News

The day started with COO of Copenhagen Malmö Port Arnt Møller Pedersen welcoming everyone to Copenhagen and to the Cruise Gateway North Sea workshop WP5.

In his first presentation „Preparing for the future - Cruise development in Copenhagen“ Arnt Møller Pedersen offered a very concide and bright picture of the Copenhagen Malmö Port (CMP). Being founded in 2001 CMP is partly owned by the Copenhagen Port (50%), City of Malmö (27%) and private investors (23%). The main activities are oil & bulk, containers, cars, roro & logistics and cruise & pax.

Emphasizing on cruise he offered the following statistics: the port has 12 cruise ship berths, from 1999 to 2011 they experienced an increase of:  from 163 to 368 port of calls, from 50 to 171 turnarounds, from 150,000 to 820,000 guests, from 40,000 to 232,000 crew. An average of 10% growth every year. 69 different cruise ships call the port and in the busiest days the port will accommodate up to 23,000 passengers and 8,000 crew.

CMP is the busiest port in the Baltic surpassing other major ports of call such as St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Helsinki and Tallinn and turnaround ports such as Kiel, Rostock, Stockholm and Helsinki.

The main source of passengers is Germany with 27% followed by US/ Canada with 17%, UK with 13%, Spain with 10%, Italy with 10%, France with 3%, Netherlands 2%, Denmark with 2% and other nations with 23%. The quest originates from 156 different nationalities.

Aida cruises is the top brand with 55 calls followed by MSC with 39 and Costa with 30 calls. Measured in GRT Carnival Group is the biggest customer followed by RCCL and MSC.

He proudly pointed out that since 1996 the city and port of Copenhagen have been receiving the following awards: World’s Leading Cruise Port, Best Cruise Destination, and Best Destination Europe. Best turnaround Port in Europe , Most efficient Port Service Europe , Princess Cruises – Port of the year , Most Responsive Cruise Team, Destination with best tour guides, Most responsive Port, Europe’s Leading Cruise Destination (3 times), Europe’s Leading Cruise Port (6 times).

When asked about promotion budgets and why was the port so successful, Arnt replied that the promotion budget is minimal and the success is due to the great location of Copenhagen, short distance to the airport, the eagerness of the city to welcome this type of business and mainly due to the excellent cooperation and team work between the Cruise Copenhagen Network members (a total of 60 members covering all sectors and providers to the cruise industry) that work together to provide an excellent service  to cruise lines and its guests.

The next presentation was “Cold Ironing Study” carried out for Copenhagen Malmö Port with the aim of “Combining Cost Efficiency with Sustainability” done by Robert Segercrantz, B.Sc. (Nav. Arch.)  Director, Deltamarin ltd.

Robert introduced his company that is based in Finland, has 400 employees and concentrates mainly on design of ships: cargo, ferry, cruise, yachts and also on ship yard supervision. They are very active in the cruise industry working directly with the major brands.

While offering a thorough explanation about the cold ironing procedures both on board and ashore he pointed out that 15% of the actual cruise fleet are composed of older ships that require 440v while at port; 20% are ships with average 2,000 pax and require 6.6kv while at port and 65% are bigger ships with over 2,500 pax that require 11kv.

The average ship sailing in the North Sea Region carries between 2,000 and 2,500 passengers, but if planning to install this type of facilities he recommends preparation for maximum voltage and then use transformers and inverters for frequency (50hz in EU – 60hz in the US).  He added that out of 350 cruise ships less than 1% is equipped with cold ironing facilities.

Alaska has the best infrastructure for cold ironing supplying 11 ships (42.3% of their total traffic) and that in the Baltic there are only 4 ships sailing that are equipped to handle cold ironing (9,3% of the total).

The estimated cost for a port to build these facilities is between 7-10 m €. The cost for the ship is between 300,000 and 500,000 €, and in addition the smaller cruise ships need to employ high voltage experts that are a highly risk paid profession. But given that the main reason to use cold ironing is to prevent pollution while at port, Robert actually stressed that the ships actually used more energy while at sea (87%) than while at port (13%), so if we really want to tackle pollution issues we should concentrate on better sources of energy overall for the ship. He mentioned LNG (liquefied natural gas), hybrid (diesel and electric with batteries stored on board), low sulphur fuel that is already been used at port in the Baltic. But will there be enough 0.1 sulphur fuel to satisfy the demand?

Another option to prevent reduce pollution is the scrubber system, but to this date there is not one workable example. In Robert’s opinion cold ironing is not the most optimal solution given the factors above; the investments are huge compared to the results. The audience participated actively in the discussion and on everyone’s mind was the question what the ports should do in consideration of the 2015 deadline for SECA regions to adopt clean measures. In addition to the fuel- energy-pollution issues it was also raised the issue that ports need to have adequate shore side facilities to accommodate discharged garbage, sewage and waste water. At the moment there is no consistency amongst the ports in the region.

In conclusion Roberts closed by identifying the following threats to the cold ironing system: too loose standardization of port equipment, high investment costs at port, too few ports joining the pool, commercial uncertainties, high investment costs on existing ships, alternative new environmental friendly technologies and on new buildings this concept is ranked sometimes only “nice to have”. He pointed out that this system is a deal for ferries that have a prolonged stay in port and showed some examples of connections ship - shore used by different companies and ports. When questioned about possible solutions he answered: at this stage there is no one who has a solution for this issue being either cold ironing, scrubbers, LNG, batteries or other alternative fuels. He sees it as a political decision and that it is hard to predict the outcome.   

Peter Landgren, Head of Construction Department Copenhagen Malmö Port introduced the new Cruise Terminal in Copenhagen with special focus on energy efficiency and environmental solutions. This new exciting project is currently under way located north of Copenhagen with an approximate distance of 5 km from the centre. By 2013 there will be a new pier with a total length of 1,100 meter and 70 meter width. 3 terminals, each 3.300 m² will be added in 2014 with separate check-in and luggage area, separate parking for taxis, buses, shuttles and private cars, and an additional parking area for 200 cars adjacent to the terminals. The total cost of the project is estimate in 600 m Danish kroner or 80 m € with expected return on investment in 25 years.

The objective is to improve drastically the service and infrastructures and support sustainable growth in the coming years. The terminals will be mainly used for turnarounds and the Freeport pier use will gradually be discontinued while the port will still keep Langeline and Nord Tolbod as favorite spots for a port of call visit.

The terminals include some innovative features such as: green roofs that insulate both from cold and heat and absorb much of the rain falling relieving the sewage system, solar energy panels for electricity power, a sustainable indoor climate solution, translucent building elements of polycarbonate, roof-windows minimizing electrical consumption, HEATBLOC surface preventing solar overheating.

In addition the quay will be equipped with waste water reception facilities using elaborate systems to prevent odor and cleaned by stored rain water. The system will be able to receive wastewater form 3 cruise ships simultaneously and with a capacity up to 900 cbm/hour (300 cbm/hour per ship) with connection point per 60m. The project is fully sustainable and environmental friendly. The quay will also be prepared with tubes/canals for possible future cold ironing options.

Originally Per Marzelius, Director Sustainability & Environment DFDS Seaways was schedule to do a presentation on Sustainability and Environment works at DFDS Seaways. Due to his illness, Arnt Møller shared a fresh and interesting survey done to the passengers and crew visiting Copenhagen in the summer of 2011. Amongst the most relevant findings the study shows that:

• Turnaround passengers spent an average of € 193.25 with accommodations and food and beverages accounting for 63% of their total expenditures.
• Transit passengers spent an average of € 79.59 with tours and retail shopping accounting for 75% of their expenditures. This is 27% higher than the average expenditure in 2010 for Copenhagen and 25% higher than the European average of  € 63.86.
• Crew spent an average of € 43.89 with food and beverages, entertainment and retail shopping accounting for 70% of their expenditures. This is about 20% lower than average crew expenditure in 2010 for Copenhagen but still 95% above the European average.
• 65% of the cruise passengers that went ashore purchased a shore excursion. This is above the European average of 59%.
• Copenhagen passengers who purchased a tour spent an average of € 86 per party or € 41 per passenger for their tour. This is 32% higher than the European average of € 31 per passenger.
• Passengers reported spending another € 38.36 per passenger while ashore for other goods. This is 21% higher than the European average of € 31.70.
• Passengers and crew spent an estimated € 65.1 million during 2011. This is 75% more than the estimate for 2010
• The € 71.8 million in passenger and crew spending generated an estimated 975 direct jobs and € 24.1 million in compensation in Copenhagen and the surrounding region.

Arnt re-emphasized that these results reflect the hard work done by every member of the Cruise Copenhagen Network and he strongly suggest that the other ports and destinations should create similar associations.

In conclusion: the presentations were very educational and the discussions were positive and constructive. In addition the members and attendants had ample opportunity to network and discuss other topics amongst themselves. Everyone seemed pleased and Arnt closed the working day by offering a briefing regarding the next activities and thanking everyone for their participation.