Intermodal Connections Ensure Low Environmental Impact

Sweden and Germany are two highly developed industrial countries whose long-standing economic relations are based on strong foreign trade. Germany is one of Sweden’s most important trading partners, and this relationship is also reflected in the numerous connections between German North and Baltic Sea ports and the Scandinavian country. For example, last year, the Port of Lübeck handled nearly nine million tons in traffic with Sweden. In Hamburg, 292,000 TEU were handled at the quays.

(Hamburg) Experts discussed how to make connections even more environmentally friendly at the event “Intermodal Transport Connections – an Answer to Climate Change” in Trelleborg, organized by the Lübeck Port Company mbH (LHG), the Port of Trelleborg, and Hafen Hamburg Marketing e.V. (HHM). Marina Basso Michael, Regional Director Europe at HHM, and Håkan Nilsson, Director of Industry at the Swedish Freight Forwarders Association, led the event and emphasized the need for joint trade for all parties involved in the transport chain right from the start. “In light of high CO2 emissions, it is important to drive the systemic change towards climate neutrality,” emphasized Basso Michael during the welcome speech. The panel discussion was subsequently moderated by Håkan Nilsson, Director of Industry at the Swedish Freight Forwarders Association. Many stakeholders in the transport between Sweden and Germany are already on a good path. Jörgen Nilsson, Managing Director of the Port of Trelleborg, presented the ambitious plans of Sweden’s second-largest port to achieve climate neutrality by 2040, highlighting the necessary expansion of hinterland connections. In Germany, the Port of Lübeck is working to make its operations more environmentally friendly. “As the most important consolidation point for traffic to and from Sweden, LHG continues to advocate for the development of sustainable, shortest connections that include intermodal transport and ferry services. To this end, we are expanding our intermodal terminal while also adapting to the new, larger, and more environmentally friendly ship systems,” said Ortwin Harms, Managing Director of the Lübeck Port Company mbH. Another milestone towards more environmentally friendly transport is the ferry services in the Baltic Sea with the LNG-powered ferries of TT-Line, which Christian Carl, Head of Intermodal at TT-Line GmbH & Co. KG, presented. Furthermore, Jörg Ulrich, Managing Director of European Cargo Logistics GmbH, emphasized the need for horizontal cooperation among market participants. Additionally, there must be a fair distribution of financial risks when introducing new environmentally friendly hinterland transport solutions. What other solutions could exist will be explored by the EU project Blue Supply Chains (https://interreg-baltic.eu/project/bluesupplychains/). “We started in January this year with 20 partners to identify further methods for emissions reduction in ports,” explained Inga Gurries, Head of Market Development Asia and Project Manager at HHM. Perhaps one of the outcomes will be to standardize penalties for polluters in the European Union. This was at least called for by Uwe Sondermann, Managing Director of Kombiconsult GmbH, who linked this to the hope of being able to implement more environmentally friendly measures in the industry more quickly, even if they involve higher financial costs. Photo: © Kombiverkehr