CONTAINER volume during the first quarter of 2012 at Gothenburg port increased 0.9 per cent year on year to 233,000 TEU, marking a new quarterly record for container movements through the facility, the Baltic Transport Journal reported.

Of the total container traffic, 108,000 TEU were carried to and from the port via the RailPort Scandinavia network, which registered a rise of 11.3 per cent compared to the same period last year. One rail link that is doing particularly well is the newly started shuttle to Sundsvall, which is the network's most northerly rail shuttle destination.

While container traffic rose, the Port of Gothenburg registered falls in other volumes in the first quarter: ro-ro 139,000 cargo units (-5.4 per cent); cars 46,000 (-29.2 per cent); liquid cargo 5.3 million tonnes (-3.6 per cent); and passengers totalled 242,000 (-8.3 per cent).