Advertisement

Port of Kiel right on target for growth

On 24 July 2017 the port of Kiel reported that it was on target for growth and posted its best half-year results to date. In the first six months of 2017 the port’s varied facilities handled 3.7 million tons of goods, topping the total in the same period of the previous year by 20 %.

Dr Dirk Claus, Managing Director of the Port of Kiel, said: “the taking into service of the SCA Logistics Centre in Kiel’s Ostuferhafen has already shown it is having a lasting impact on growth and providing the planned impetus which justifies our investment.”

400,000 tons of high-value timber products were handled and stored for new customers Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA) and Iggesund Paperboard in the first half of the year.

“This very good result is all the more significant because Kiel was also able to post increases in its other handling sectors – ferry traffic and bulk goods”, said Dirk Claus. Even without taking the SCA traffic into consideration, Kiel’s handling performance still rose by a remarkable 7.6 %.

In the first half year of 2017 bulk goods handling rose by a gratifying 18.7 % to well over 550,000 tons. Alongside fuels like coal and oils, significant increases were also posted in the handling of building materials, grain and scrap metals.

In the ferry sector, Stena Line in particular upped turnover – by 12.8 % – and is ranked number two on the list of Kiel’s most important freight customers after DFDS.

Surprisingly, trade with Russia, which has been severely disrupted in the past few years by trade restrictions, also showed a slight revival. “We are now creating additional warehousing capacities in the Ostuferhafen, in order to stabilise the positive development in trade with Russia”, said Dirk Claus.

Currently taking shape in the immediate vicinity of the berth used by ships on the St Petersburg route, is the 5,000m² Shed 12, planned as a warehouse for sawn timber. In container business, which is of only minor significance in Kiel, 13,400 TEUs were handled – an increase of 19.3 %.

Intermodal rail/ship handling continued to expand in the first six months of the year with the inauguration of a weekly direct train shuttle between Kiel and Trieste and the introduction of an additional departure to Verona. For the first time ever, the rail facilitities at the Schwedenkai Terminal and in the Ostuferhafen loaded more than 16,000 consignments onto rail wagons – up 10%.

In the passenger sector, 913,000 travellers were handled – an increase of 3.1 % over the same period last year. The biggest increases were recorded by the Stena Line on its route to Gothenburg in Sweden, followed by the route to Klaipeda in Lithuania. Most passengers travelled with the ships of Color Line from Kiel to Oslo. In the cruise shipping sector, 65 cruise ship calls were made up to June 30th and well over 200,000 passengers registered.

Ships Montly - January 2024

Status Quo’s Francis Rossi becomes Patron of Radio Caroline’s Ross Revenge Charity

Status Quo frontman Francis Rossi has officially become a patron of Radio Caroline's charity MV Ross Revenge Home of Radio Caroline, established two years...
Advertisement

Related articles

Status Quo’s Francis Rossi becomes Patron of Radio Caroline’s Ross Revenge Charity

Status Quo frontman Francis Rossi has officially become a patron of Radio Caroline's charity MV Ross Revenge Home...

World’s First Electric Hydrofoil Ferry Line Takes Off in Stockholm

The world’s first electric hydrofoil ferry has begun its service. Candela P-12 "Nova" sets out to eliminate emissions...

Boskalis to Transport Car Carrier to China for Repair

Friday & Co. Shipbrokers announced the successful brokerage of a major chartering deal between Dutch offshore engineering giant...

ClassNK issues approval in principle (AiP) for new membrane-type LNG carrier

ClassNK has issued an approval in principle (AiP) for a 30,000 m³ LNG carrier equipped with two Mark...