Capacity crisis brewing in north Europe

A report from the bank claims that original annual growth estimates for container traffic of 9.2% have not reflected reality, which it believes is for higher annual growth in the region of 11%.

Under these calculations, container traffic will have reached 77m teu in northern Europe by 2015; the four above mentioned ports handle just 34m teu.

The bank has therefore urged the ports to develop infrastructure to accommodate this extra traffic. Existing development programmes suggest that by 2015 projected capacity will already have been absorbed.

Even the arrival of JadeWeserPort, which will have a capacity of 2.7m teu/year, will represent a drop in the ocean in terms of what is actually needed in northern Europe.

By 2012, 173 container vessels will be operating in the 10,000 teu-13,000 teu range; in 2008, there are just eight. The majority of these will be deployed on routes between Asia and Europe, which will make it incumbent upon ports to build infrastructure to accommodate them, the study warned.