Port of Gothenburg first half container volumes slip

The Swedish port increased car exports and imports 5 percent year-over-year in first half of 2015, however, thanks to Volvo’s decision at the beginning of the year to ship cars from Gothenburg to Finland, Russia and China.    The Port of Gothenburg, located along the southwest coast of Sweden, handled 418,000 TEUs throughout the first half of 2015, down 1 percent from the same period in 2014. Despite the port’s weak first quarter, when container volumes dropped 5 percent from last year’s first quarter, Gothenburg volumes saw a 2 percent increase in the second quarter compared to last year.
   Car imports and exports combined stood at 93,000 for the first half of 2015, a year-over-year increase of 5 percent. The port attributed the increase to Volvo’s decision at the beginning of the year to export cars from Gothenburg to Finland, Russia and China.
   Roll-on/roll-off traffic, which the Port of Gothenburg defines as the transport of freight loaded onto trailers and trucks, experienced a year-over-year drop of 7 percent to 265,000 units for the first half of 2015. “The fall is a direct result of a downturn in the flow of paper between Sweden and Finland,” Port of Gothenburg CEO Magnus Kårestedt said in a statement.
   Energy traffic posted a year-over-year increase of 7 percent for the first half of the year to 9.8 million tons.
   The Port of Gothenburg, which handles about 30 percent of Sweden’s overall imports and exports, accounts for almost 60 percent of Sweden’s container volumes and about half of the country’s crude oil imports.