Gateway to the Baltic
“We have been working to create the new port since 1997. Its competitive edge is clearly increasing as a result of the economies of scale offered by amalgamation,” says Henning Hummelmose, managing director of the Port of Copenhagen.
The Port of Copenhagen is synonymous with the city of Copenhagen. For a thousand years, the area was simply known as Havn (’port’). It developed into a commercial centre and acquired the name købmændenes havn – ’the merchants’ port’. This was later abbreviated to its present name, København in Danish. Today, the city is the hub of the large Øresund region following the establishment of the fixed link between Denmark and Sweden.
On 15 May 2001, the two ports of Copenhagen and Malmö amalgamated to form a single port authority, acting as the joint Danish–Swedish port for the Øresund region under the name of Copenhagen Malmö Port AB. The combined potential of the two ports makes the joint port a natural hub, not just for the Øresund region with its 3.5 million inhabitants, but also as a port of call for the entire Baltic Sea area including Germany, Sweden and Finland and the large new markets in Poland, the Baltic States and Russia.
“We have been working to create the new port since 1997. Its competitive edge is clearly increasing as a result of the economies of scale offered by amalgamation,” says Henning Hummelmose, managing director of the Port of Copenhagen. “Even now, just a few months after amalgamating, we are seeing an increase in efficiency through the rationalisations that the merger has brought about.”
The plan is to operate the port on both sides of Øresund, but it will largely be up to the users of the port to decide how it will look in future.
“The port must live on market terms,” says Hummelmose. “Our success depends on how well we are able to read future requirements. That is why we are also undertaking a very large and ambitious investment programme of almost DKK 1 bn over the next four years.” The new port authority will have a combined goods handling capacity of 15 million tn. The links to Norway, Sweden, Poland and the Danish island of Bornholm. The port has a direct connection to a comprehensive network of motorways in Co-penhagen and Malmö, also offering direct rail connections and close links to norther Europe’s largest airport at Kastrup, Copenhagen.
The Port of Copenhagen is a State-owned company, which, in addition to operating a traditional commercial port, also has the task of developing harbour areas that are now superfluous as a result of modern port operation. Old quays and many old warehouses have formed the basis of exciting new precincts in the heart of Copenhagen. Today, the port authority offers many hundreds of leases covering a total area of approximately 4 million m2. Currently, approximately 60 per cent of the port area is used for normal port operation. In the longer term, approximately another 10 per cent is to be developed as residences and commercial buildings.
www.cphport.dk
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