Gothenburg’s box traffic hits record high
The Port of Gothenburg’s box traffic hit an all-time high in the first six months of the year, following strong Swedish export volumes to markets outside of Europe, Port Technology reports.
Scandinavia’s largest port saw volumes increase by three percent to 458,000 TEU from a year ago during the first half of 2012.
The record levels of container throughput were in the main driven by the G6 Alliance’s decision to start a new deep-sea service between Gothenburg and Asia in the spring.
“The bulk of container exports from Sweden pass through the Port of Gothenburg and these strong freight flows, mainly to Asia and the USA, are extremely encouraging,” said chief executive of the Port of Gothenburg, Magnus Kårestedt.
However, Kårestedt added that its European trade had been severely hit by the ongoing economic crisis.
“This was particularly noticeable in the downturn in paper exports,” added Kårestedt.
Meanwhile, ro-ro volumes at the Swedish port fell four percent in the six months ending June 30th, when compared to the same period in 2011, with 280,000 ro-ro units shipped in the first half of the year.