Previous analyses have suggested that competition between Swedish ports is limited. However, a research project funded by the Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket) shows this is not the case—at least not when it comes to container ports. Competition is intense, and smaller ports are losing attractiveness as vessels grow ever larger.

Earlier, both Trafikanalys (2019) and Trafikverket (2021) claimed that there is less competition between Swedish ports and more competition between maritime transport and land-based modes of transport. One of the conclusions of the project Competition Arenas in the Swedish Port System is that this does not hold true.

“I don’t know what sources they based their descriptions on. I don’t think competition between modes of transport is particularly strong in Sweden. There is collaboration, and attempts are being made to shift more cargo from road to sea and rail, but it hasn’t been very successful. When it comes to ports—at least the container ports we studied—there is clear competition. Had we looked at other types of ports, such as oil ports, of which there are few, we would of course have seen a different picture,” says Inge Vierth of VTI, who led the project in its final phase.

A game-changer has been the development toward ever larger container vessels. Giants of up to 20,000 TEU can only call at Gothenburg, while ships serving Helsingborg, Norrköping, and Gävle today carry around 3,000 TEU. For industry and trade, this means longer inland transports by road and rail—developments that may increase both costs and environmental impact.

“The Port of Gothenburg is of course the largest, with 50 percent of the market and the most rail shuttles. But sometimes Gothenburg gets overloaded, leading to long waiting times. Then it can be more convenient to choose, for example, Helsingborg. Still, the trend is toward larger vessels and larger ports. Whether that trend will hold is uncertain. If, as some have suggested, there is greater regionalization and less transoceanic traffic, smaller ports could benefit—but so far, there are no signs of that.”

From both shippers’ and shipping companies’ perspectives, competition clearly exists between Swedish container ports—this is confirmed by both modeling studies and follow-up interview studies carried out within the project. Several shipping companies and ports stress that loop services—regular routes connecting several smaller ports—are crucial for keeping them competitive, especially along the east coast and in northern Sweden. Traffic with empty containers also strongly influences port calls. Moving empty containers is inefficient both in cost and environmental terms, and in the interviews, one shipping company noted: “There’s no point in calling at Gävle and another more northern port unless there’s a solution for supplying empty containers.”

“It’s naturally also in the shipping companies’ interest that competition exists between ports. They want to be able to play them off against each other and threaten to switch to a competitor if they are not satisfied with a port’s offering. That’s why shipping companies often cultivate relationships with several ports.”

The government’s freight transport strategy from 2018 states that more cargo should shift from road to sea, since maritime transport is considered more climate-smart. This benefits smaller ports with short inland transport links. At the same time, politicians and policymakers want to take advantage of the economies of scale offered by large vessels and ports—something that in practice often requires more land transport.

“Large-scale container transport is cost-effective but often leads to a modal shift toward land transport. You can’t have both large-scale, efficient sea transport and at the same time expect more cargo to move from road to sea.”

So how should politicians and policymakers act?

“It’s a major challenge and highly sensitive. That’s why it is important to ensure that competition between ports and between modes of transport takes place fairly, and that transparent decision-making material is developed for cross-modal infrastructure planning. Sweden is also influenced by international developments. If Sweden wants to keep up, we must dredge and build deeper fairways to accommodate larger container vessels. The alternative is to give up and decide to let cargo move by land or with feeder ships to and from Rotterdam, Antwerp, or another hub on the continent.”

Note: The project Competition Arenas in the Swedish Port System ran from December 2023 to August 2025 and produced five different reports. These, along with other information, can be found on the project’s website.