Port of Trelleborg – a designated core port in Europe
More than half of all Swedish imports and exports pass through Sweden’s core ports. This makes the core ports the most important ports for Swedish industry. Trelleborgs Hamn is Sweden’s largest RoRo port, a fact that has led the EU to designate Port of Trelleborg as a so-called core port. Sweden’s five core ports are Port of Trelleborg, Port of Stockholm Port, Port of Gothenburg, Copenhagen Malmö Port (CMP) and Luleå Port. They are thus classified as some of the most strategically important ports in Europe and play a central role in the development of the European transport corridors and networks.
The EU has selected 83 ports throughout Europe which should be the core of a core network, a “Core Network”. To simplify cooperation and holding together the network, EU has decided to form nine transport corridors and we are part of the
Scandinavian-Mediterranean Corridor which runs from Finland on the Russian border and down through Europe to Valletta in the south of Italy. The corridor is the longest and largest corridor that includes 26 ports from 47 regions in eight countries.
The advantage of being a core port and be featured in a corridor, is that it is this network that will be given priority in infrastructure investments. Being a core port strengthens Port of Trelleborg’s role as a port and it becomes even clearer when the port’s partner ports in Travemünde, Rostock and Swinoujscie are also selected core ports where the first two are also in the same corridor as the Port of Trelleborg.
Infrastructure investments
Port of Trelleborg is constantly working to develop the port and has parallel to infrastructure investments worked to apply for grants from the transport unit (TEN-T) in the EU since 2005. The port has thus received partial funding on their investments which is important because the port pays all investments with own and/or borrowed funds. Port of Trelleborg is currently engaged in different major EU project and has earlier received several applications approved, partly due to the fact that Port of Trelleborg is an important part of European transport corridors.
The investments we have received grants for are: the Logistics centre, intermodal terminal in the east which can take 2×750 , berth 9, inspection facility, truck computers, cargo handling systems, reconstruction of berth 8 including siding, storage areas, power supply, waste water, stormwater treatment, part of the dredging and breakwaters, ferry berth 10 which can take 240 m long vessels, planning for demolition and new design of Mittelbron, land filling works in the eastern part of the port, ferry berths 13 and 14 including dredging, bottleneck removal by road crossing solution over rail tracks, and also demolition work of existing railway tracks, paving and filling works at berth 7.
Furthermore, Port of Trelleborg has received financial support in several innovation projects to promote technical development in the transport industry in Europe.