Back to SSG 20

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.

The new Terminal East will be connected with the APM Terminal inaugurated in April 2001, giving the port (which is the owner of the APM Terminal area) one straight quay of 1,300 metres with a water depth of 14 metres. On the back land the APM Terminal has some 200,000 m2, while the Århus-terminal will cover some 270,000 m2.

Land sale to raise money
The investment for Port of Århus runs to around DKK 2 billion. The money has been provided by selling off land in the old area close to the city harbour, which has become an attractive area for future municipal development projects. Also part of the money has been taken from the capital saved in Port of Århus over the years.
The investment also includes a substantial amount used for the purchase of a fleet of new straddle carriers as the operator, Århus Stevedore Kompagni, is starting afresh in the new terminal. In the old terminal the operator has been using reach-stackers instead of the more modern straddle carrier, but they have decided to make a change in equipment.
Also part of the investment is two brand new container gantry cranes, which will be delivered on March 15, 2007, directly alongside the quay where they are going to be used. The Chinese manufacturer Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery will deliver the two superpostpanamax cranes, which can serve the largest container ships afloat. They can reach out up to 63 metres from the quay and easily serve the ships of the Maersk Lines E-class. The E-class ships, by the way, start their entire careers by calling the quay at Århus for a final fitting out after their sea trials. The cranes will reach a height of 115 metres above the quayside. The entire area with both APM Terminal and Terminal East will be served by six cranes, from postpanamax to superpostpanamax.

New start
By moving the new terminal Århus will also solve part of a traffic problem. The old terminal lies between several urban areas with a huge amount of traffic during the day. When the container feeding by lorries to and from the terminal has moved to Terminal East, where nothing else is going on, a lot of traffic jams will disappear.
In the longer term there are also plans for a road project with a greatly needed connection directly from the port areas to the motorway at the southern entrance to Århus. A project has been launched amongst politicians and others and has also got a certain degree of approval. The intention is to put the road connection called Marselis Boulevard into a tunnel, making it invisible to the thousands of people living in the residential areas along the road connection. It is a huge project and very expensive too, but has received approval and will be a reality in a longer perspective of 10 years. When the project is finished the heavy container traffic will go in the tunnel and local traffic will go on the street level.
The new terminal will also have a rail connection. However, this is problematic in Århus. The railway from the central station is rather curvy and uneasy for an engine hauling a block-train from the harbour area. It is also problematic for other traffic passing the harbour. The railway from the central station to the terminal has four road crossings, where 1,000 metres of train shunting will hold cars and lorries still for several minutes.

The red area is now filled up and will be capable of storing several thousand containers. Photo: Århus Havn

Necessary modernization
The move to a new, modern terminal also makes things easier for a number of the services around container traffic. The old terminal was built in 1969/1970 when the world looked very different from today. This means that when a new device is introduced to the industry, like an x-ray scanner for containers, it has to find a place not dedicated to its use. If it is not placed in the right spot, it means more driving around for the lorry or the straddle carrier. When building a new terminal where it is already part of the equipment needed, it can be placed more conveniently on the way from the hand-out to the gate.
The same goes for the other service partners at the terminal, such as the firms that clean containers, repair containers – both inside and outside – and those repairing cooling systems on reefer containers.

//Bent Mikkelsen

Latest update 26-10-2006 16:55

All material © Scandinavian Shipping Gazette.

Scandinavian Shipping Gazette | www.shipgaz.com | info@shipgaz.com | webmaster | Contact us | Cookie information