March 11 - Sweden's Port of Gothenburg has been granted consent to build a new freight terminal beside its existing terminals, which should be completed some time after 2020.
Port of Gothenburg chief executive Magnus Karested said: "We are very pleased to receive this decision, which will strengthen Gothenburg as the logistics capital of the Nordic region. The terminal is an important part of our future expansion and will present us with an opportunity to handle the increase in demand for sea transport via the Port of Gothenburg."
The maximum draught for vessels calling at the terminal will be 11 m, and the Swedish port expects traffic at the 220,000 sq m site to take the form of intra-European freight transport.
"We have already noted an increase in demand from the market. There is also a political ambition in Europe to switch more and more transport from land to sea in order to alleviate pressure on the roads and mitigate environmental impact," added Karestedt.
It has still not been decided what type of goods the new terminal will handle, but the port suggested that it could be containers, ro-ro cargoes, passenger traffic, or a combination of several types of freight.
