WALLENIUS SOL expands service in Bothnia
WALLENIUS SOL is now expanding its service in the Gulf of Bothnia to link Skelleftehamn with Finland, Zeebrugge and Antwerp.
WALLENIUS SOL continues to develop its offering and improve the infrastructure in the Gulf of Bothnia. In conjunction with an agreement concerning transport logistics concluded between logistics company Scanlog and Northvolt, WALLENIUS SOL is now including its first Swedish commercial port in its route network. The service will involve weekly traffic to the Port of Skellefteå beginning October 2021.
“In our discussions with industry, we identified a need for reliable, regular weekly traffic to link the Port of Skellefteå to the continent. So it’s especially gratifying now that we can offer both feeder and RoRo services to the region,” says Jonas Wåhlin, General Manager, WALLENIUS SOL.
Thanks to the new Zeebrugge-Antwerp-Kokkola-Skelleftehamn-Kemi-Oulu route, the Port of Skellefteå will now get its first feeder service after 15 years, this time combined with RoRo traffic for machines, trailers and rolling freight including breakbulk and rolltrailers.
“There will be a natural inflow of containers that can be reloaded and used by industry in and around Skellefteå. Now that we’re linking the Swedish Norrland coast with Finland, we’re also opening up for haulage and empty container positioning between the countries,” says Jonas Wåhlin.
In the initial stage, the chartered vessels Fiona Sea and Jutlandia Sea will be plying the route. At the end of the year, they will be replaced by WALLENIUS SOL’s newly built vessels, which will be the world’s biggest ice-rated, multi-fuel RoRo vessels, and just over 50 metres longer than the ships that used to call at the Port of Skellefteå. But according to Port Manager Lars Widelund, they are well prepared:
“We noted the trends back in 2012, and we recently adapted the fairway in order to accommodate larger vessels. In practice, this means we’ve dredged and widened the fairway into the inner harbour where the RoRo traffic berths. It also means we’ll be able to accommodate traffic during the darkest part of the day,” says Lars Widelund.
