Container services are developing fast in the North Sea. The average growth has been between 8 and 9 % per annum. To meet this demand new ports and ships are built. The size of the ships is growing. New ships built for the service in northern Europe have a capacity of between 900 and 2 000 TEU (15 000 25 000 dwt).

Baltic Sea activities have a large influence on the development in North Sea ports. The situation and development in Russia is determining the demand for container traffic in the Baltic and the North Sea in future. Shipping services in the North Sea are mainly fast and regular roro pendulum shipping systems. The services are in competition with land transport modes in North-South shipping directions. Ferry shipping services are an essential part of the land transport infrastructure for land transport modes in locations where it is necessary to cross the water in the North Sea and in the Baltic Sea.

Sea transport also provides shipping services where road and rail infrastructure is too poor to provide a proper transport service. Imbalances in container shipping flows give rise to a demand of repositioning containers from areas having a surplus of empty containers (consumption areas that import consumer products delivered in containers) to areas having a demand of containers (industrial areas having products to be delivered to the global market). The export industry in the Baltic Sea Area benefits from this situation as the deep sea container operators provide the shipping service at a marginal cost for products shipped east-bound in containers which in another case would be shipped empty on the return voyage.

Containers shipped by container ships in the North Sea area are mainly shipped on feeder ships between the North Sea container hubs in the North Sea and the ports in the Baltic Sea, the Iberian Peninsula or other remote ports in the area. The North Sea container port hubs are also being enlarged to accept larger vessel and more containers. There are major projects in Hamburg, Bremerhaven, Wilhelmshaven and Rotterdam.

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