JadeWeserPort () is

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

's largest

harbour A harbor (American English), or harbour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be Mooring, moored. The t ...

project. It is supported by the states of

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

(50.1% stake) and

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

(49.9% stake). This new

container A container is any receptacle or enclosure for holding a product used in storage, packaging, and transportation, including shipping. Things kept inside of a container are protected on several sides by being inside of its structure. The term ...

port is located at

Wilhelmshaven Wilhelmshaven (, ''Wilhelm's Harbour''; Northern Low Saxon: ''Willemshaven'') is a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the western side of the Jade Bight, a bay of the North Sea, and has a population of 76,089. Wilhelmsha ...

at the

Jade Bight The Jade Bight (also known as ''Jade Bay''; , ) is a bight or bay on the North Sea coast of Germany. It was formerly known simply as (the) Jade or Jahde. Because of the very low input of freshwater, it is classified as a bay rather than an e ...

, a bay on the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

coast. It has a natural water depth in excess of 18 m.

Container ship A container ship (also called boxship or spelled containership) is a cargo ship that carries all of its load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. Container ships are a common means of commercial intermodal ...

s with a length of and draught are able to call the JadeWeserPort at any

tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables ...

. Construction work was begun in March 2008. The port was opened on 21 September 2012. However, due to the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occurred from late 2007 to mid-2009.

, the port wasn't given the warmest of welcomes, and very little TEU traffic flowed through the brand new harbour. But the container handling could be raised from 60,000 in 2014 to 712.953

twenty-foot equivalent unit The twenty-foot equivalent unit (abbreviated TEU or teu) is a general unit of cargo capacity, often used for container ships and container ports.Rowlett, 2004. It is based on the volume of a intermodal container, a standard-sized metal box tha ...

in 2021. The yearly capacity of the port is 2,700,000 TEU.

History and construction period

There have been plans for expanding the commercial operations of the harbours of Wilhelmshaven for many years. Originally a naval base, the deep water of the Jade estuary became more and more attractive for merchant shipping with the growth of ships in the 20th century. In 1958 the first pier for deep draught tankers was built. In 1993, local commercial associations made first plans for a major container terminal with initially four, later six, berths for large container vessels. After a number of delays caused by legal and administrative reasons a court ruling of 8 March 2008 allowed for the immediate commencement of construction work for the first four berths. Between then and January 2012 nearly 46 Mio m³ of sand have been flushed . Major parts of the superstructure have been finished so that administrative port authorities were able to assume their functions in August 2012.Wilhelmshavener Zeitung 1 August 2012

Characteristics

With only limited commercial activity in Wilhelmshaven's hinterland most cargo will need further transportation by feeder vessels, railway or on the road. Expectations rest with the fact that JadeWeserPort will be the easternmost deep water port in Northern Europe able to berth the largest container vessels in present and future use up to a size of 18,000

Twenty-foot equivalent unit The twenty-foot equivalent unit (abbreviated TEU or teu) is a general unit of cargo capacity, often used for container ships and container ports.Rowlett, 2004. It is based on the volume of a intermodal container, a standard-sized metal box tha ...

s. Therefore, it is hoped that a major share of the overseas container traffic of

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

n and

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages *Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originatin ...

nations including the western part of Russia will be handled here
map of feeder routes
. Growth rates in container shipping are expected to at least remain at the present 7% per year. The German railway company DB is upgrading the Wilhelmshaven–Oldenburg railway, to provide extra capacity for freight trains. The electrification of the rail connection was completed in December 2022.

Port facilities

The port area consists of the container handling zone, a logistics zone and major railway installations. There will be sixteen major cranes for the loading and unloading of ships. These cranes are at the date of their construction the largest in the world, able to handle ships with 25 parallel rows of containers. The logistics zone allows for the establishment of cargo handling facilities. The first installation is the Nordfrost fruit and reefer terminal which opened in July 2012.Wilhelmshavener Zeitung 2 August 2012 It also houses a number of authorities such as customs and agricultural services. A

marshalling yard A classification yard (American English, as well as the Canadian National Railway), marshalling yard (British, Hong Kong, Indian, and Australian English, and the former Canadian Pacific Railway) or shunting yard (Central Europe) is a railway y ...

with 16 tracks is situated at the northern edge of the port area, whereas the

goods station A goods station (also known as a goods yard or goods depot) or freight station is, in the widest sense, a railway station where, either exclusively or predominantly, goods (or freight), such as merchandise, parcels, and manufactured items, are lo ...

with six tracks for loading and unloading of trains, are located in the center of the port area between the handling and the logistics zone.

References

External links

*
Official homepage
{{Authority control Lower Saxony Ports and harbours of Germany Ports and harbours of the North Sea Wilhelmshaven