According to the port and shipping authority another million tonnes was loaded and unloaded at other port facilities in Rostock, such as the chemical port of Yara and the cargo and fishing port. The amounts of cargo at all the port facilities of Rostock thus showed additional growth with a handling increase of five percent compared to the first six months of last year. The number of ferry passengers carried to and from Northern Europe also increased by 45,000 to 931,000. “Through their interaction all port companies in Rostock, all the shipping companies, forwarders and railway companies operating here have made sure that cargo handling in the ports on river Warnow continues to grow”, says Jens A. Scharner, Managing Director of Rostock Port / Hafen-Entwicklungsgesellschaft Rostock (Rostock Port Development Company).
Rostock Overseas Port
At 13.9 million tonnes of goods handled at the overseas port, last year’s result was exceeded by 800,000 tonnes or six percent. Eight million tonnes came from the wheeled cargo of ferry and ro-ro traffic. There was an increase by 600,000 tonnes or nine percent in this segment. The share of ferry and ro-ro goods in the overall handling at the all-purpose port of Rostock amounted to 58 percent in the first six months. 42 percent or 5.9 million tonnes were achieved with the handling of dry and liquid bulk goods and general cargo, which means an increase by 200,000 tonnes or four percent.
Rostock Overseas Port recorded 4,011 calls by ferry, ro-ro, cargo and cruise vessels in the first six months of the year, 3,069 of which were port calls by ferries and ro-ro vessels.
Wheeled cargo
178,258 trucks (accompanied units) were carried on the three ferry and four ro-ro services to and from Denmark, Sweden and Finland, an increase of eight percent. Handling of unaccompanied units also increased, with 64,737 trailers having been loaded and unloaded (+ four percent). Furthermore, 11,548 railway wagons were carried by sea during the first six months of 2016.
Bulk goods and general cargo
The handling of liquid goods during the first six months of 2016 increased slightly to just over 1.3 million tonnes compared to the first half of last year. More petrol, gas and fuel oil as well as rapeseed oil were pumped across the edge of the quay.
There was again an increase in the handling of dry bulk goods by three percent to 4.2 million tonnes. The handling of grain (brewer’s barley, barley, malt, rye and wheat) was around 200,000 tonnes above the first half of 2015, totalling 2.2 million tonnes. Grain handling accounts for more than half of all dry bulk goods moved. Apart from grain handling there were also notable increases in the handling of rapeseed (plus 160,000 tonnes) and of the fertilizer Yara Axan (plus 60,000 tonnes).
In the general cargo division, 380,000 tonnes of cargo were hoisted over the sides. This amount is on the level of the previous year.
Projects and Investments
The Port Development Company plans to spend about 14 million Euro on capital expenditure in areas and buildings this year, of which 4.6 million Euro are earmarked for further measures to improve the traffic flow and just under ten million Euro will be spent on new quay facilities”, explains Jens A. Scharner. Over and above this the Port Development Company has assumed the overall cost of the new berth 7 in Warnemünde in the amount of Euro 7.7million, which was newly built by the Hanseatic City of Rostock during the winter half-years 2013/2014 and 2015/2016.
Construction of a new marshalling area for trucks of about two hectares began on pier 2 at the end of 2015 and was completed this spring. South of quay shed 4 the construction of a new marshalling area for trailers of around one hectare was begun. This area will be ready for use already in August 2016.
Initial land preparation activities are planned still in autumn 2016 for the new partial access point to federal motorway A19 which will offer an additional connection to the industrial port in order to reduce congestion of traffic to and from the ferry port and the industrial port. This involves the shifting of a gas pipeline and the demolition of the signal box complex of Deutsche Bahn. Simultaneously, the public works planning procedure is to start under the leadership of the state authority for road construction and traffic.
Also in autumn 2016, construction is to start for a new two-lane bridge structure to the eastern, as yet undeveloped part of the port. A legally valid building permission has already been obtained.
At the ferry terminal the quarter ramp and gangway from berth 66 have been set up at berth 53. The bridge ramp and the gangway are in operation by now. Lengthy planning permission procedures have delayed the relocation of the passenger gangway. The modern ferry landing stage newly built in 2012 at berth 43 was activated and successfully commissioned by the new vessel generation for the ferry line Rostock-Gedser after a trial phase. Berthing and casting off are almost fully automatic there.
Two further focal points involve sustainability projects of the port operator. As a statutory compensation measure for infrastructure projects at the port the Port Development Company invests in the creation of a park-like area of around 20 hectares east of Werftallee in Gross Klein. This plot is owned by the Port Development Company and will be improved into a nature experience area until the end of 2016.
Furthermore the Port Development Company has begun to improve the nature conservation value of the ‘Diedrichshäger Moor’, a bog near Warnemünde. This measure was approved and granted planning permission in 2009. It will be available to the port as potential compensation in nature protection for future extensions at the existing special-purpose area of the port via an eco-account.
The plan is to upgrade this area and especially to perform the extensive earthmoving of degenerated bog soil still to be done, in an environmentally compatible manner, within the next two to three years. Approx. 90,000 cubic metres of soil will have been removed by the end of 2016.
For the first time an individual notification procedure has been carried out successfully according to the new regulations of the European Union for a harbour construction project at the overseas port, namely for the new building of berth 23 with a capital expenditure of approx. 20 million Euro. Rostock Port Development Company assumes that this construction project, which is important for the future development of the dry bulk handling, will be able to go forward speedily.
The start of the reconditioning of the sheet-pile wall at berths 21 and 22 is yet planned for the autumn of 2016. Once this is completed, work on berth 23 is to follow suit in 2017.