Port of Kiel gains container wayport status

01 Feb 2012 - Cargo volumes and throughput, Containers, Shipping

• TransAtlantic adds port to service network

• Company's Bothnia Line will make a weekly call at the German port

The Port of Kiel has gained container wayport status by being added to the liner service network of Gothenburg-based shipping company TransAtlantic.

With immediate effect, ships serving on the company’s Bothnia Line between Kerni/Oulu, Finland and Zeebrugge/Antwerp, Belgium will now make a weekly stop in the German Port of Kiel.

Container part loads destined for overseas destinations via Hamburg are now being unloaded in the Ostuferhafen.

“We are profiting here from our location on the Kiel Canal. Our wayport function is a good example of co-operation between Kiel and Hamburg because it means that Finnish cargo can continue to be handled by north German seaports,” said Dr Dirk Claus, Managing Director of the Port of Kiel.

Containers unloaded for TransAtlantic are transported from Kiel by shuttle train to Hamburg terminals and loaded there for overseas destinations.

The first Bothnia Line ship, the Transpine, a 179 meter RoLo vessel of 20,850 GT, arrived at the Ostuferhafen on Monday morning. Inside three hours, more than 100 containers were offloaded by two cranes.

The Seehafen Kiel operates Kiel’s commercial port on behalf of the Schleswig-Holstein state capital, of which it is a 100% subsidiary. Last year the port handled more than 28,000 TEUs.

The Port of Kiel turned round more than six million tonnes of cargo in 2011 for the first time ever.