The Port of Gothenburg, Sweden's main port, and the Port of Bilbao, in Spain, have decided to start a collaboration aimed at promoting the modal transfer of goods by sea.
Practically half of the goods flowing between both countries are currently transported by road "and our objective is for large volumes of them to be transferred to maritime transport, which should definitely alleviate road congestions," assured Jacob Minnhagen, member of the department of Business Development of Gothenburg's Port.
For his part, the president of Bilbao's Port Authority, Asier Atutxa, pointed out that in the year 2011, the volume of goods transported by road between Sweden and Spain amounted to 1.2 million tonnes; a volume "representing a great potential market for our ports."
Noteworthy volumes of horticultural products are transported from Spain to Sweden, while Sweden's main exports to Spain include paper, steel and forest products.
Shuttle trains
As pointed out by Gothenburg's port authorities, there are currently two weekly container services between Sweden and Bilbao, one of them by MacAndrews and the other by X-press Container Line.
In addition to Bilbao's port, there are also services in operation between Gothenburg and the ports of Gijon and Valencia. "In addition to our 25 shuttle trains connecting several Swedish and Norwegian cities, our services can also compete with road transport from Spain. The shuttle trains have direct access to the port and the goods can be quickly loaded on board the ship for their transport to any place in Europe or the world.
The same thing can be done from the ship to the train, which transport the load to the inner terminals. We trust that more and more firms will show their interest in this intermodal service," concluded Jacob Minnhagen.