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Issue 6 2013


Containerships backs Teesside renaissance


The North-East of England may have become something of a byword for economic gloom, but that isn’t necessarily the case, says Containerships managing director for UK and Ireland, Andy Frost. “This area is starting to show signs of recovery; it’s not as depressed as people make out.” While the North-East as a whole


may register on all the indices of economic deprivation, there are many different highs and lows within the region and as far as Containerships is concerned, Teesside is one of the former. So much so that Containerships is making a major investment in its Teesside operation. It will operate its own transport site in the UK for the first time, combining its existing on-dock transport operation and its offices at Wilton near Redcar into a single 13-acre site at Haverton Hill near Stockton, on the south side of the river Tees, about seven miles from the dock. (Vessel operations will remain where they are in Teesport.) Regional sales manager Les


Warren says: “We will be able to develop, not only our core business, but all the ancillaries that we have to outsource at the moment. It gives us the opportunity to do everything in one place; it will allow is to expand our warehousing operations and delivery services for LCL as well as FCL cargo. And we’ll also be able to do long-term storage as well as temperature-controlled cargo.” The £1m being invested by


Containerships in the new site is a clear demonstration that one company, at least, is convinced that Teesside’s hard economic times are over. The operation will start to move to the new location in phases from October. Frost continues: “We’re very


committed to this area – we get a good service from the port and we have very good staff here. The road networks are also, on the whole, very good, so it’s not as isolated as some of the smaller ports.” One thing that could do with


improvement are rail links, at least for containers, though Frost admits that it’s a chicken-and-egg situation – without the traffic, rail operators are unlikely to commit


to running frequent services; but without regular services, customers don’t want to make commitments. “Also, the mix of users isn’t the same as in a deepsea port. For example, 99% of our containers are palletwide boxes and 90% are high cubes. Whereas in


somewhere like Felixstowe


there are virtually no palletwide boxes.” Containerships has found


that running its own 54-strong truck fleet is the answer – and it is literally its own fleet, rather than subcontracted. Teesport has been Finnish-


owned Containerships’ main UK base since the late 1960s. As a family-owned firm, its watchword has been steady growth, rather than headlong expansion. For example, aſter much deliberation, the operator added calls in the northern Finnish port of Pori – in addition to the established call at Helsinki - to better serve the timber trade, which is becoming an increasingly important customer. It has also been expanding its office network in eastern and central Europe, for example in the Czech Republic and in Kiev. The timber trade is poised to switch into container


shipping


in a big way, Frost and Warren believe. “Traditionally, timber importers used conventional vessels, which they’d load to the gunwales with just timber; oſten one or two importers would club together.” But the industry is now demanding a more just-in-time approach; all this timber has to be stored somewhere until it is sold. Moreover, timber,


unlike grain,


lends itself to bit-by-bit felling rather than a once-a-year harvest, so there should be no need to move it in whole shiploads. Containerships has therefore


invested in new handling equipment


including a system


that allows packs of timber to be inserted into a container and then pushed to the end, allowing a further four packs to be inserted; the whole operation can be done within 15 minutes. In the UK, a plate system allows the packs to be pulled out of the containers and put onto trailers so that they can be delivered to buyers in the normal way.


The whole system, says Frost, “allows timber to be shipped in smaller amounts and stocked on a weekly basis.” Containerships is introducing


its new timber service just as the building trade in the UK is beginning to pick up again. “It’s surprising what effect housebuilding has on shipping” says Les Warren. “And it’s not just timber. Many of the steel structures used come from Finland.” The new sulphur emissions


rules, due to come into force at the beginning of 2015, are the biggest single worry at the moment. Passing the likely increased costs on to customers would mean an increase in freight rates of at least 20% and all the technical fixes that have been tried have their drawbacks. For example, Containerships has been testing a scrubber on one of its ships for the past two years. It has got sulphur emission levels down to 0.5% but not the 0.1% demanded by the new regulations, and it weighs 300 tonnes, which would eat substantially into the ship’s payload. There are also major


doubts over whether


manufacturers would be able to build enough units to satisfy demand. Long-term, liquefied natural gas looks promising, but a fuelling infrastructure would need to be built up and new ships ordered. The sulphur issue is particularly


pertinent in Finland, which has very few land alternatives to shipping for most of its freight flows. Containerships is though


pushing ahead with introducing LNG-powered vehicles into its UK truck fleet. Here, a viable refuelling infrastructure is developing (and Containerships will probably set up its own LNG fuelling facility at its new Teesside site). Trials with two converted trucks – a Volvo and a Merc – suggest a 17% reduction in carbon emissions and a significant cost saving – which could be even greater if the price of LNG goes down, as it already has in the US. Frost adds: “Customers are


very keen on LNG and a lot of the bigger companies are starting to demand that their transport partners move down these routes.”


///UK NORTH EAST


Tyne lines up new crane


The Port of Tyne’s new £6 million gantry crane moved into position at Riverside Quay, South Tyneside on 12 August. The Liebherr crane has a 37 metres outreach that can handle 13 containers across the deck of a vessel and will increase productivity by 25%. Following


testing and training the new crane is due to be in operation later this month. It will allow Tyne to handle 98% of the world’s global fleet of short sea container vessels putting the Port in a much stronger position to gain new business.


Newcastle is surprise success story for Emirates


Emirates’ flights from Newcastle to Dubai was “a bit of a revelation” says UK SkyCargo manager Phil Rawlings. While the passenger department was keen on the daily passenger flights – there were three universities in the city to fill the seats – their cargo colleagues were a lot more dubious. “We looked at the CASS figures, and thought that even if we carried every single kilo that appeared to originate from Newcastle, we still wouldn’t be able to fill the plane.” But the CASS figures, which are


based on airwaybill data, didn’t show the amount of Newcastle cargo that was trucked to other airports such as Manchester or London. Emirates had stumbled upon a major untapped cargo market. The carrier in fact has little difficulty in filling the daily flight, now upgraded from an A340 to a 777-300. Business tends to become brisker towards the end of the week and at weekends; on the


slacker days any spare Newcastle capacity is used to help out other stations on the Emirates network. Other factors in Emirates’


success was the support received from the local chamber of commerce and overseas trade board, who allowed Emirates SkyCargo to attend many of their functions. Another factor in the carrier’s success, he believes, was that local forwarders like to see the tail-fin of a major long-haul airline at their local airport, plus the fact that Emirates employs local staff, rather than resorting to GSAs. The local pharma industry


provides regular traffic in and out of Newcastle, while there is a brisk trade in car parts from the Nissan plant in Sunderland, plus ships’ spares. Emirates’ policy is to fly from


local UK airports wherever there is a viable market, which has brought the carrier into gateways such as Manchester or Glasgow as


well as London. The Newcastle catchment area is in fact quite compact, extending


perhaps as far as the Scottish borders and down to Sunderland and Teesside.


Life and times of the Tyne


A play by Port of Tyne writer- in-residence Michael Chaplin has been brought to the stage by Live Theatre as part of the latter’s 40th anniversary programme. ‘Tyne’ maps the epic history, atmosphere, and soul of the mighty river in story, music, and images. Andrew Moffat, Port of Tyne, chief executive officer, said the playwright had “uncovered a whole host of stories evoking the passion and importance of the River Tyne.” With a cast staring Zoe Lambert, Jane Holman, Victoria Elliot, Phil


Corbitt, George Irving, Paul Dodds and Assad Zaman; Tyne tells a story of two siblings trying to trace their father’s story and life along the river’s edge.


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