Port of Gothenburg freezes port charges
The Gothenburg Port Authority has decided to leave the Port Tariff unchanged. As a result, the Port Tariff for 2016 will remain at the 2015 level. Magnus Kårestedt, Port of Gothenburg chief executive, said: “Our aim behind this move is to reinforce the growth of industry, shipping and the port.”
All ships calling at the Port of Gothenburg pay a port charge based on the ship’s gross weight and classification. The port charge is used to finance, for example, fairway maintenance, traffic information systems and safety at the port.
“Shipping costs become transport costs for industry. By doing our utmost to keep the port charge down, we can contribute to maintaining a strong cluster of shipping companies in Gothenburg and a broad range of services to key markets,” said Magnus Kårestedt.
Growth in Swedish exports and the import of goods have been modest in recent years, a trend reflected in the flow of goods at the Port of Gothenburg.
According to Magnus Kårestedt, there are positive signs from industry. “We can see that leaving the Port Tariff unchanged is one of the means that we can employ to really boost growth. We also hope that other parties in the transport chain do everything in their power to keep costs to a minimum. The state fairway charges, for example, don’t exist throughout the rest of Europe and simply make transport more expensive for Swedish industry.”
It pays to be green
Ships that demonstrate good environmental performance receive a discount on the port charge at the Port of Gothenburg. Two indexes are used as a basis for calculating the environmental discount – the Environmental Ship Index, which is used at many ports throughout the world, and the Clean Shipping Index, which is an environmental index where the cargo owners rate ships and shipping companies. Ships that switch to running on liquefied natural gas, LNG, receive a further discount.
Discount on inland waterways
A further port charge discount is aimed at inland shipping. Ships that are classed according to the Inland Waterway standard and operate in the Gothenburg–Lake Vänern area, receive a generous 25 per cent discount on the port charge.