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NEWS Norbert gains critical mass in Europe


ISSUE 1 2010


ROUND-UP: ROAD


Kent County Council said it would persevere with plans to build a lorry park at Aldington on the M20, even though the Department of Communities and Local Government said it would not meet the £35m cost. The site would provide an alternative to stacking of trucks on the M20 at times when ferries or the channel Tunnel are disrupted.


The Freight Transport Association welcomed the news that a scheme to upgrade the A8 between Belfast and Larne Port will be included in the proposed road improvement budget for the next four years, but stressed that funds must also be allocated to other vital schemes. The A8 carries much of the freight traffic coming into and out of Northern Ireland, and was identified by FTA’s Northern Ireland members as operating beyond its design capacity.


DHL has enhanced its ‘Euroconnect’ road groupage freight services from western Europe to Georgia via Vienna and Frankfurt. The Georgian capital, Tbilisi also serves as the gateway to Armenia and Azerbaijan. Euroconnect is DHL’s road groupage product for palletized and non-palletized general cargo as well as special needs products including hazardous goods and temperature control and high-value shipments.


The Freight Transport Association said its members had donated more than £30,000 to international development charity Transaid and were on course to hit £40,000 soon. Over 1,000 drivers in Africa, where road deaths are the third biggest premature killer after AIDS and malaria, had now received professional training, thanks to the scheme. Transaid’s Professional Driver Training Project is improving commercial vehicle driver training standards and safety awareness through its partnership with two national training institutions in Zambia and Tanzania. FTA is also providing one of its Vehicle Inspection Services engineers, Graham Pink, who recently taught a course on vehicle inspection in Tanzania.


Norbert Dentressangle said its acquisition of British-based operator TDG would help it deliver critical mass in the freight forwarding sector, with projected annual revenues of €100 million. The French- based logistics giant signed an agreement with DouglasBay Capital to acquire, for £196m, all the the shares of Laxey Logistics the Isle of Man-based holding company that has owned TDG since 2008, subject to the agreement of the European competition authorities. Although TDG is a major player in European transport and logistics,


it made 14% of its revenue from its freight forwarding activities in 2009, mostly in India, the Far East, Turkey and the Americas. Some 26% of its total revenue came from outside the UK - 12% in Benelux, 8.5% in Spain, 4% in Ireland and 1.5% in Germany. The company also operates in Hungary. However, only an estimated 3% of the new combined company’s


activities are expected to come from freight forwarding in 2010, although it points out that it is barely a year since it entered this sector. As reported in FBJ 3, TDG itself recently signed a strategic agency agreement with Sri Lanka and India-based John Keells Holdings for freight forwarding services between Europe and India and Sri Lanka. and other recent purchases include UK forwarders Brisk Global Logistics and Bradship, along with Spanish-based logistics and forwarding company Doman. In China, TDG has established a partnership with forwarder Fans Trans. The TDG acquisition also dilutes ND’s Frenchness, with 57% of revenue expected to come from outside France. The move also creates Europe’s largest wholly-owned road fleet with over 8,000 tractor units and 11,000 trailers.


CMA CGM reaches financing deal


French-headquartered container shipping CMA CGM, the world’s third-largest, has reached agreement for a capital injection by Turkish-owned conglomerate Yildrim group. Yildrim will invest $500 million and acquire 20% of CMA CGM’s share capital. It will also gain three seats on the ten- member CMA board of directors. However, the French line’s family shareholders will retain 80% of outstanding shares and voting rights. Yildrim Group is an international family-run holding company established in 1963 in Samsun, Turkey. It has interests in shipping and port management but also in mining, coal trading, fertiliser production and shipbuilding. CMA CGM chairman Jacques


R. Saadé said: “The arrival of a new investor will provide our Group with additional resources to support and step up its


growth and represents a major milestone in our history.” CMA CGM pointed to its recent


strong growth and recovery from the shipping industry doldrums of 2009, with revenue for the first nine months of 2010 at $10,521m compared with $7,624m previously. It has taken delivery of 12 new


ships since the beginning of 2010, bringing the number of owned ships to a total of 92, while new chartered-in tonnage brings the total fleet to 400 vessels. In 2011, the Group expects nine


more owned vessels, including six of more than 10,000teu. However, the Marseilles-based line’s rapid fleet expansion programme has arguably been the cause of its present financial difficulties, as it was unable to service the $5 billion debt it had built up. At a press conference to discuss the move on 26 November, CMA


CGM group executive officer Rodolphe Saadé said that the French Sovereign Investment fund was also expected to take a minority stake, which would help reassure banks and shipyards. For the Yildrim group, president and CEO Robert Yüksel Yildirim said that he saw his company’s role as not just an investor in the shipping line, but a partner in areas such as port and terminal development. He


saw opportunities in Africa and Europe in particular, for example the soon-to-be-privatised port of Gothenburg. Yildrim would also participate in a coming major investment in new containers, which would be needed when CMA CGM’s new containerships came into service. However, the Turkish company would not get involved in the day to day running of liner operations, he stressed.


Freight gains from Korea trade deal


The US Government has resolved remaining issues paving the way for a free trade agreement with South Korea to match that signed by the EU and Korea earlier in 2010. Scott Davis, chairman and CEO of express freight carrier UPS and a member of the President’s Export Council welcomed the agreement, adding that it contained important provisions for the express delivery industry, including enhanced market access and improved customs clearance times. The agreement includes provisions for a separate and expedited customs procedure for express shipments and for certain goods to be cleared with a minimum of documentation.


South Wales-based container haulage and logistics firm BRT International has appointed Annmarie Honey as accounts manager. She brings over five years account administration experience in the transport industry.


Geodis Calberson has appointed Anna Kozlowska as marketing manager. She will also oversee all marketing activities of the Fortec Pallet Distribution Network. She was previously marketing assistant at the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport and was also project manager for the Humanitarian Logistics Association, which is supported by the CILT.


ROUND-UP: RAIL


Intercontainer-Interfrigo, the European railway-owned intermodal transport operator was put into liquidation on 26 November. Brussels- based lawyers Racine and Vergels has been named as liquidator and ICF managing director Bart Van der Cruysse has resigned but has pledged to stay involved in the various businesses. The company’s 145 block and shuttle trains throughout the EU and Russia will continue to operate pending transfer of the business units and their services to new owners. Stockholm based investment company Medströms Invest has


acquired all outstanding shares in Intercontainer Scandinavia AB. All staff will be retained on their current terms and the shuttle network within Sweden remains unchanged. Trans Eurasia Logistics (TEL), a subsidiary of the Germany and


Russian railways, took over the twice-weekly ‘Ostwind’ container block trains between Germany and the Commonwealth of Independent States on 11 January.


The Rail Freight Group has appointed David Spaven as its new Scotland Representative, taking over from Bill Ure, who has held the position for five years. David Spaven has worked in consultancy in the rail and intermodal sectors since 1995, following an 18-year management career with British Rail. Since 2004, his Edinburgh-based Deltix Transport Consulting business has provided advice on freight modal shift to manufacturers, logistics companies, local authorities and others.


The German Railways (Deutsche Bahn) and the Chinese Ministry of Railways signed a joint declaration on 7 December to cooperate more closely in rail freight transport and to expand China’s rail infrastructure, including the establishment of new services between Asia and Europe. The German rail operator said that as more Chinese production sites moved from the coast inland, rail transport to Europe was becoming more relevant. The partners also aim to involve the Russian Railways in order to beef up trans-Eurasian rail freight transport.


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