On June 2, the Swedish Minister for Infrastructure Thomas Eneroth announced the government’s decision to proceed with the deepening of the fairways at the Port of Gothenburg. This will allow larger vessels to call at the Port of Gothenburg fully loaded.
The new project will increase the maximum depth of the fairways and the turning area at the Container Terminal from 13.5 metres to around 16 metres. They will also enable container vessels calling at the Port of Gothenburg to take on more containers, achieving an increase of about 50%.
[smlsubform prepend=”GET THE SAFETY4SEA IN YOUR INBOX!” showname=false emailtxt=”” emailholder=”Enter your email address” showsubmit=true submittxt=”Submit” jsthanks=false thankyou=”Thank you for subscribing to our mailing list”]
The total cost of the project is four billion kronor, of which two billion is for water-based improvements, and two billion for quay reinforcement. The Swedish government will cover almost one-third of the cost of the project, which can now proceed to the next phase.
Economies of scale have driven the increase in the size of freight vessels. This applies to all types of vessels but especially in container vessels, which have doubled the last 10 years.
The Port of Gothenburg is the only Swedish port able to welcome large oceangoing container vessels, despite the fact that the fairway depth is limiting their freight loads on arrival. There are also vessels that cannot enter the port, and they are forced to head directly for the continent, bypassing Gothenburg.
Magnus Kårestedt, Gothenburg Port Authority chief executive, said:
Having received the decision in black and white, we can now set about the task of securing the remainder of the financing. We are already
discussing a number of options. With the financial foundation now in place, we can look ahead to drawing up a declaration of intent with the other parties to ensure the planning process can commence.
