Stockholm Norvik Port readies for opening

Stockholm Norvik Port, a new deep sea port for rolling goods and container traffic, is preparing for its debut scheduled to take place later this year.

Described as “the Baltic Sea freight port of the future”, the port will be located some 50 kilometres south of Stockholm and a couple of kilometres north of Nynäshamn.

As the new port is in the middle of the growing Stockholm Miller Valley region, it is expected to bring considerable environmental advantages, as more goods would be transported by sea instead of by road.

Stockholm Norvik Port is expected to open in May 2020 and will replace the current CTF container terminal at Frihamnen in Stockholm. The new container terminal will be run by Hutchison Ports. During the autumn of 2020, the RoRo section of Stockholm Norvik Port will also open.

Over the past few months, Stockholm Norvik Port has been receiving new environmentally-friendly equipment that would ensure efficiency at the port’s facilities.

The largest container cranes in the Baltic Sea have been in place at Stockholm Norvik Port since March.

The cranes each measure 120 meters tall at their maximum height setting and have a lifting capacity of just over 80 tonnes. The cranes can straddle width of 22 containers and can serve the largest vessels of the world without any height restrictions.

They will be operated remotely from a control centre in the port’s main building, with no operator on the cranes themselves, and 80 per cent of the lifting will be automated.

“The super-post-Panamax cranes are the largest on the Swedish east coast and they are adapted to handle the largest container vessels operating in the Baltic Sea,” Johan Wallén, Director of Sales and Marketing at Ports of Stockholm, explained.

The cranes were built in Shanghai in China and the electrical and control systems were supplied by ABB in Sweden.

Stockholm Norvik Port also took delivery of the first two straddle carriers in February. These are the first of a total of eight straddle carriers that will handle containers at the port.

Initially, the straddle carriers will be manually operated but are intended to be completely automated and operate autonomously within the next couple of years.

The carriers, which were built by the Chinese company ZPMC, are almost 16 metres in height, weigh 70 tonnes and can build stacks four containers high.

In March, a smart buoy was installed in the shipping fairway just outside Stockholm Norvik Port. 

As explained, this is an energy-efficient navigation beacon with the technology to position-monitor and remotely adjust the buoy’s light intensity. It has a diameter of 80 centimetres and is 10 metres high, 3.5 metres of which can be seen above the surface of the water. It is equipped with LED lights and a battery capacity sufficient for five years of operation. A 25 metre-long cable chain and 14 tonne concrete attachment ensure that the buoy is securely anchored on the sloping sea bed.

The buoy is part of the EU Intelligent Sea project, which is using digitalisation to improve safety and efficiency in shipping fairways.

“Participating in the EU Intelligent Sea project gives us the opportunity to test new marine technologies and innovations. Collaboration within the EU and new innovations are important success factors in achieving results that are better for the environment and improve the digitalisation of our port and shipping operations,” Jonas Andersson, Nautical Coordinator at Ports of Stockholm, said.

More and more of the floating navigation aids in shipping fairways today are electronic. The green buoy has remote monitoring, which means that Ports of Stockholm has continuous access to information, resulting in better control and reduced maintenance requirements, as well as providing better maritime safety at Stockholm Norvik Port.