Port of Århus: New container terminal soon ready
Port of Århus is now very close to opening the part of Container Terminal East that will enlarge the port container facilities considerably. Although this is part of a move from the old Terminal North, it is still a big step into the future with larger ships and tighter logistics around the containers.

Aalborg remains the
Greenland port
Port of Aalborg will remain the centre of shipping supplies to and from Greenland. The port has been the centre for essential traffic since 1972, when the special port area Grønlandshavnen was ready for Den Kongelige Grønlandske Handel (KGH), which was one of the very few state owned companies that were moved from the capital city of Copenhagen. In Aalborg a special basin was ready for the new service, closer to Greenland than before.

ESTONIA:
New terminals in Estonian ports
The two new ports in Estonia, Sillamäe and Saaremaa, have started operations. New terminals are being built, the state has developed an ice-breaking concept and is also developing smaller ports.

FINLAND:

Port of Helsinki is Finland’s largest commercial port, mainly handling unitized cargo. On this view from the North Harbour, the ro-ro vessel Finnhawk is leaving the berth while the Mistral is discharging trailers. Photo: Pär-Henrik Sjöström

Growing volumes after drop last year There was a decrease in the Finnish seaborne trade in 2005 due to a temporary downturn in the export of paper. Now the volume of cargo handled in the ports is going up again.

Deeper fairway crucial for Hamina
One third of the annual cargo volume normally handled in the port of Hamina is liquid bulk. The backbone of this traffic is formed by transhipments of chemicals, LPG and oil products from Russia to Europe. To ensure this trade also in the future, the government has decided to invest EUR 9.8 million in deepening and shortening the fairway to Hamina.

Kotka: Towards an all time high
During this year the total cargo handled in the port of Kotka has increased by an incredible 18 per cent. Although last year’s traffic figures were not quite as high as they could have been due to the strike and lock-out in the forest industry, the port of Kotka is most likely going towards an all time high in cargo handling. Managing Director Kimmo Naski at Port of Kotka Ltd estimates that this year’s figures will reach a total of 9.5 million tons.

Stronger together – Southwestern Ports of Finland in co-operation
Together the main commercial ports in Southwest Finland – Turku, Naantali, Uusikaupunki, Rauma and Pori – handle more than a quarter of the cargo and passengers passing through all Finnish ports.

GERMANY:
Different strokes keep smaller ports healthy
German ports handled a record 149.8 million tons of cargo in the first six months of 2006 – 6.7 per cent or 9.5 million tons more than in the same period of last year. They appeared, thus, to be well on target, not only to pass the 2005 total of 282 million tons this year, but also to verify last year’s prediction by the Bremen Institute for Maritime Economics and Logistics (ISL) that German ports could be turning around 324 million tons by 2008.

LATVIA:
Terminals being constructed and relocated
Last year the total cargo turnover at Latvian ports was 60 million tonnes – 2.6 million tonnes more than in 2004. There was an increase in all ports except Skulte. The ports of Riga and Ventspils are preparing to become passenger ports.

The footpath from the city of Riga to its international passenger port is in bad condition, even when the weather is great. Photo: Madli Vitismann.

Riga – in great need of a passenger port
In Riga, one of the features of the port city – the passenger shipping line – came to a sad end last autumn. This year, the Stockholm route was reopened with fireworks, but in the passenger port, where a ferry had arrived from another capital city every other day for four years, nothing had changed.

LITHUANIA:
Klaipeda focusing on more expensive goods
Among the ports of the Baltic States, Klaipeda has the most containers, and last year they crossed the 200,000 TEU limit. Container trains to Odessa – the shuttle train Viking started ply in 2003 – and Moscow – the shuttle train Mercury started ply in 2005 – have been put into operation. But the oil pipeline ran dry after the selling of Mazheikiu Nafta and crude oil has to be brought in by sea.

NORWAY:
Norwegian ports in political play
With around 80 per cent of Norway’s 4.5 million population living less than 10 kilometres from the coast, an outside observer would presuppose that seaborne had every conceivable support. Not so, unfortunately.

Supply bases – the umbilical of offshore development
Offshore supply bases anywhere in the world provides the vital onshore support, which could be termed the umbilical of all offshore oil and gas production and development.

POLAND:
Stable growth in turnover on shaking political legs
Analyses of statistical data on cargo turnover in Polish ports in 2005 and throughout the first eight months of the current year show a stable growth.

Bright future for Ferry Terminal Swinoujscie
There is a lack of ro-ro berths in Polish ports, but they are of significant importance when Polish ports are competing for short sea shipping operations in the Baltic Sea.

RUSSIA:
NW Russian ports growing fast – St Petersburg now officially the Big Port
On September 25 the RF Government officially named the big port of St Petersburg (i e, the conglomerate of port terminals in the river Neva mouth and delta in the Gulf of Finland) “the Big Port of St. Petersburg”.

SWEDEN:
Towards more competitive maritime transport
With more than 50 commercial public ports and numerous industrial ports and a huge basic export industry, Sweden is one of the major port nations in Northern Europe. All port companies are now preparing for two things especially: to take care of a projected increase of exports and imports by 31.7 per cent and 45.7 per cent to 2020, and a visit by a negotiator appointed by the Government and whose main and delicate challenge is to identify ports of strategic importance for Sweden.