A fast-growing port: From “port of defeat” to international market leader

The Port of Esbjerg’s quays have grown nearly a hundredfold since the port was established after Denmark's defeat in the war of 1864, when the country lost Schleswig-Holstein and thus the Port of Altona by Hamburg. With a single blow, Denmark had lost its most important port connections to the North Sea and, as a result, the rest of Europe. Something had to be done, and the Danish Parliament decided to build the Port of Esbjerg. As such, the Port of Esbjerg started out as the "port of defeat" according to Port Director Ole Ingrisch, who has been in charge of the port since 2003.

The original Port of Esbjerg consisted of the triangular dock port, since named “the cradle of Esbjerg,” because it became the foundation for the city itself. When construction was complete in 1874, the dock port had 125 metres of quays. The port entrance had a lock to keep the water in the port basin at low tide. The tide was, as it is today, a factor to take into account when expanding the port.

In its early days the port was a gateway for exporting agricultural goods to Great Britain, but fishing soon became a major industry and the first fishing port was built in 1888. The next expansion was necessary already in 1901, when the fishing fleet had grown from less than two dozen to some 50 vessels. This marked the first of several extensions, which has made the Port of Esbjerg the largest port in Denmark measured by area.

Even though the fish, livestock and most of the passengers today are replaced by wind turbines, oil and gas and ro-ro transport, the explanation behind the port’s growth and expansion remains quite simple: it is a port that has recognised the importance of adapting to change, always giving its customers the infrastructure they demand and need.

Adaptability, space and access

When asked to explain what makes the Port of Esbjerg’s infrastructure so unique, Ole Ingrisch highlights the port’s ability and willingness to adapt.

“It's the ability to adapt and the flexibility to attract new business areas. And, obviously, the ability to execute is crucial. It's not only about being able to see what's up and coming, it's being able to catch it.”

He emphasises that the Port of Esbjerg's principal duty is to develop and deliver infrastructure, which consistently meets the needs og its customers.

Space and access are the main reasons why the Port of Esbjerg has become the base for the oil and gas activities in the Danish North Sea, a hub for ro-ro transport, and the world’s leading wind power port, according to Morten Hahn-Pedersen, historian and Director of the Fisheries and Maritime Museum in Esbjerg. He has followed the port’s growth and development closely for many years.

A flexible, fast-growing port

“What is most unique about the Port of Esbjerg is the sheer amount of space. Without it, we would never have been able to accommodate the wind turbine export to the extent we're seeing today,” says Morten Hahn-Pedersen. He describes the Port of Esbjerg's decision in 2004 to build the 650,000 m2 East port area as the bravest move in the port’s history.

It may sound trivial that something as simple as space has played a key role in the Port of Esbjerg’s success, but contrary to many other industries, where products and equipment become lighter and smaller over time, ships, wind turbines and drilling rigs only grow larger.

“We work with scale all the time to ensure that we can handle the next generation of ro-ro ships, offshore wind turbines and drilling rigs, which require deeper basins, bigger cranes and larger, more robust port areas. In the 1960s and 1970s, a drilling rig was more or less an advanced raft with a hand-powered drill; today we have these giant state-of-the-art, ultra-high-tech monsters, which are the workplace for hundreds of people and cost hundreds of billions of kroner,” says Ole Ingrisch.

In particular, the space requirements of the wind turbine industry have grown manifold in a rather short period of time. The wind turbine blades being shipped from the Port of Esbjerg to the Horns Rev I wind farm in 2002 measured 39 metres in length. Eleven years later, blades measuring 83.5 metres in length were being shipped from the port.

The Port of Esbjerg has successfully kept up with these changes through expansion, essentially by reclaiming land. The port has basically expanded into the sea. With the expansion of the East Port in 2013, the port now covers an area of 4,500,000 m2 and includes 12 kilometres of quays.

The port has focused on flexibility all along - although the East Port currently holds customised facilities designed for testing, assembling and shipping wind turbines, it is designed to accommodate the needs of the oil and gas industry and can also be used as a ro-ro or container terminal.

Access from the landside

Easy landside access to the port has been another key factor to its success. As the nature of the ship freight has changed, the Port of Esbjerg has gradually aligned its infrastructure to match both seaside and landside needs. In the early years, Esbjerg was an agricultural port, initially used mostly to export livestock to Great Britain. Later, bacon and butter was transported from the port to the British market while the ships returning to Esbjerg carried fertilisers, animal feed and coal for the Danish market.

All of these goods were transported by rail to and from the port by farmers, dairies and abattoirs all over Denmark.

“The combination of rail and steamship transport from Esbjerg to Great Britain was the perfect way for the agricultural sector to sell its goods and to import the products they needed. This meant that as early as the 1880s and 1890s, Esbjerg had become one of Denmark's four largest ports, a position it has held ever since,” explains Morten Hahn-Pedersen.

In the 1960s, the ro-ro transport mode of driving lorries directly onto ships became more popular. Ro-ro berths were built at the port, making it possible to drive lorries and cars directly on board ships and ferries without having to take tide levels into account.These berths are still in operation today, allowing ships to be loaded around the clock.

Access to and from the sea

In addition to requiring a great deal of space for blades and turbines at the port, the wind turbine industry also needs to be able to transport its large turbine blades to the port area.The Port of Esbjerg has solved that challenge in collaboration with the authorities, by establishing large roundabouts, which these very long lorries can drive straight through.

“The big roundabout designed to accommodate100-metre-long vehicles direct access to the port is unique. You won't find it anywhere else in the world. Our job is to work with industry and help them find solutions,” says Ole Ingrisch.

In addition to expanding the port area, the port authorities have also dredged the port approach to allow vessels safe access. The approach to Esbjerg port runs through an area whose natural depth is only four metres. Since 1892, the port authorities have been dredging sand from the channel to ensure the necessary depth. Today, the Port of Esbjerg removes more than one million m3 of sand each year in order to maintain a depth of about ten metres.

GPS: A helping hand

The emergence of GPS equipment in the 1980s helped ease the port authority’s efforts to maintain good approach conditions.It also provided a major boost to the oil and wind industries, who gained the ability for more precise navigation leading to efficiency improvements and lower costs.

“GPS is probably the single most important technology shift in my time.It has meant better and safer conditions for shipping and more accurate buoying of the Port of Esbjerg so that it can be safely navigated round the clock,” says Ole Ingrisch. Back in 1980, he bought one of the very first GPS systems in Denmark:

“It was a Magnavox from Texas. It cost DKK 270,000 and took up as much space as two old wooden beer crates.”

Mobility and flexibility

Despite its dynamic growth, infrastructure innovation has not automatically propelled the Port of Esbjerg to a market-leading position every time. When the Port of Esbjerg decided to build its container port in 1967 and then, in 1971, ordered a 350-tonne container crane from Aarhus Maskinfabrik, the plan was to become the market leader, but despite being among the first movers, the project failed and other ports ended up dominating the container transport business.

Looking back, it was probably for the best, because the Port of Esbjerg does not have the water depth needed to handle the huge container vessels sailing the seas today.

The development has left its mark on the Port of Esbjerg. Whereas container ports tend to have huge fixed cranes on the piers, the Port of Esbjerg invested in a series of mobile cranes that provide sufficient flexibility to handle many different types of goods, from wind turbines and piping to drilling platforms.

Looking ahead

There is no doubt in Mr Hahn-Petersen's mind that the future for the Port of Esbjerg lies in maintaining the current course and developing the port’s infrastructure in close collaboration with port customers.

“When our customers discover they need something new to handle drilling rigs, giant wind turbines or new types of car carriers, it’s a challenge, which the port has to address quickly and efficiently. Otherwise you fall out of the market. That's just the way it is.”