Danish ports are highly efficient

November 16, 2021 Reading time 2 min

The Port of Aarhus is Denmark's largest container port. 65 percent of Danish container traffic goes in and out of the port in eastern Jutland. Here the container quay with the large cranes. Photo: Danish Ports

Denmark's ports are the fifth most efficient in the world and third in Europe. "This is world class", according to Danish Ports.

"This is literally world class!", says Tine Kirk, CEO of Danish Ports, commenting on Denmark's fifth place on the list of the world's most efficient ports.

The World Economic Forum has once again ranked the ports of 139 countries, based on data from 2019. Denmark is ranked fifth on the list, one place higher than in 2018, and only surpassed by Singapore, Finland, the Netherlands and Hong Kong.

In the list of the most efficient European ports, Denmark ranks third, followed only by Finland and the Netherlands.

"This shows once again that we in Blue Denmark have a lot to be proud of. We are also the sixth largest maritime nation and now also the country with the world's fifth most efficient ports. When you look at the competition from countries with extremely large, central ports, we can allow ourselves to wave the flag in the hedge that our ports are doing so well.

I say this not only because the ports are our members, but because I sincerely believe that we as a nation should be extremely satisfied that the ports are managed so well that efficiency is top notch", says Tine Kirk.

She points out that ports are considered critical infrastructure and must be kept open, for example, even during the coronavirus pandemic.

An estimated 90 percent of all goods in the world are transported by ship, and as cargo volumes increase, so do the demands on the efficiency of ports, as well as their size, in terms of quay lengths, hinterland space, crane size and more. Water depth is also increasingly important so that ports can accommodate the ever-larger ships.

Corona outbreaks have periodically closed some of the world's major ports in China and, together with the Suez crisis, where a ship broke down this summer, creating a queue of nearly 150 large container ships unable to pass through the vital transport corridor, have contributed to the worldwide pressure on supply chains.

"When ports function, stay open and provide the services they need, our daily lives function. We get the oatmeal, bicycle equipment, furniture, wood products, stone, gravel and everything else we need for our businesses and households. When things work, we don't think too much about why and how, for good reason. It's only when things go wrong that we notice," says Tine Kirk.

No Danish ports have been closed by Corona. The ports have taken many precautions to keep things running smoothly. Among other things, several ports have separated staff, so they ate in different canteens. A crane operator should preferably not be affected by Corona, because you can't just get a replacement with that education in the Job Center. Some ports sent home administrative functions that could be solved from home, and this is how ports across the country have ensured that the critical infrastructure functioned.