Mimab aiming to expand to meet the high demands of the forestry industry

Forestry is one of Sweden’s most important industries. For over 400 years, Swedish forestry products have left from the Port of Gothenburg, travelling onward to global markets. Now Mimab is putting a huge focus on meeting the increased demand from the Swedish forestry industry.

APM Terminals Gothenburg spoke to Michael Bergman, CEO and founder of Mimab. Mimab is one of the partners in the Port of Gothenburg that helps APM Terminals’ customers to prepare their goods for sea transport.

Please tell us more about your operations!
We started the company in 2002, with a focus on service for manufacturing and shipping. A forestry company contacted us soon after with a request to have its goods containerised inside the port area. In 2014, we had the opportunity of taking over the so-called 'banana shed', which is connected to the railway tracks and strategically located in the port. We established a partnership with APM Terminals and started a transshipment terminal with a focus on forestry products.

The support was strong, and the customers appreciated the solution. Between 2014 and now, we’ve gone from filling hundreds of containers a week to thousands. We now have four terminals inside the port: a paper terminal, a pulp terminal, a timber terminal and a CFS terminal.

You could be seen as 'Sweden’s problem solvers' when it comes to exporting Swedish forestry products. What do you help your customers with?
Our main task is to containerise customers’ export volumes for oversea transport. The goods are delivered by railway carriage to our terminal, where they are sorted and stuffed into sea containers for onward transport to APM Terminals.

Can you describe the collaboration with APM Terminals?
We handle about 20% of all our exports via APM Terminals. Since 2014, we've jointly put together a well-functioning, real-time flow in order to efficiently turn over containers from our terminal directly to APM Terminals quay, without the goods having to stand still in the port. With this solution, we've significantly reduced handling times, created room for high turnover, and at the same time minimised our climate footprint. This collaboration has worked very well over the years.

How have the disruptions in the supply chain in recent years affected you and how have you met the challenges?
The paper mills pump out enormous volumes, and if the ships are delayed and the goods are not delivered, large stock volumes quickly form, which are costly and also take up a lot of space. At the same time, the pandemic has led to an increased need for overseas exports of paper and cardboard, as a lot of people are ordering goods online.

You have plans to expand further in the Port of Gothenburg. Tell us about that!
To meet the great demand from the Swedish forestry industry, we want to expand the cross-docking terminal in the Port of Gothenburg with expanded turnover areas in order to streamline management and further increase capacity.

The Port of Gothenburg is Sweden’s largest port, and the port and its operators are outstanding in terms of infrastructure, track capacity, range of lines, and direct entry, so there's no doubt that there's huge interest.