Concern about the impact of sulphur emission restrictions on the cost of transporting forest products by sea have been expressed at the Baltic Shipping Days conference in Sundsvall.
A the November 17-18 conference, an international logistics forum, the Swedish Forest Industry Federation raised concerns about the sulphur restrictions, due to be implemented in 2015.
“The effect will be an increased cost of SKr27bn per annum,” said Karolina Boholm, who is responsible for transport at the federation.
SCA Transforest president Magnus Svensson later told TTJ that the cost effect on wood products would be about €5 per m³.
Conference delegates also heard that fewer but larger container terminals were needed on the Baltic coast.
“There are 50 container terminals along the Baltic coast and they are operating at less than 60% of capacity, as an average,” said Wando Bouvé, commercial director of Hutchinson Port Holdings, the world’s largest container terminal operator.
“We need a strategy for fewer but bigger container terminals with complete infrastructure and the capacity to handle larger vessels than today.
He also said container transport needed to be more efficient in Europe, as only 44% of the annual cost for goods transport in Europe was actually transport of goods. The rest is moving empty container, railcars and trucks.
