In May and June, the port company Kvarken Ports will work together with VASEK to produce a report on the potential stream of goods to and from the ports in order to chart the true transportation volume of the region’s industries and other operators. The report forms a part of the E12 Atlantica Transport project which aims to develop the E12 route. One part of the project is to produce various reports and pilot cases together with the companies involved. Kvarken Ports is an important operator along the E12 route, and the report will support the development of both Kvarken Ports and the route.

This week, Sales and Marketing Manager Markus Rönnblom from Kvarken Ports has sent a questionnaire to forwarding agents and top industrial companies in the region inquiring about their potential transportation quantities for piece goods, containers and trailer transport.

“I hope to receive replies to the questionnaire by the end of next week at the latest, after which I will contact the companies and conduct advanced interviews at the end of May and early June. During these interviews, we will be able to go through the replies in more depth and I will be able to ask more detailed questions as necessary,” Rönnblom explains.

One important question in the questionnaire is which port would the companies prefer for the feeder service, i.e. the regular freight traffic.

“We want to know whether it is Antwerp, Bremerhaven, Hamburg, Rotterdam or perhaps another port. The basic goal of the questionnaire is to find out future transportation volumes so that we can negotiate with shipping companies about starting the freight service. Various operators have plainly expressed their serious need for a feeder connection and that is why the situation must be carefully charted,” Rönnblom says.

VASEK carried out a similar questionnaire in 2012 and the results showed that there was indeed demand for such a service.

“The previous feeder service was not in operation for long, so now we want to lay the foundations for this connection even better than before and receive commitments from several companies for their use of the potential new route,” logistics expert Riitta Björkenheim explains. “There was plenty of demand for it then too, it just takes some time for the service to get into full swing and become profitable.

All the replies from companies to the questionnaire will be handled with absolute confidentiality and any material presented to the public will provide information in the form of summaries and total sums.

“This is very important information about the negotiations with shipping companies and it will all be scrutinised in the autumn at our joint workshop, to which all the operators who have answered the questionnaire will be invited," Rönnblom says and continues:

“As well as the examination into transportation needs and volume, we have invested heavily in the new design of the quay infrastructure, which will support the concurrent use of different loading methods.”

For additional information contact:

Markus Rönnblom
Kvarken Ports
+358 (0)440 - 987 415
markus.ronnblom@kvarkenports.com