Esbjerg Harbour has DKK 41.2m in profits
PORTS: 2008 was a good year for Esbjerg Harbour. Especially the discharge of windmill parts grew significantly, whereas other business areas such as containers and trailers moved in the opposite direction
The increased activity level of windmill trade has influenced the growth in the annual result of 12 per cent to DKK 41.2 million extensively - this is the best result for Esbjerg Harbour so far. The turnover increased by 10 per cent to DKK 119 million.
The turnover growth has especially been important for area let, ship taxes and let of crane capacity, that is areas, which reflect increased activity in windmill trade.
Cargo turnover over quay dropped in 2008 by 18 per cent to 3.8 million tonnes. The reason is that there have only been discharged 287,000 tonnes of coal compared to 943,000 tonnes in 2007. The cargo turnover without coal has dropped by 5 per cent.
Container and trailer turnover has dropped by 18 and 2 per cent respectively. The decrease is due to the global recession, which was especially noticeable in the fourth quarter.
General cargo has increased by 28 per cent. Windmill parts trade, which is included in this group, has risen by 111 per cent.
Solid bulk has decreased by 32 per cent to one million tonnes. The decline is due to coal discharge, see above. The fact that the decrease is this low is due to positive development in stone/gravel, which grew by 42 per cent. Liquid bulk dropped by 42 per cent, which among other things is caused by a decline in discharge of mineral oil products and stop in discharge of industrial fish.
2009 has also begun well for Esbjerg Harbour with the opening of two new services: Sea-Cargo has expanded its service network to include Amsterdam and Smyril Line has chosen Esbjerg as port of call for the shipping company's activities in the Faroe Islands and Iceland. Furthermore, Cobelfret has expanded their service to Zeebrugge to include two weekly calls.
Source: maritimedanmark.dk
