Port of Esbjerg
Port of Esbjerg lies on the southwest coast of Jutland, Denmark. It is a major freight port and a leader in shipping offshore wind turbine parts. The port has 66 berths and an 11.5-meter draft depth, spanning about 3.5 million square meters of land and 10 kilometers of quays.
Created by the Danish state in 1868 to replace Altona, the port opened in 1874 and quickly grew as a hub for exporting farm goods like butter and bacon, supporting local livestock. In the early 1900s it also became a center for fishing. The port was state-run until 2000, then privatized under Esbjerg Municipality.
Today Esbjerg handles containers, passenger traffic, fish processing, marine repairs, and wind-energy services. It once ran a DFDS overnight ferry to Harwich, which ended in 2014 after 140 years; there were also Newcastle ferries in the past. Before 2014, passenger numbers averaged about 1.8 million per year. DFDS still runs freight ferries to Immingham.
The port moves about 4 million tons of cargo each year, including around 500,000 tons of liquid fuels. Since the 1970s it has supported Denmark’s offshore oil and gas industry and has become a hub for offshore wind turbines, handling roughly 65% of the nation’s wind turbines and shipping turbine parts to the UK.
In 2013 Esbjerg opened Østhavn East Harbour, a 650,000-square-meter expansion, and work continued in 2017 with new roll-on/roll-off facilities and a 300-tonne crane. Today the port is the world’s largest offshore wind port, with space for decommissioned wind turbines.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 09:03 (CET).