Posted on February 4, 2021
Third-phase expansion of the giant Skandinavienkai in the German Baltic port of Lübeck will pave the way for the arrival of a new generation of Finnish RoRo ships, writes Tom Todd.
The 749,000 m2 Skandinavienkai, served by nine RoRo berths on 9.5m of water along a 2.1km stretch of the Trave River, is now getting about 60,000 m2 of additional handling space and a 10,000 m2 multi-purpose warehouse. Site preparation is already underway and warehouse construction starts in April, reported port operator Lübecker Hafen Gesellschaft (LHG).
The aim is to cope with anticipated additional RoRo business within what LHG MD Sebastian Jürgens describes as “a difficult market situation”.
Skandinavienkai is one of four big handling facilities operated by the LHG, which describes itself as Germany’s biggest RoRo operator on the Baltic. The port handled 21.8 million tons last year and is particularly active in the Baltic paper products and vehicle trades.
The expanded Skandinavienkai will offer additional handling clout and be available from the end of the year.
Customers will include Finland’s new Wallenius SOL, which is to operate a new generation of RoRo cargo carriers from year’s end. Those eco-friendly 242 x 35.2m 20 knot ships will boast 5,800 lane m apiece and be LNG-powered.
The first major customer of the new hall will be existing client – wood and renewable products firm Stora Enso, which will store forestry products there.
Sixteen hectares and a 25,000m2 multi-functional warehouse have already been added during previous Skandinavienkai expansion phases. The existing warehouse can store up to 35,000 tons of forestry products. The City of Lübeck represented by the Lübeck Port Authority (LPA) is ploughing €46 million into the expansion up to the end of 2021 of which €30 million is coming from the state of Schleswig-Holstein. The city is also paying €18.5 million for the two new warehouses. Previous construction work has been in the hands of a consortium headed by Bickhardt Bau and Bickhardt Bau Thüringen.
Lübeck Mayor Jan Lindenau said the city and federal state investment underscored the importance of Lübeck as a Baltic port hub. Referring to the speed of Skandinavienkai expansion in recent years he said it “had proved that infrastructure projects like this can be realised on time when needs must”.
