JADEWESERPORT

'JadeWeserPort' is the name of Germany's largest harbour project supported by the federal states of Lower Saxony and Bremen.

This new container port will be located at Wilhelmshaven at the Jadebusen, an inlet at the North Sea coast. It will have a natural water depth in excess of 18 m and container ships with a length of 430 m and 16,5 m draught will be able to call the JadeWeserPort at any tide. Construction works are expected to commence late in 2005 and to allow for the first vessel to arrive about 2009/10.
With only limited commercial activity in Wilhelmshaven's hinterland most containers will need further transportation by feeder vessels, railway or on the road. Expectations rest with the fact that JadeWeserPort will be the easternmost deep water port in Northern Europe able to berth the largest container vessels in present and future use up to a size of 12,000 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit). Therefore, it is hoped that a major share of the overseas container traffic of Scandinavian and Baltic nations including the western part of Russia will be handled here (map of feeder routes). Growth rates in container shipping are expected to at least remain at the present 7% per year.