[1] The Port of Aarhus shipped roughly 8.4 million metric tonnes of cargo in 2017.

[3][4] Aarhus is one of the oldest cities of Denmark, founded in the Viking Age in the 8th century at a natural harbor on the northern shores of a former fjord.

The fjord gradually narrowed, by natural sediment transport, into a river and in the 19th century the harbor was moved to the coast by the newly formed city council.

[5][6] Through the Middle Ages the harbor primarily exported grain to Norway and Germany from the large agricultural catchment areas around Aarhus.

In the early 19th century, as the Industrial Revolution took hold, imports became predominantly coal and iron based and in the 1880 it was supplemented by feedstuffs, fertilizer and grain as Danish agriculture changed from grain export to animal husbandry.

[14] The tanker terminal handles mineral oils, gasoline, chemicals, molasses and cement.