Freight turnover in ports is stagnant

"The first signs of increasing freight volumes throughout 2015 have been replaced by a renewed slowdown. Danish ports are therefore still suffering from the after-effects of the financial crisis in the freight sector." So says Bjørn B. Christiansen, CEO of Danish Ports, on the basis of the ports' cargo turnover for the whole of 2015, which has just been published by Statistics Denmark. "This is thought-provoking and should cause the ports to pay particular attention to the fact that major investments in port expansions and quay facilities cannot be based on increasing freight volumes in general. Therefore, we also see that the ports in these years are making investments that target many other areas than just the freight area", says the director of Danish Ports. "New clusters and business areas are being built up, and this all contributes to a reduced risk and exposure to a freight area that is finding it so difficult to grow," says Bjørn B. Christiansen. More freight by sea and greater competitiveness is the solution How to reverse the stagnation? The Growth Team for Blue Denmark, set up by Minister for Business and Growth Troels Lund Poulsen, is focusing on getting more freight by sea. The national focus follows in the wake of the EU's objective that 30 percent more goods should be transported by sea or rail by 2030. It's an old case, but I wonder if the declining freight volumes can get us all to give the road network a much-needed helping hand and boost the transfer from road to sea. We have congestion on the road network and excess capacity on the oceans and seas. For further information please contact: Bjørn B. Christiansen, Director Danish Ports: 25 37 03 64 Source: Statistics Denmark. SKIB72: Cargo turnover in major Danish ports by port, direction and type of cargo at quarterly level (in 1,000 tons) Note: Data is calculated as a rolling sum of the last 4 quarters based on quarterly data for the major ports summed up to cargo turnover for all ports