SOL Strengthens Gothenburg-Zeebrugge Links

Gothenburg-based shipping company Swedish Orient Line (SOL) plans to expand its departure frequency between the Port of Gothenburg in Sweden and the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium.

The company’s vessels will now depart from Gothenburg seven times a week. Until now, there have been five departures of SOL’s vessels from Gothenburg.

“We’ve seen an amazing increase in volumes during the past year and we’ve hit the ceiling in terms of capacity,” Ragnar Johansson, Chief Executive of SOL, said.

To handle the additional departures, the company has brought a new roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) vessel into service, the Ark Forwarder. The 185-meter vessel will call at the Gothenburg Roro Terminal. The ship has a capacity of about 2,700 lane meters and carries trailers, containers, SECUs and other rolling cargo.

The first departure of the Ark Forwarder is scheduled for November 24, 2016.

The Port of Gothenburg said it now offers five Ro-Ro services to Belgium with a total of 16 calls each week.

Apart from SOL, the RoRo companies CLdN and DFDS Seaways also operate services to Belgium – to Zeebrugge and Ghent respectively.

“Zeebrugge is an important freight hub for many Swedish import and export companies that operate in Belgium and northern France,” Jacob Minnhagen, Senior Manager, Business Development at Gothenburg Port Authority, said.

Belgium is Sweden’s eighth largest export market with annual exports worth around SEK 50 billion (USD 5.42 billion).