IN Brief:
- Northern European cargo routing is being reshaped by service availability and hub capacity.
- Gothenburg added direct Asia services and expanded Railport Scandinavia volumes.
- Rail’s share of container moves is now just over 60%.
The Port of Gothenburg has reported its strongest container year on record, handling 934,000 TEU in 2025, up 4% year-on-year, as new deep-sea services and expanding rail corridors drew cargo into Sweden’s largest container gateway.
The port authority attributed the performance to three reinforcing drivers: a broader range of shipping services, capacity pressure at competing European hubs, and strong rail connectivity from Gothenburg into the Swedish hinterland. Claes Sundmark, Vice President Sales & Marketing at the Port of Gothenburg, said the port’s deep-sea service portfolio expanded “significantly” in 2025, including two new direct services to Asia, while Railport Scandinavia continued to grow as an access route for cargo across the country.
“Record volumes are proof that the port has become even more attractive as a logistics hub. We see several drivers behind this growth: the port’s range of deep-sea services has expanded significantly with two new direct services to Asia. The port’s rail system, Railport Scandinavia, is a stable and unique global network that continues to grow, providing efficient access to the port for all of Sweden,” Sundmark said, adding: “On top of that, other major ports in Europe have struggled with capacity challenges during the year, while the Port of Gothenburg’s terminal operators have been able to handle both existing and additional volumes.”
Rail volumes reinforced the container story. The port reported 529,000 TEU moved by rail in 2025, up 5%, also a new all-time high, with the rail share now “just over 60 per cent” of container cargo. Sundmark said growth was driven by higher volumes on shuttles to and from terminals in the Stockholm region, northern Sweden, and a wider set of hinterland regions, a pattern that matters for Swedish exporters trying to avoid long road legs, and for importers prioritising predictability over route optionality.
The record container result arrived alongside mixed performance across other port segments. RoRo traffic totalled 525,000 units, broadly flat year-on-year, while vehicle volumes ended the year down 2% at 251,000, despite a recovery in the final quarter. Energy products — a major segment for Gothenburg — totalled 20.7 million tonnes in 2025, down 5% on the previous year, with the port pointing to maintenance-related impacts earlier in the year and a recovery in autumn volumes.
What stands out is the compound effect of service availability and inland access. In a year when European port capacity has been an active constraint, Gothenburg’s ability to feed containers onto rail at scale has become a practical differentiator, not a sustainability footnote. For shippers, the result is a route that behaves less like a peripheral gateway and more like a stable
