Sweden:
Political decisions show the way

Political decisions will have significant impact on market conditions for Swedish ports and for maritime transport to and from Sweden. With few exceptions, Swedish ports are municipality-owned, but it is decisions taken in Brussels and Stockholm that will lay the foundation for the future.

	The port of Göteborg is the largest port in Scandinavia.

Primarily, there are two political items of immediate concern. The EU Commission’s proposed Port Package has fuelled the debate in Sweden.
In parts, the proposal is politically sensitive in Sweden. The Swedish government does not want pilot services to be exposed to competition. Another delicate matter is the stevedore monopoly in Swedish ports.
The current Swedish government has close relations with the trade unions, and the dock-workers’ associations are negative to liberalisation with new operators in the ports and self-loading vessels.
The government’s approach to this matter has worried Swedish industry, and in a joint statement, seven industry organisations have called for full acceptance of the Port Package.
The other item is a national one and concerns financing of the maritime infrastructure.
Sweden is one of very few countries in which shipping has full economic responsibility for its own infrastructure.
The Swedish Maritime Administration, SMA, is a self-financing public enterprise. Through dues and other charges, the SMA covers all operating costs and investments in fairways etc. When the administration returns a profit, it pays taxes and a dividend to the State.
This is a system that has been criticised by the shipping industry for a long time, especially since it has a negative impact on the competitiveness in relation to the subsidised land-based modes of transport. A couple of large increases of the pilotage dues by the SMA plus indications that there are more to come, has made the critics even more critical. The system is seen as unfair, and also pointing in a totally different direction to the EU ambition to move more cargo transportation from the land-based modes to the sea.
It is also a system based on solidarity – meaning that shipping to the ice-free ports in the South of Sweden pays just as much for icebreaking as shipping in the North.
The government has acknowledged the criticism and a departmental inquiry has been launched. A proposal for a new system is expected within a year.

Year of decrease
Due to the general slow-down of the world economy, cargo turnover in the ports of Sweden decreased from 159.3 million tonnes in 2000 to 152.8 million tonnes in 2001. The foreign trade was significantly lower during the first and third quarters of 2001 compared to the same periods the year before. The international ferry services also suffered in 2001, with passenger numbers falling to a total below 30 million for the first time in many years.
However, the negative trend that started when tax-free was abolished may have been broken. There is a significant gap between the passenger numbers for the first half of 2001 compared to the first half of 2000.
During the second half, the gap was reduced and the passenger numbers during the fourth quarter almost reached the level of the fourth quarter of 2000.

Some port highlights
There are more than 50 general ports in Sweden. It is an intense part of the Swedish industry. New business deals are being found and many new projects are being discussed, planned or are already under development.
Below follows a few examples from large as well as smaller ports:

West Sweden
With an annual cargo turnover of about 33 million tonnes, the Port of Göteborg is the largest port in Sweden and in the Nordic countries.
In fact, according to a recent study made by Marintek in Norway, Göteborg could also become Norway’s largest export/import hub if maritime transport isn’t given more competitive operating conditions in Norway.
The Port of Göteborg is in the middle of an intense investment period. The most significant project is the extensive work on the fairways to and from the port.
The scope is to increase safety and the volume of shipping. The work is being carried out in two stages, and the project is expected to be completed by 2004.
The total investment is SEK 1.1 billion. Three new ro-ro terminals and a new passenger terminal have been taken into operation and a new import/export car facility is under construction. A vapour recovery system has been installed in the oil terminal. Emissions to the air from the oil terminals will be cut by half in two years’ time.
Despite lower volumes handled in the port of Uddevalla, the expectations for the future are positive. The new liner service to the US East coast has increased significantly. Uddevalla has become the hub for Intercontinental Forest Products Inc.’s shipments of forest products from Northern Europe to the USA.
About 260,000 cubic metres will be shipped annually and a new 4,200 sq.m. warehouse was completed in May this year. The Port of Lysekil is still waiting for a ferry service to Norway. A ferry line to Larvik was planned to be started this year, but has been postponed.
However, the hopes are still up. In Wallhamn on the island of Tjörn, a new line of business is growing. The turnover for “Bilbyggarna” – construction of concept cars for special duties – increased by 34 per cent in 2001. Port management is also looking forward to new possibilities when a new railway terminal is taken into operation in nearby Stenungsund.
The port companies in the ports of Varberg and Falkenberg, Terminal West and Falkenberg Terminal, are discussing a merger based on a “one organisation – two ports” structure.
The port of Halmstad has strengthened its position as a leading port for the export of sawn timber in Sweden.
The company TH Schele ships 400,000 cubic metres through the port annually. This will be increased by 60,000 cu.m, thanks to a new agreement with the Vida concern. Vänerhamn suffers from decreasing shipborne volumes.
The reason is the difficult competitive position for shipping on Lake Vänern compared to transportation by rail or road. What could be positive is that the Government, once again, has started an investigation into the matter.

South Sweden
Although being a port mostly associated with ferry traffic, the port of Helsingborg is a full service port. The development work carried out within the port organisation has been noticed internationally and for the second time the port of Helsingborg was awarded “European Port of the Year” 2001 by the UK-based Institute of Transport Management.
The first time was in 1996. In 2001 the Copenhagen Malmö Port, CMP, was established. A significant event last year was the signing of a 25-year agreement with Toyota making Malmö the hub for distribution of Toyota cars to dealers in Scandinavia, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia.
From January 1, 2003, up to 100,000 cars will be shipped through Malmö annually. CMP is investing EUR 23.9 million in new facilities. With 12 ro-pax ferries making 14,000 trips to and from Germany, the port of Trelleborg has become one of the largest hubs in the Nordic countries for intermodal transport. The port handles around 10 million tons annually. The ferry companies have put new or re-built vessels on their Trelleborg services and a new connection to Poland has started up.

East Sweden
In 1994, the Port of Norrköping launched an ambitious investment programme. The aim was to become “the regional port of the future – a full service port in a strategically located transport centre”. Since then, the port has been upgraded. Last year, phase-two of the upgrading of the deep-sea Pampus port was initated. The port will be dredged to 12.4 meters and an additional 10,000 sq.m container handling area is under construction. The Port of Stockholm had a comparatively good year in 2001. Cargo turnover increased by three per cent and the number of containers increased by 17 per cent to about 35,000 TEU.
About SEK 140 million was invested last year. Stockholm aims to become a leading cruise hub and this year about 170 cruise vessels are expected to visit the port. The port company has recently decided to invest between SEK 40 million and SEK 100 million in a new bulk terminal at Norvik. A new biofuel power plant is to be built in the area and the total annual consumption in the region is estimated to be 800,000 tons today. More facilities in the region could be serviced from the new bulk terminal, where the cargo is shifted to smaller-sized vessels.

North Sweden
The cargo turnover in the port of Skellefteå was increased by 30 per cent last year. An old bitumen facility was demolished, clearing 35,000 sq.m. for a new fragmentation facility. A new 900-meter railway was built last year and a mobile crane with a capacity of 100 tonnes.
The port of Luleå handles approximately seven million tons, mainly bulk, each year. Of this, approximately 400,000 tons are oil products. The airport in Luleå has been developed into a long-distance freight airport. Fully used, the air freight would reach 350,000 tonnes annually. As a consequence, the port has filed for approval of a pipeline for aviation fuel.
In a year with a general downturn and cargo turnover decrease in most ports, the port of Piteå had an all-time high last year. The cargo turnover increased by an impressive 125,882 tonnes to 1,448,231 tonnes. Most of the increase was related to the import of pulpwood.

// Rolf P. Nilsson

Back to SSG 6, June 14

Latest update 18-10-2006 8:49

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