Oil and rail up - vehicles and truck trailers down

The Port of Gothenburg, the largest port in the Nordic region, is a reflection of Swedish industry. Whilst the first half of 2008 showed an increase for a number of goods categories, volumes fell during the second half of the year. Despite the downturn, new volume records were set for containers, oil and rail.

During 2008, Nordic commerce and industry shipped goods equivalent to 862,500 TEUs through the Port of Gothenburg. This was three per cent up on the year before and a new volume record.

The Port of Gothenburg also has the largest ro/ro terminal in Scandinavia with traffic mainly to the UK, Belgium, Germany, Denmark and Finland. Last year, 625,300 ro/ro units were handled at the Port of Gothenburg, a fall of nine per cent. Recalculated as RTEUs*, i.e. 20-foot units, the Port of Gothenburg handled 1.25 million RTEUs.

The most significant decrease, and not totally unexpected, was at the Port's vehicle terminal. The number of vehicles handled fell from 321,500 in 2007 to 271,500 in 2008 - a fall of 16 per cent. During the second half of 2008 the figure reached 23 per cent.

"Whilst our growth agenda has been hard hit our long-term objective still remains. The Port of Gothenburg will grow significantly and reinforce its position as the obvious goods hub for sea transport in northern Europe," says Magnus Kårestedt, Port of Gothenburg chief executive.

More oil and more rail transport
The handling of oil at the Port bucked the trend and increased by 15 per cent in 2008 - from 19.8 million tonnes in 2007 to 22.8 million tonnes in 2008. One reason for this sizeable upturn is the increase in oil storage pending a rise in the current low price of oil. Another reason is the rise in the volume of oil reloaded at the Port of Gothenburg.

A further positive sign is the growing number of companies opting to transport goods using one of the port's 24 rail shuttles. Last year rail transport rose by six per cent. A total 40 per cent of the containers were brought to the port by rail instead of by road. This means around 550 fewer trucks out on the roads each day. Apart from containers, large volumes of steel, paper and vehicles are also transported by rail to and from the port.

For further information, please contact Cecilia Carlsson, Media Relations Officer, Port of Gothenburg, tel. +46 31 731 22 45.

Please find attached file with more detailed information about the volume figures.