Port of Gothenburg volumes rise 3% in 2015

Although the Swedish port experienced year-over-year throughput declines for roll-on/roll-off units and containers in 2015, Gothenburg saw a surge in car and oil volumes.    The Port of Gothenburg, situated on Sweden’s west coast, handled 38.2 million metric tons of cargo in 2015, a 3 percent increase from 2014, according to recently released port data.
   Although Gothenburg experienced year-over-year declines in roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) and container volumes in 2015, car and oil volumes surged.
   A total of 820,000 TEUs were transported through the port in 2015, a 2 percent decline year-over-year. Port of Gothenburg Chief Executive Magnus Kårestedt attributed the dip in container volumes to the general decline in Swedish container volumes and investments carried out at the container terminal during the year, which affected service levels for shipping and transport companies.
   APM Terminals manages the container terminal at the Port of Gothenburg, which features 900 meters of quay length and 10 container cranes, five of which are super-post-Panamax cranes.
   The port handled 532,000 ro-ro units in 2015, a 3 percent decline from 2014.
   Car volumes, however, surged 29 percent year-over-year in 2015 to 214,000 cars. The Port of Gothenburg attributed the sharp increase in part to Volvo, which posted record sales.
   “Volvo’s success with the XC90 is of course a strong contributing factor to the increase in car shipments,” Kårestedt said. “Volvo’s positive growth looks set to continue into 2016 with new models and deliveries of the XC90 to Asia expected to take off.”
   In addition, the port handled 21.1 million metric tons of oil in 2015, a 10 percent increase from the previous year.