The Port of Aarhus (Danish: Aarhus Havn) is a

deep-sea port A Panamax port is a deepwater port that can accommodate a fully laden Panamax ship. With the completion of the Panama Canal expansion project in 2016, this list will need to be significantly revised due to larger "post panamax" ships transiting P ...

located in the city of

Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and approximately northwest ...

. It is the largest

container port A container port or container terminal is a facility where cargo containers are transshipped between different transport vehicles, for onward transportation. The transshipment may be between container ships and land vehicles, for example train ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

, handling more than 50% of country's container traffic. The Port of Aarhus shipped roughly 8.4 million

metric tonnes The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...

of cargo in 2017.

Geography

The Port of Aarhus is located in central

at the mouth of the

Aarhus River Aarhus River ( da, Århus Å) is a long river or stream, in eastern Jutland, Denmark. The river flows through the large river valley of Aarhus Ådal. The valley itself, stretches from Silkeborg to the coastal city of Aarhus, but the Aarhus River ...

on the

Bay of Aarhus The Bay of Aarhus, or Aarhus Bay, is a Danish waterway by Aarhus in eastern Jutland. The Bay of Aarhus is bounded by Kalø Vig in the north, Sletterhage and Helgenæs in the east, Samsø and Tunø to the south and the east Jutland coast to the wes ...

Kattegat The Kattegat (; sv, Kattegatt ) is a sea area bounded by the Jutlandic peninsula in the west, the Danish Straits islands of Denmark and the Baltic Sea to the south and the provinces of Bohuslän, Västergötland, Halland and Skåne in Sweden ...

. The port faces

Helgenæs Helgenæs is a peninsula, approximately twenty square kilometres in size, stretching out from Mols in Denmark. Mols is itself part of the large peninsula of Djursland, in the middle of the Kattegat sea between Denmark and Sweden. West of ...

to the East,

Samsø Samsø (Anglicized: "Samso" or "Samsoe") is a Denmark, Danish island in the Kattegat off the Jutland Peninsula. Samsø is located in Samsø municipality. The community has 3,724 inhabitants (2017) (January 2010:4,010) called ''Samsings'' and is ...

to South East and on the coast the

Marselisborg Forests Marselisborg Forests ( da, Marselisborgskovene), or simply Marselisborg Forest, is a forest to the south of Aarhus City in the Kingdom of Denmark. Many present day sources now includes the forest of Fløjstrup, as part of the Marselisborg Fores ...

lies to the South and

Riis Skov Riis Skov (''Riis' Forest'' or ''The Forest of Riis'') is a forest and park in Århus, Denmark. It is located south of the district of Risskov, along the Bay of Aarhus. History This small patch of forest, was formally presented to Aarhus in 1395, ...

lies to the North.

Administration

The Port of Aarhus is owned and managed by

Aarhus Municipality Aarhus Municipality ( da, Aarhus Kommune), known as Århus Municipality ( da, Århus Kommune) until 2011, is a municipality in Central Denmark Region, on the east coast of the Jutland peninsula in central Denmark. The municipality covers an area ...

as a financially independent company. The mayor and two city council members are automatically granted seats on the

board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

after municipal elections with the mayor assuming the position of

chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

. The board consists of 7 members; 3 city council members, 3 members with a background in business and 1 representative elected among the employees of the port.

History

Aarhus is one of the oldest cities of Denmark, founded in the

Viking Age The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Ger ...

in the 8th century at a natural harbor on the northern shores of a former

fjord In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Ice ...

. The fjord gradually narrowed, by natural

sediment transport Sediment transport is the movement of solid particles (sediment), typically due to a combination of gravity acting on the sediment, and/or the movement of the fluid in which the sediment is entrained. Sediment transport occurs in natural system ...

, into a river and in the 19th century the harbor was moved to the coast by the newly formed

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

. In 1845-61 and 1883-90 the harbor was successively expanded into what became ''Nordhavnen'' (The North Harbor). In 1905-11 ''Sydhavnen'' (The South Harbor) was constructed in the form of a new, larger pier extending from the South along the East side of the harbor. In 1935-60 and 1984-1992 the North Harbor was expanded again and from 1975 another larger pier was constructed from South to North East. Through the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

the harbor primarily exported

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

from the large agricultural

catchment area In human geography, a catchment area is the area from which a location, such as a city, service or institution, attracts a population that uses its services and economic opportunities. Catchment areas may be defined based on from where people are ...

s around Aarhus. In the early 19th century, as the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

took hold, imports became predominantly

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

and

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

based and in the 1880 it was supplemented by feedstuffs,

fertilizer A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...

and grain as Danish agriculture changed from grain export to

animal husbandry Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, selective breeding, and the raising of livestock. Husbandry has a long history, starti ...

. In the 1870s grain exports started to decline as the new harbor in

Esbjerg Esbjerg (, ) is a seaport town and seat of Esbjerg Municipality on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in southwest Denmark. By road, it is west of Kolding and southwest of Aarhus. With an urban population of 71,698 (1 January 2022)

absorbed agricultural exports from

Jutland Jutland ( da, Jylland ; german: Jütland ; ang, Ēota land ), known anciently as the Cimbric or Cimbrian Peninsula ( la, Cimbricus Chersonesus; da, den Kimbriske Halvø, links=no or ; german: Kimbrische Halbinsel, links=no), is a peninsula of ...

but it was offset in the early 20th century by exports of oils, feedstuffs, processed foods and industrial products. In 1997, Århus City Council announced a ''Masterplan'' for expansion and development of the port. The expansion will double the harbor area to 350 hectares. The oldest and most central areas in ''Nordhavnen'' is being converted into urban areas, including the new neighborhood Aarhus Ø.

Harbour terminals

The port of Aarhus has 6 terminals; container, multi, bulk, tanker, ferry and cruise terminals. The container terminal has a 1300-meters long pier, a water depth of 14 meters with 3

Post-Panamax Panamax and New Panamax (or Neopanamax) are terms for the size limits for ships travelling through the Panama Canal. The limits and requirements are published by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) in a publication titled "Vessel Requirements". ...

cranes, 4 Super

cranes, and 1

Panamax Panamax and New Panamax (or Neopanamax) are terms for the size limits for ships travelling through the Panama Canal. The limits and requirements are published by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) in a publication titled "Vessel Requirements". ...

crane, and covers an area of 750,000 m². The Multiterminal handles bulk cargo such as coal and feedstuffs and project cargo such as wood and windmills. The bulk terminal handles loose cargo such as

, sand and gravel. The tanker terminal handles mineral oils,

gasoline Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic co ...

chemicals A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wit ...

molasses Molasses () is a viscous substance resulting from refining sugarcane or sugar beets into sugar. Molasses varies in the amount of sugar, method of extraction and age of the plant. Sugarcane molasses is primarily used to sweeten and flavour foods ...

and

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mix ...

. The ferry terminal is mainly used by

Molslinjen (previously called ) is a Danish company that operates ferry services between Jutland (Jylland) and the island of Zealand (Sjælland). In March 2017, the routes in the Kattegat were renamed to Molslinjen, while the Bornholms services would c ...

which operates a route to on

Sjællands Odde Sjællands Odde is a peninsula on the northwest coast of Zealand between the Kattegat and Sejerø Bay. From the outermost point of the peninsula, Gniben, a reef juts some out into the Kattegat. Geography In the Stone Age Sjællands Odde was a s ...

, but there are also irregular

ro-ro Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro) ships are cargo ships designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, buses, trailers, and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels or usin ...

ferries to

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

and

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

. The cruise terminal receives

cruise ships Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as "s ...

primarily from the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

. Since 2016 a regular seaplane service has been in operation by Nordic Seaplanes, departing from the Port of Aarhus to Copenhagen.

Economy

The Port of Aarhus maintains a large industrial area home to some 150 companies primarily in the transport and industry sectors which employs some 10,000 people. As of 2015 it is the largest containerport in Denmark with a market share of almost 60% and the largest public bulk terminal in the country. The ferry terminal services around 1,000,000 vehicles and some 2,000,000 passengers yearly.

References

External links

{{commons category, Aarhus Havn *https://www.aarhushavn.dk/en/ Transport in Aarhus