Port Director: It is an extremely arrogant Danish attitude

The analysis is clear and evident from the Port of Esbjerg's director, Dennis Jul Pedersen. There is a need for Denmark to look out and see how ports are regulated in European countries.

In the past few years, two Danish ports in particular have made negative headlines due to their poor finances. The debt after the port expansion in Hanstholm weighs the municipality with a debt of around 500 million DKK, and in Frederikshavn the debt amounts to around 1.5 billion DKK.

In Denmark, it is everyone's fight against each other in the port world, which helps to start a negative spiral if overinvestment is made in port expansions in the hope of attracting more work and growth. It goes completely wrong if the investments do not yield a return.

- Development is not worth much if it does not happen in a coordinated way. You have to see that, for example, there is no more benefit from moving from one municipality to another. We are not attracting more growth to Denmark by overinvesting in the ports, says Dennis Jul Pedersen and gives a concrete example:

- One example is Royal Arctic Line, which moved from the Port of Aalborg to the Port of Aarhus. Who benefits from that if there had been the same prices in the two ports?

It also has an impact on the entire country.

- There is a system today where you look at the bottom line in the individual port rather than creating development for Denmark in general, says Dennis Jul Pedersen, who, however, has constructive suggestions for how it can be changed.

- I suggest you look out into Europe. I hope and know that the Ministry of Transport will do so, says Dennis Jul.

The port director completed a doctorate in business administration from the University of Liverpool last year, and he already had an MBA from 2011.

They are doing better than Denmark

In Europe, there is already coordination today that ensures that the ports do not compete against each other in the individual countries.

- In France, the ports' prices and investment requests are sent to the Ministry of Transport, which ensures similar prices and that the ports do not compete against each other, he explains and turns to Denmark's neighbor to the south:

- And in Germany, they have fixed pricing, where the states regulate and determine the pricing.

It is also like that in Poland.

- In Poland, they have a supervisory board in each port that looks at the decisions that are made, so that prices, for example, are not set too high, says Dennis Jul Pedersen.

The conclusion is clear and obvious about why Denmark should look to Europe.

- It is fairly basic; there must be a management of the ports and their investments. It is extremely arrogant that people in Denmark do not think that they can learn anything from Germany, France and Poland, Dennis Jul Pedersen asserts and points out:

- We can start by following the EU's port regulation, which states that every port must have an advisory board. As far as I know, not all Danish ports have one.

The port director also has an answer for where the necessary knowledge and expertise should come from.

- There are some very, very capable lawyers in the Ministry of Transport. Nobody bothers to listen to them, even though they have the necessary knowledge. They know what is happening in Europe, says Dennis Jul Pedersen.

Growth or more misinvestments

The port director is also convinced that Denmark will see more ports that find themselves in a similar situation to some Danish ports.

- It is about ensuring that there is no misinvestment, as we have seen with some Danish ports. Hanstholm is a typical example, and Frederikshavn is not an unknown example either. Another is the small port on Rømø here south of us, says Dennis Jul Pedersen.

But it all actually started back after the financial crisis in 2009 and the swells that followed.

 - In 2013, the EU began to see ports as growth engines, and support programs began to come, he says, about something that ended up having a meaning:

 - After that, the ports became more and more efficient. Rotterdam has been demoted from being the world's largest port. Now the largest ports in the world are in China, where the companies are located in the hinterland.

There is even a high probability that the ports have an impact on employment.

- In Great Britain, analyses have been made that show that a job in the port provides a job in the hinterland, explains the port director, who is responsible for a port that is well positioned.

- Esbjerg has been well positioned in relation to the green transition, and we are also well positioned in relation to NATO, says Dennis Jul Pedersen.