Ports of Trelleborg and Lübeck to build green shipping corridor

The Port of Trelleborg, the Port of Lübeck and German ferry company TT-Line have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to build a green shipping corridor between Lübeck-Travemünde, Germany, and Trelleborg, Sweden.

As disclosed, the agreement was signed on March 13, at the Port of Lübeck’s meeting in the Lübeck Music and Congress Hall.

The MoU and the planned activities are directly related to the EU’s “Fit for 55” strategy. The corridor is also accompanied and supported by the transport ministries of Transport of Sweden and Germany.

As a first project, both ports will build further shore power connections and shipping company TT-Line will convert four ships in its fleet to shore power. As a result, CO2 emissions are expected to be completely avoided during the ships’ time in port, according to the partners.

The fields of activity of the Green Shipping Corridor Lübeck-Travemünde Trelleborg deal with hinterland transport, port operations with vehicle fleet and energy supply, shipping, investigation of business models/incentives about CO2 savings as well as the development of approaches for the measurement of certain indicators of what should characterize a green corridor.

Jörgen Nilsson, CEO of Port of Trelleborg, welcomed this initiative, as the ports, together with the shipping companies, have an important role and solutions must be worked on together.

Furthermore, Hannes Conzen, Managing Director of TT-Line, saw this initiative as a logical necessity to set out in times of climate targets. In the future, this approach will have to be extended to the entire transport chain, he noted.

Guido Kaschel, Head of the Lübeck Port Authority, added that by taking a holistic view, the right step is being taken towards climate-neutral transport on the Baltic Sea, and thus the city’s activities for the transport turnaround in the hinterland are being continued by sea transport.

“The cooperation should not only serve as an innovative platform and exchange of information, but the goal of all partners is to decarbonize transport in the partners’ direct sphere of influence as well as to influence the entire transport chain of the goods concerned. Concrete projects and activities are to be developed jointly, among other things,” the partners concluded.