That and other information is available in a report entitled North European Containerport Markets to 2025 available from Ocean Shipping Consultants, part of the Royal Haskoning group.

OSC finds that the structure of regional demand is changing. The following are some examples:

* Transshipment demand is increasing.

* Deep-sea calling patterns are being altered, with the emergence of direct deep-sea services in the eastern Baltic, and associated scope for transshipment hubbing within the region. Inland transport costs are increasing rapidly and this - together with increasing environmental pressures - is highlighting the need for intermodal transport solutions. Supporting investment programmes are becoming critical, and intermodal contractual commitments are often at the centre of investment planning.

* Much larger vessels have entered the Europe-Far East trades, and more are coming on. The pressure on water depth, quay length, port access and the consignment sizes handled by terminals, represent major issues that must be addressed to maintain competitive position.

* The container shipping market is in crisis, with severe overcapacity resulting in lines recording huge losses. The position of the lines as customers and as users of North European container terminals is generating considerable uncertainty.

Though the outlook in the short term remains uncertain, due primarily to macro-economic issues in the euro-zone, long-term prospects are strong, and demand growth will be positive in the forecast period. There will be far-reaching changes in terminal ownership, use and related investments.

In the report, historical growth in containerport throughput is detailed by port, country and port region. The study provides separate forecasts of gateway and transshipment demand to 2025, based on three economic scenarios. The forecast distribution of transshipment is related to the relative advantages of different ports, carriers' decisions and capacity availability.

Ongoing and planned investment projects are reviewed in detail. Containerport capacity and resulting supply/demand balances are forecast to 2020.

The following port regions are covered:

* European North Continent: with the western part comprising ports in northern France, Belgium and the Netherlands; and the eastern part comprising ports on Germany's North-Sea coast;

* British Isles: UK and Republic of Ireland;

* Scandinavia and other Baltic: Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Baltic Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland.

Some major report findings

* Containerport throughput in North Europe increased by 84per cent over 2001-11, and by 17 percent over 2006-11, to 57.9 million TEUs.

* Throughput grew most rapidly in the eastern Baltic, which saw a 395 percent increase over 2001-11, and 79 percent over 2006-11, to 4.9 million TEUs.

* North-continent volumes climbed by 95 percent over 2001-11, and by 17 percent over 2006-11, to 39.5 million TEUs, thereby accounting for 68 percent of total throughput.

* Growth in the UK and Ireland was only 28 percent over 2001-11, and 2 percent over 2006-11, to some 9.3 million TEUs.

* Containerport throughput in Scandinavia grew by 44 percent over 2001-11, and by 6 percent over 2006-11, to 4.2 million TEUs.

Information on the full report and pricing is available from Ocean Shipping Consultants.

Source: Ocean Shipping Consultants