Gothenburg, Sweden, from the Älsborgs Bridge

The municipally-owned Port of Gothenburg ( sv, Göteborgs hamn) is the largest port in the

Nordic countries The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or ''Norden''; lit. 'the North') are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic. It includes the sovereign states of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sw ...

, with over 11,000 ship visits per year from over 140 destinations worldwide. As the only Swedish port with the capacity to cope with the very largest modern, ocean-going

container ship A container ship (also called boxship or spelled containership) is a cargo ship that carries all of its load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. Container ships are a common means of commercial intermoda ...

Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...

handles nearly 30% of the country's foreign trade, comprising 39 million tonnes of freight per year.

Geography

The port is situated on both sides of the

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...

Göta älv The Göta älv (; "River of (the) Geats") is a river that drains lake Vänern into the Kattegat, at the city of Gothenburg, on the western coast of Sweden. It was formed at the end of the last glaciation, as an outflow channel from the Baltic Ic ...

in Gothenburg. The north shore, ''Norra Älvstranden'', is on

Hisingen Hisingen () is the fifth-largest island of Sweden (after Gotland, Öland, Södertörn and Orust), with an area of . It is a river island, formed by the split of the Göta Älv at Bohus, and is defined to the east and south by the main arm of ...

island and the south shore, ''Södra Älvstranden'', is on the mainland. It is a combined river and coastal port and the total length of the dock is .

Port sections

The port is divided into a number of sections or harbors. South shore *Älvnabbens petroleumhamn, (older) *Tånguddens hamn *Nya Varvet, (older) *Carnegiekajen, (older) dock length , depth *Klippan, (older) *Majnabbehamnen, dock length , depth *Varvet Kusten (older) *Göteborgs fiskhamn *Gamla Varvet, (older) *Stigbergskajen, dock length , depth *Masthuggskajen, dock length , depth *Skeppsbrokajen, dock length , depth *Stenpiren, dock length , depth *Stora Hamnen/Stora Hamnkanalen, (older) *Packhuskajen, dock length , depth *

Lilla Bommen Lilla Bommen is a part of Gothenburg harbor used for visiting boats and also the name given to the land surrounding the harbor. The eponymous building along with The Göteborg Opera house and the barque Viking are all located at Lilla Bommen. ...

*Gullbergskajen, dock length , depth *Gasverkskajen, (older) dock length , depth *Lärjehamnen, (older) dock length , depth *Rosenlundskanalen North shore *Torshamnen, dock length , depth *Torshamnen, dock length , depth *Arendal, dock length , depth *Älvsborgshamnen, dock length , depth *Skandiahamnen, dock length , depth *Skarvikshamnen, dock length , depth *Ryahamnen, dock length , depth * Eriksbergshamnen *Sannegårdshamnen, (older) dock length , depth *Lindholmshamnen, (older) dock length , depth *Lundbyhamnen, dock length , depth *Frihamnen, dock length , depth *Ringökajen, dock length , depth *Kvarnen Tre Lejon, (older) dock length , depth

Capacity and cargo

Aerial photo of Gothenburg 2013-10-27 084

In 2013 the port handled approximately 860,000

containers A container is any receptacle or enclosure for holding a product used in storage, packaging, and transportation, including shipping. Things kept inside of a container are protected on several sides by being inside of its structure. The ter ...

( TEU) and 160,000 new cars (both import and export). It has 24 scheduled rail freight shuttles, serving Norway and Sweden. The primary imports are

crude oil Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude ...

(20 million tonnes in 2013), textiles and food. The primary exports are new vehicles (trucks, cars, buses, heavy plant), steel and paper. There are specialised terminals for containers,

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 using ...

, cars, passengers (1.7 million in 2013) and oil and other energy products. The port is large and deep enough to accommodate even very large ships, such as the ''Maya'' of the

Mediterranean Shipping Company Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A. (MSC) is an international shipping line founded by Gianluigi Aponte in Italy in 1970, with headquarters in Switzerland since 1978. The privately held company is owned by the Aponte family. It has been the lar ...

that arrived at the port on 21December 2015. It was then the world's largest container ship, long with a draft of and a 19,224 TEU capacity.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Kattegat

Municipally owned companies Companies based in Gothenburg Hisingen Oil terminals Articles containing video clips

Geography

Port sections

Capacity and cargo

See also

References

External links