Shortsea Promotion Centre Norway

Transfer of transport to sea is an established policy in the European Union and in Norway. Increasing trailer transport results in congestion and environmental damages. Sea transport is the obvious alternative. The Norwegian government and EU are co-operating in order to increase the market share of sea transport. Please see chapter five in the Government maritime strategy; Steady as she goes.

Initiative by Norwegian Government
The Norwegian Government wants to take part in this concerted effort. The Ministry of Trade and Industry has appointed Maritimt Forum Norway to manage the Shortsea Promotion Centre (SPC) Norway. SPC Norway is partly financed by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs and the Ministry of Transport and Communication. The center was initiated in 2003.

Promotion Programme
A significant obstacle to the further development of short sea shipping transport was found to be lack of knowledge on the part of potential users. Until now, the short sea shipping sector itself has spent little time and money on professional promotion and information directed at target groups such as shippers and forwarders. One of the reasons is that short sea companies have operated independently and most of them are too small to perform these tasks with sufficient impact on the market. Read more