In early December, a Danish record left Danish Crown in Horsens and drove along the E45 motorway to the Port of Aarhus, where it was loaded onto a container ship. Thus, almost one month before the end of the year, the Port of Aarhus has broken its own record, which was set last year: 540,363 containers (TEUs), the equivalent of one container per minute, 365 days of the year.

Accordingly, for the remainder of December, any containers lifted across the wharf at the Port of Aarhus will simply be adding to this year’s container turnover record. And this growth will be building on the past two years’ progress of about 20%.

At the start of the year, the CCO, Nicolai Krøyer was fully expecting the Port of Aarhus to break its own container turnover record in 2019. Nonetheless, he is surprised that it has happened after about 11 months.

“Despite everything, we are building on a two-year period of 20% growth. So it is extremely positive that every single container lifted across the wharf from today and for the rest of the year will simply add to the progress in turnover figures,” says Nicolai Krøyer.

He estimates that some of the country’s major export companies are busy and transporting far more goods out of Denmark than at the same time last year.

“If my intuition is right, export is on the up, and that also means increased employment. That is certainly a very positive situation,” says Nicolai Krøyer.

He has also noted that the Port of Hamburg is delighted with its 6.9% progress in the first 9 months of the year, while the average growth amongst the Port of Hamburg’s competitors is 3.4%.

“Based on these figures, I can see that we are well positioned in the market, and I am pretty sure that we are currently getting our fair share of both the national and international markets,” says Nicolai Krøyer.

The Port of Aarhus is looking forward to a continued increase in container turnover in 2020, when a brand new container shipping company will also start calling in at the Port of Aarhus as part of a regular service. Greenland’s Royal Arctic Line has entered into an agreement to sail together with the Icelandic shipping company, Eimskip, which already accounts for a significant part of the turnover at the Port of Aarhus.

Port of Aarhus