Port of Gothenburg

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The municipally-owned Port of Gothenburg (Göteborgs hamn) is the largest port in the Nordic countries, with over 11,000 ship visits per year from over 140 destinations worldwide. As the only Swedish port with the capacity to cope with the very largest modern, ocean-going container ships, Gothenburg handles nearly 30% of the country's foreign trade, comprising 39 million tonnes of freight per year.GeographyThe port is situated on both sides of the estuary of Göta älv in Gothenburg. The north shore, Norra Älvstranden, is on Hisingen island and the south shore, Södra Älvstranden, is on the mainland. It is a combined river and coastal port and the total length of the dock is 13.1km.Port sectionsThe port is divided into a number of sections or harbors.Capacity and cargoIn 2013 the port handled approximately 860,000 containers (TEU) and 160,000 new cars (both import and export). It has 24 scheduled rail freight shuttles, serving Norway and Sweden.The primary imports are crude oil (20 million tonnes in 2013), textiles and food. The primary exports are new vehicles (trucks, cars, buses, heavy plant), steel and paper. There are specialised terminals for containers, ro-ro, cars, passengers (1.7 million in 2013) and oil and other energy products.The port is large and deep enough to accommodate even very large ships, such as the Maya of the Mediterranean Shipping Company that arrived at the port on 21December 2015. It was then the world's largest container ship, 396m long with a draft of 16m and a 19,224 TEU capacity.