of Rotterdam and Amsterdam: the neutral platform where everyone in the chain (shippers, forwarders, terminals, shipping lines, customs and other authorities) exchanges data. You enter information once and share it with every party that needs it, instead of phoning, emailing and re-keying. Nexport Logistics is connected to Portbase, so your sea import and export data flows straight into the Nexportal platform.
What it does
- One-time data entry, shared across the port: pre-arrival and pre-departure notifications, customs status, terminal data.
- Cargo Controller for import visibility: track a container's status and pick it up at the right moment, with Premium Terminal Data from the Rotterdam deep-sea terminals (RWG, Hutchison Ports ECT, APM Terminals) for richer status insight.
- Notification Import / Export, the messages that line up customs and terminal release.
By 2025 Portbase connected around 34,000 users at 7,200+ organisations — effectively the whole port community.
Secure Chain: the end of PIN codes
The biggest recent change is Secure Chain, a fraud-proof container release process that replaces the old release PIN codes, long a target for criminal interception. Key dates:
- From 3 February 2025 the secure-chain release became mandatory for collecting all import containers, from all origins.
- For connected lanes, carriers and agents no longer issue PIN codes. Release authorisation flows digitally down a verified chain of parties.
- From 1 July 2025 Portbase charges agents €0.50 per released container.
For anyone importing through Rotterdam this is operationally significant: your forwarder must be inside the secure chain to collect your containers at all.
SCR: the exception in the chain
One platform causes regular confusion here: SCR (Secure Container Release), a separate blockchain release platform from the Belgian company T-Mining. It is not part of Portbase and it does not sit behind the Secure Chain; it is a carrier-side tool for handing the release right to the first release party, used across 25+ countries (mainly in the Antwerp world, by lines such as MSC and CMA CGM there). In Rotterdam, all carriers pass their releases straight into the Secure Chain via Portbase, with one exception: Hapag-Lloyd, which distributes its Rotterdam releases through SCR. SCR is linked to Portbase, so a Hapag release still flows into the Secure Chain: you accept it in SCR, forward it to Portbase, and handle the rest there, transferring the shipment or assigning a haulier.
Portbase and Cargonaut
Portbase is the sea community system. Its air-cargo counterpart at Schiphol is Cargonaut (owned by Royal Schiphol Group). They are separate systems, counterparts under the Dutch national data strategy — not one company. The two get mixed up surprisingly often.
How Nexport Logistics handles it
We're connected to Portbase and inside the Secure Chain, so we receive your import containers cleanly, track them via Cargo Controller and line up customs and terminal release. You follow it all in Nexportal.
Importing containers through Rotterdam? Email info@nexportlogistics.nl and we'll get the release chain for your lane sorted.
Official sources: Portbase · Portbase — Secure Chain · Port of Rotterdam — Port Community System. Related: Sea Freight · Cargonaut · Ebl