Skandia sale completes Gothenburg sell-off


28 A


PM Terminals is to take over the Skandia Container Terminal


at the Port of Gothenburg and plans to invest around $115m over the next five years. Planned purchases include three super post-Panamax cranes, along with expansion of the rail terminal and ten new straddle carriers. Skandia, the largest container


terminal in Scandinavia has been taken on by APM under a 25-year concession agreement with the Port of Gothenburg Authority. Last year, the terminal handled around 800,000teu, or 60% of the Swedish market. Services calling at the port include Maersk Line, which operates to the Far East, con-ro carrier ACL,


Terminal operations remain independant says AP Möller- Maersk


Shipping Corporation of India and Great White Fleet to Panama, along with numerous short-sea and feeder services. There are ten berths and current water depth is over 14 metres. Although APM is part of the AP


Möller-Maersk Group and is a sister company to Maersk Line, it stresses that its terminal operations are completely separate and independent from the shipping line. All the major container lines are its customers and it is run as a separate and independent business and profit centre. APM Terminals described Skandia


as having “an unbeatable geographical location to serve industry throughout Scandinavia and the Baltic Region. Sweden is a major exporting country,


has a manufacturing industry and the Swedish economy is growing. This is a good place to invest.” Two years ago the port was divided


into a municipal port authority and three separate terminal companies. The quays, land and infrastructure are still owned by the municipal authority whilst private companies handle the operational side. The container


terminal is the third and final terminal to be transferred to an external operator. The Gothenburg Car Terminal has


been acquired by logistics company Logent AB since April while the Älvsborg Ro/Ro terminal will be operated by DFDS via a joint company as soon as the deal has been approved by the EU competition authorities.


Longest yet


Sweden is one of the European countries that allows 25.75 metre-long ‘Giga liners’ on its public roads but the port of Gothenburg is going one better on its internal system, testing road trains of up to six 20-foot containers. The concept is being tested at the Skandia Container Terminal, and will result in more efficient transport and reduced emissions in the port. They will operate between the Volvo Logistics area in the port to the Skandia Container Terminal where the containers will be loaded onto vessels. RPG’s new forest terminal, due to be completed in 2012, will also be able to use the road trains. The plan is for the trains to operate continuously from the turn of the year.


Issue 6 2011


///SCANDINAVIA


Finnlines fine tunes B


altic Sea operator Finnlines, part of the Grimaldi group,


is concentrating on stabilising its traffic and fine tuning services aſter a rapid expansion of its route network, which saw services to St Petersburg from Hull, Antwerp and Bilbao added during 2010. In Scandinavia itself, Finnlines


operates services between Aarhus and Helsinki, from Kapellskär (Sweden) to Naantali (Finland) and from Malmo to Travemünde in Germany. Two of six new ships are now


in service and, with two more due for delivery within the next few months, chartered tonnage will be returned to owners. Staffan Herlin, in charge of


sales and marketing, says: “This tonnage development shows a dedicated long term commitment towards our market.” However, the market outlook is uncertain at the moment, due to the financial crisis - though Finnlines is gaining market share both in the industrial sector as well as among the forwarding segment of the market.


New Government rolls back border controls


O


ne of the first actions of the new centre-left Danish government


was to roll back controversial enhanced border checks policy introduced by the previous centre- right administration. Plans drawn up in May to build new control facilities at Denmark’s land borders will not now be pursued.


The move had


been in response to demands by the anti-immigrant Danish People’s Party to increase border controls. The then


government introduced “enhanced” customs checks along with plans to re-construct border posts, despite warnings by the European Commission that it could be illegal. However, freight forwarders


questioned by FBJ said that even when they were in place, the border controls had had little effect on freight movements. Most of the controls seemed to be targeting personal travellers.


Containerships cultivates UK links S


candinavia is an important and growing market for


Finnish-owned Containerships, which offers links between the UK and Sweden and Denmark as part of its route network which stretches from north-west Europe to the Baltic and Gulf of Bothnia. There is a link from Sheerness to Arhus (and return by transhipment) and another from


Teesport to Södertälje, which is the main port for the Stockholm region. Nevertheless, business from


the UK to Scandinavia is still not a major part of the carrier’s total volumes, says Frédéric Leca,


Commercial Director


for the Containerships Group; the service to Södertälje only started in mid- 2010, while there


is heavy competition from trailer operators on the Arhus route. But business to the Nordic region as a whole is brisk, the Finnish economy being relatively strong. Containerships serves the new port of Vuosaari, which is used as a hub for south Finland deliveries and exports and there is also transhipment traffic to Russia. Denmark is also traditionally a


major exporter of foodstuffs to


Russia. Leca adds that future


development prospects for the Scandinavia service are a second call out of Denmark, though this probably won’t happen for at least another six months, plus another call in the Gothenburg area of Sweden. “There is cargo from south-west Sweden to the UK,”


explains Leca. Port calls in the UK for any


new services have yet to be decided, naturally, although Leca says he is very happy with the performance of Sheerness, to which Containerships switched its new south of England hub instead of Tilbury. “Sheerness offers very fast vessel handling,


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Containerships and


so we’ve gained overall, even though road mileage is a bit longer in some cases,” he explains. Teesport is a traditional Baltic


hub for the North of England and it is a useful point for shipping Scottish whisky. It may be south of the border, but balancing exports with imports is much easier than it would be for a Scottish port.


Cleaning up their act Finnish


c o m pa n y Wärtsilä


have


signed a turnkey contract


for


new emissions r e duc i ng technology to be be installed on the Containerships VII vessel in the last quarter of 2011. Currently under Marpol regulations, all ships operating in the Baltic


Sea and the North Sea have to use fuels with a sulphur content not exceeding 1.0% per mass but from 2015 this will be reduced to 0.1%. Containerships VII will however meet the new standard from this year. The Scrubber uses fresh water in a closed-loop system in which


sulphur oxides are neutralised with caustic soda and pumped into the vessel’s existing sludge tank for appropriate disposal in port, although clean effluents can be discharged overboard.


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