ISSUE 4 2010


ScANdINAvIA


DFDS Seaways and Cobelfret subsidiary C PORTS have signed a 25-year agreement to operate Gothenburg’s ro-ro terminal as a joint venture. The companies will take on 320


Port of Gothenburg employees from January as they take over handling operations at its seven ro-ro berths.


Infrastructure


remains in municipal ownership, but the port is also looking to privatise operation of its container and car terminals. The flow of containers through


the port rose 9% in the first eight months, returning to 2008 levels, but ro-ro and vehicle movements are still below what they were two years ago. On the service front, Green


Feeder launched a weekly Antwerp-Gothenburg service earlier this year, the first north European service by the subsidiary of Mediterranean and Black Sea feeder operator MCL. The initial client was UASC, but other deepsea lines that use the group’s Mediterranean services have expressed interest. Scandinavia’s automotive


industry suffered badly last year and car shipments more than halved. But Gothenburg bounced back with an increase of 69% in car and commercial vehicle movements in the year to August. Volvo is shipping more excavators and dumpers, and demand for truck and bus chassis from Volvo and Scania has also recovered. Overall, however, imports are growing faster than exports and now account for half the vehicles shipped, up from the normal figure of one-third. Copenhagen Malmö Port


(CMP) reports a similar trend, with car throughput expected to rebound by 60% this year. But container and ro-ro volumes, which fell by 22% and 27% respectively last year, are flat-lining this year. The slowdown forced CMP to reduce its permanent workforce by around 13%. Malmö is nevertheless pushing


ahead with its new Norra Hamnen (North Harbour) SEK900m (€100m) development. Bengt- Olof Jansson, general manager of CMP’s technology department,


says ro-ro users will be the first to transfer there in mid-April. Co-financed through the


EU Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) programme, Norra Hamnen includes a 50ha terminal, three ro-ro berths and a 250-metre container berth. Customers of the container terminal will switch across after a Liebherr ship-to-shore crane is commissioned mid-year. The


harbour has been dredged to nine metres, sufficient for the feeder services that call in Malmö. Forwarders and transport companies are being invited to build distribution centres at a logistics facility being developed alongside the new port area. “We’re just five minutes from the highway and trucks won’t have to go through the city,” Jansson says.


Ports of Stockholm is watering down its plans for a new port at Nynäshamn, 60km south of the city, in response to environmental objections. Two of the nine planned berths will not now be built and an application to flatten a ridge of land has been withdrawn. The revised plan will be


presented at an environmental appeal court hearing at the end


17 Swedish ports prepare for privatisation


of November. “It will reduce ro-ro capacity somewhat, but retains the entire container operation,” says Henrik Widerstahl, acting CEO for Ports of Stockholm. Stockholm is Sweden’s main


import gateway. A new box terminal at Nynäshamn is seen as particularly important because a maze of islands hinders container vessels’ access to the existing city facility.


Scandinavian news in brief


APM Terminals and Cargo Service, neighbouring port operators in Aarhus, are combining their facilities into a single operating unit serving customers via one long continuous deepwater berth and one set of truck gates. APM boasts at Aarhus a container facility with one of the highest levels of productivity in Europe, while Cargo Service specialises in project and heavy-duty cargo such as wind turbines. A dedicated rail service runs up to three times a week from the port to Copenhagen.


MSC almost doubled the size of its weekly Scandinavian feeder service from Antwerp in October, replacing the MSC Patricia with the 700teu JRS Alster. The routing is Antwerp-Copenhagen-Fredericia-Aarhus- Antwerp.


Gothenburg-headquartered regional cargo airline West Atlantic will be the launch operator for the converted A320 P2F (passenger to freighter) aircraft. The carrier, which operates scheduled feeder services and charters for integrators, post and express parcel companies, is leasing an initial three aircraft from AerCap, with delivery from 2012, and has options on a further four.


DHL Global Forwarding has launched LCL services from Shenzhen, China, to Aarhus and Helsinki. Danmar Lines, DHL’s in-house carrier, has shaved three days off the transit time by shipping direct instead of routing via Hong Kong.


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