When the City of Gothenburg was founded in 1621, water transport was almost the only opportunity to get the Swedish classic exports iron and timber out. Ports were very important for the Swedish economy, and the City and the Port of Gothenburg were perfectly situated in the river-mouth of the River Göta.

At first the landing and shipment of the cargo took place along the canals in Gothenburg, but with the arrival of steamships it had to become more efficient. In the 1840’s the first births were built along the riverbanks. In the middle of the 20th century the port needed more space, and most of the port facilities moved out of the city centre to the north river bank.

NEW CARGO - NEW TERMINALS
The container was invented, and the Skandia Container Terminal was built to take care of such traffic. Today it is the leading container harbour in the Nordic region.

Deep sea roll on/roll off traffic was developed by Scandinavian shipowners and shipyards, and the Älvsborg harbour (Ro/ro Terminal) was built with the purpose to handle that traffic. The Ro/ro Terminal is today the largest single port facility in Scandinavia for unitized cargo.

To allow the large oil tankers to berth, a crude oil jetty was built. Rya and Skarvik, were the refined oil is handled, were improved. In 2004 the two fairways to the Port of Gothenburg were enhanced to provide safer, straighter, deeper, wider and shorter fairways.