Titled Container Volumes and Terminal Capacity in North Europe II, the publication focuses on 17 European ports in the Gothenburg-Sines range (including UK), where 55 terminals handle Europe-Far East and/or Transatlantic services.

Key features include:

• Throughput of 53M TEU in 2014 (up 5% year-on-year); 80% share of total port volume in North Europe.
• 16 terminals are equipped with 104 STS gantries to handle 18,000+ TEU ships.
• 14 ports and 31 terminals handle ships larger than 10,000  TEU.
• 75 terminals in North Europe’s main ports offer plug-in connections for 51,800 reefer containers.
• 20 of the 75 terminals use a Navis TOS; Cosmos comes second.

North Europe-Far East and Transatlantic are the two major trades connecting with North Europe. The services of the 18 carriers operating in these two trades call at 17 ports in the Gothenburg-Sines range (including UK). These 17 ports’ collective 5% growth to 53M TEU in 2014 was a much higher year-on-year increase than seen in 2013 and 2012, at 2.2% and 0.2%, respectively. “As matters are, the overall prospects for 2015 are looking a bit less rosy,” noted Dynamar.

As of end-2014, the 55 terminals had a combined box handling capacity of 86M TEU, so the occupancy rate of 62% “may seem to run counter to congestion having plagued so many ports”, the report stated. It added: “The main reason for congestion was, and is, that demand doesn’t come in nice regular identical volumes to be discharged and loaded every day.

“On the contrary, even the largest ships remain prone to the elements, which sometimes cause havoc to schedule integrity. Early in the year, nearly a third of more than 9,900 vessel arrivals were off schedule.  Delayed ships may bunch up in their next North European port, which will work through further in their schedule.

“As such, a certain amount of terminal overcapacity may be considered a requirement to prevent congestion. Terminal capacity is a multiple interpretable subject, but the general  consensus is that congestion kicks in at 75% utilisation.”

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This complete item is approximately 300 words in length, and appeared in the September 2015 issue of WorldCargo News, on page 10. To access this issue download the PDF here.