"Due to the extensive impact of strikes, together with a high level of absenteeism and employee reluctance to work overtime, we are forced to shut down parts of operations," said APMT. 

"The terminal, together with customers, have not been able to adjust our plans to the prevailing circumstances and the balance between import and export volume has not been maintained," the company said. 

Carriers reported yesterday that the terminal operator had stopped accepting export containers, with APM indicating that it would resume accepting export containers early on Thursday morning.

Home of Volvo, and half way between Oslo and Copenhagen, Gothenburg is Scandinavia's biggest port, the source of high volume Swedish exports of sawn prefab lumber (Ikea) for Asia and containerised fresh seafood transshipped from the Norwegian coast.

Said APMT: "This had affected the terminal's fill rate, and the situation escalated on Friday to the point where all of the terminal's container storage areas were now full. 

"We regret that, at short notice, we need to take drastic measures to control the situation," APMT said. "We need full focus on the outgoing imports and exports in order to ease the pressure on the terminal."