The largest ports in Sweden are growing more and more, while the smaller ports are declining in volume, and the trend is only accelerating. This is revealed by recent figures from Swedish Ports Association.

The third quarter of the year has been challenging for Swedish shipping and many of our Swedish ports have lost volume. During the pandemic, flows have increasingly moved from the east coast to the west coast and from the smaller ports to the larger ports, which is a trend that is accelerating.

“It is clear what is happening to the Swedish goods flows. The fact that APM Terminals in Gothenburg is growing about 10 times more than the second-largest growing port is largely due to our broad portfolio and high capacity. We managed to keep direct traffic to Asia running on a weekly basis without interruption, which altogether has been fundamental for the country’s trade with the world market during the pandemic,” says Magnus Lundberg, Commercial Manager at APM Terminals Gothenburg.

“In addition to short-term effects, we are seeing increased demand for our solutions, where our fossil-free container handling is linked to environmentally friendly rail transport in order to reduce the carbon footprint from Sweden’s imports and exports. This is something we’ve invested a lot in, and we are glad that our customers value climate-smart freight transport,” concludes Magnus Lundberg.

Disturbance in Europe has required extra flexibility in Gothenburg

Bad weather conditions, reduced supply of empty containers and changed global goods flows have characterized the European ports in recent weeks. This has resulted in delays and many vessels being forced to wait a long time for their slot.

“The challenges on the continent can also be seen at APM Terminals in Gothenburg. In order to meet customer needs, we have increased capacity in the form of extra calls, extra staff and extended opening hours during weekends. Thanks to this flexibility, we were able to help our customers get a slot in the timetable and get goods to end customers on time,” says Jasmin Mjudzic, Operational Manager at APM Terminals Gothenburg.