Using short sea for climate friendly export

The Swedish forest industry group Södra has taken steps to optimise and stabilise the export process for Sweden’s ‘green gold’ by introducing a new logistics arrangement via the Port of Gothenburg.

“Here at Mima Terminal, we have all the necessary infrastructure in place to efficiently containerise the pulp bales in our facility, strategically located next to APM Terminals’ quay,” said Michael Bergman, CEO of Mima Terminal.

”We are very proud to offer the industry an alternative to truck transport in the port and in this case, Södra is a pioneer.”

Greener logistics

For centuries, the Swedish forest has been a cornerstone of the Swedish export industry and it remains in high demand. In 2022, Sweden exported forest products worth almost €20 billion, more than ever before.

Historically, pulp from Södra was transported by rail and truck from Södra’s production facility in Mönsterås on the Swedish east coast, for transshipment at Mima Terminals’ facilities in the Port of Gothenburg. There, the bales were loaded into containers for further global delivery by road.

But now, in part to be able to handle rapid volume growth, as well as to optimise the transports from an emissions perspective, the new solution establishes an alternative corridor where pulp volumes are transported by sea between Mönsterås and the Port of Gothenburg.

When a bulk carrier departs from Mönsterås, it is loaded with up to 5,600 tonnes of pulp (equivalent to 140 trucks). Thirty-six hours later, the ship arrives at the container terminal in the Port of Gothenburg operated by APM Terminals.

Mima Terminal unloads Södra’s time-chartered vessels, containerises and temporarily stores the pulp before shipping it via container vessels to markets on other continents.