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The Port of Göteborg is an important centre for the shipping cluster in Sweden. Photo: Port of Göteborg

Six-digit number of Swedes
depend on shipping
There are about nine million inhabitants in Sweden. Being a country on a peninsula with a large export industry and significant import needs, the future and the development of the Swedish society depend on an effective maritime transport infrastructure. In other words, all nine million plus Swedes are dependent on shipping.

But a new study from the Jönköping International Business School also shows that more than 200,000 Swedes are more or less directly depending on shipping and maritime transports for their outcome.

The former second chamber in the Swedish Parliament is decorated with four fresco-paintings from the 1920’s showing Sweden’s four core industries. One of those is shipping. Since then, Swedes and its shipping industry has to some extent lost touch with each other, but the new cluster study shows that shipping and maritime transport still is of significant importance to Sweden, not only as a transport mode but also as an industry.

The Jönköping International Business School, JIBS, carried out a study on Swedish shipping in 2000. Now the school, supported by the Swedish Shipowners´ Association and the Swedish Maritime Administration, has published a new cluster study, showing that in 2002, over 220,000 Swedes were more or less depending on shipping and maritime transports for their outcome.

18,350 were employed in the core of the cluster, which consists of shipping companies, ports and shipyards. The surrounding industries can be divided into two categories based on how strong the link to the core is. About 70,000 persons were employed in industries in the inner circle, closest to the core. The outer circle consists of industries with about 133,500 people employed 2002. JIBS says that taking the positive development in the shipping industry into account, the cluster is probably even higher today.

Three important regions
According to the study, the Swedish shipping industry is highly concentrated to three regions. More than 80 per cent, measured in employment and by 70 per cent measured in turnover, is located in Göteborg, Stockholm and Helsingborg. The shipping cluster in Stockholm is the largest, while the most diversified is to be found in Göteborg, including the product tanker community on the island of Donsö and the shipowner centre in Skärhamn on the island of Tjörn. The number of employees in the core industries is larger in Göteborg, while a significantly larger part of the surrounding industries is located in the Stockholm area. About 35 per cent of some 140 Swedish shipbrokers were located in the Göteborg region in 2005.

Shipping is a vital industry for many Swedes. Photo: Rolf P Nilsson

Efficiency and rationalisation
JIBS estimates that the total shipping sector contributed to the Swedish gross national product with SEK 104 billion (EUR 11.1 billion) in 2002. This corresponds to SEK 700,000 (EUR 71,000) per employee, which can be compared with SEK 470,000 (EUR 50,400) in average per employee in the private sector. The core employees contributed with SEK 9.1 billion (EUR one billion) in 2001, also this about SEK 700,000 per capita. The report also states that there are strong reasons to believe that this level is higher today based on rationalisation and improved efficiency.

Shipping is an export industry. Almost 70 per cent of the supply in the sector was exported to consumers in other countries, representing three per cent of Swedish exports. The net export of shipping services (exported services minus imported services) was SEK six billion (EUR 0.65 billion) in 2004. Shipowning companies are concentrated to the three largest shipping regions. The industry had a total net turnover in 2004 of SEK 33 billion (EUR 3.5 billion). 15 shipowners dominate Swedish shipping. In 2004 those companies accounted for approximately 70 per cent of the net turnover and employs about 60 per cent of the total number of shipping personnel in Sweden. The total book value of Swedish ships was some SEK 63 billion (EUR 6.8 billion) in 2004 and the market value today is estimated to about SEK 80 billion (EUR 8.6 billion).

Figures in Swedish shipping Shipowning companies 2004 Number 674 Net turnover SEK 32.9 billion Result SEK 4.2 billion Ports and stevedoring companies 2004 Number 84 Net turnover SEK 5.6 billion Result SEK 0.4 billion Shipbrokers and agencies 2004 Number 262 Net turnover SEK 19.2 billion Result SEK 2.1 billion Source: MM Partner

Education an important factor
Competence, education and research are important factors for a positive future development for Swedish shipping, and also here the trend is pointing in the right direction. According to the report the share of employees in shipping with a high level of education with more than three years of post upper secondary school studies has increased.

Today about 12 per cent employed in shipping companies in international shipping has a high level of education. This is around double up compared to other cargo carrying transport modes. The educational level in other supporting industry sectors vary a lot, but in average, 20 per cent of the employees have a high level of education.

The report also indicates good prospects for future maritime officers. The two Swedish maritime academies, one in Göteborg and one in Kalmar, expects to deliver about 200 new master mariners and chief engineers to the industry per year the coming years. Provided that all actually starts to work at sea, this will be enough to cover retirements if the Swedish fleet remains at today’s level, but any expansion of the fleet will create a shortage.

A positive effect
According to the JIBS, the inner circle of the shipping core – when it comes to development of maritime centres – is large port regions. Port and terminal operators play an important role in maritime innovation systems. One conclusion in the study is that concentration to a few regions would have a positive impact on the development of Swedish shipping and today only the Göteborg and Stockholm regions are large enough to host strong regional clusters in an international perspective.

//Rolf P Nilsson

Latest update 18-10-2006 8:49

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