Gothenburg resilient against the trend
The Swedish Port of Gothenburg has reported its figures for Q1/2020. Container throughput showed an upswing of 8%, from 188,000 teu to 203,000, while the port authority underlined that "there have been no cancelled calls, and none are planned."
The handling of energy products increased by 13% to 5.7 million t for the period from January till March 2020 (5.1 million t in Q1/2019), but the ro-ro segment is starting to feel the effects of the production shutdown in the Volvo companies in Sweden. 138,000 ro-ro units passed the port, a decline of 6% from 147,000 units year-on-year.
Elvir Dzanic, Port of Gothenburg chief executive, attributes the overall good start of the year with "the fact that Swedish industry has continued to export during the Covid-19 pandemic." Dzanic is upbeat about the future, both for the port in general and for container traffic in particular. (mw)