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Issue 7 2013 Freight Business Journal


///IBERIA


The PIGS get lean and hungry


Spain and Portugal are in one of the world’s least enviable clubs – the so-called PIGS group of badly underperforming economies. But aſter five long, weary years there are signs that they are trading their way out of recession.


John Good is agent for new Bilbao/Felixstowe link


Short sea shipping and logistics specialist OPDR (Oldenburg- Portugiesische Dampfschiffs- Rhederei) and Team Lines are to launch a new domestic and feeder container service between Bilbao, Felixstowe and Rotterdam on 13 October. The service will provide a fixed day schedule with fast transit times between Northern Spain and the UK, as well as the rest of Northern Europe, sailing Rotterdam on Saturday,


Bilbao


on Tuesday and Felixstowe on Thursday and a transit time of around two days in each direction. There are also connections with other OPDR services including Portugal, Canaries, South Spain and


choice and fast transit times for customers from carriers who are well known in the industry for delivering high-class, reliable container services.” Till Ole Barrelet, CEO of the OPDR


Morocco. The vessels used on the service will be about 700 teu. Hull-based John Good Shipping


are the UK agent. Managing director, Alan Platt, described the partnership as “a very positive step” that would help establish even stronger trade links with the Spanish market. He said: “It is encouraging to see such a positive development within the industry at this time and will provide further


Group, said the partnership with Team Lines would complement OPDR’s long-term business plan on the Iberian Peninsula: “Both our companies are specialists for container traffic in and out of the Iberian Peninsula. With the integration of the port of Bilbao into our schedule, OPDR now covers all hub ports in Spain and Portugal, which will lead to short transit times that are ideal for sensitive cargo to the UK and the rest of Northern


Iberia gets a taste for pallets


Since launching Pall-Ex Iberia in 2011, the Spanish and Portuguese freighting public have taken to the pallet delivery concept, says Anand Assi, Pall-Ex’s project director in charge of the group’s European expansion. While the economic situation there isn’t great, volumes on the network are continuing to grow. Indeed, the need to reduce costs in the straitened financial circumstances has encouraged local hauliers


to consider


joining networks, as it helps cut out empty running in a region of long distances. “There are also opportunities


in the export market,” adds Assi, “particularly to ports and airports as Iberia is becoming


a major exporter of all types of products like heavy and light machinery, pharmaceuticals, clothes, textiles and so on.” There is also some traffic to


the UK, as well as to the other countries where Pall-Ex has set up networks. The Pall-Ex network in


Iberia is now 41-strong. Other members will be welcome, particularly to help infill the more rural spots but there is no difficulty in covering the whole territory via the single hub in Madrid. It’s a large area, though, and some traffic is moved directly between members -


from Lisbon to Oporto in


Portugal, for example. Most of the country can be served in 24-hours, with 48


hours for the more outlying


mainland areas and offshore islands. Gibraltar is not currently served but a Pall-Ex is seeking a member there. While there are local clusters


of hauliers and logistics service providers, Spain and Portugal had seen nothing like a comprehensive network until the pallet operators started up in the country. It is quite a fragmented and regionalised area – some areas of Spain consider themselves culturally separate from Madrid, but there is a growing realisation of the need to work together, says Assi. Another promising area are


online deliveries to expatriate Brits living in the costas of southern Spain.


Europe.” OPDR will offer all equipment


types including 45’ pallet-wide high cube containers and 45’ pallet-wide


high cube reefer containers for ambient and chilled products. OPDR adds that it has a range of reefer solutions from Spain,


Portugal, the Canary Islands and Morocco to the UK, including 40ſt high cube reefer and 45ſt high cube pallet-wide reefer containers.


Keep on tracking


Investment in innovations such as its European groupage on line track and trace which “has definitely been a factor in maintaining and increasing , at groupage and full load operator PSL’s volumes into Iberia. “In a highly competitive market a forward thinking approach is needed,” says commercial director, Richard Gibbs. In contrast to the experiences of


some other operators, the Iberian market has not been too bad for PSL, says Richard Gibbs. It may be rather flat, but it certainly isn’t going down significantly and it has been remarkably consistent throughout the year, he says. In fact, there had been a marked upturn in the groupage market in the second half of September, he added. “Spain and Portugal may not be


as buoyant as Germany has been but it’s been OK for us. Perhaps its because we’re a large player,” he told FBJ. PSL Freight, part of the PSL Group,


is a long established operator on the UK-Iberian routes. It runs from four main consolidation depots in the UK - Maldon, Essex, Hinckley in Leicestershire, Manchester and Birstall in Yorkshire with services going direct to and from the UK regional hubs to the depots of its four Spanish partners - Nadal Forwarding - serving the Barcelona area in the north-east, EcuTrans


for Vitoria and Irun in the north- west, Madrid-based First Cargo Transitarios


for the centre and


southern regions and GB Grupajes in Valencia and Alicante in the south-east. Gibbs explains: “By offering


direct services we are able to reduce transit times and minimise cost. Our long established volumes allow us to maintain minimum twice weekly groupage departures to each. We also benefit


from


having agents that originate in their respective regions and are not governed centrally - local knowledge is important. In Portugal, the PSL Group has


been working with Garland Trasitos since its inception nearly 30 years ago. Gibbs says: “As with our Spanish services we have direct routes to/ from Garland’s three hubs in Oporto, Marinha Grande and Lisbon with onward services to both Madeira and the Azores. Our volumes to and from the region have held up during this year, and we are now seeing an upturn in volume coming in from Portugal and in particular for the fashion sector.” Shortages of equipment do


affect the UK/Iberia market from time to time. Sometimes, truckers are reluctant to come to this country if they can get better rates to Continental destinations from Spain and Portugal, with the cost


and time of taking a ferry. “But then it can change again,” points out Richard Gibbs. “Suddenly they decide the UK’s not so bad aſter all.” Summer holidays also reduce


the amount of trucks available, especially in Spain. Portugal has been a steady


market and volumes have been satisfactory. PSL works with its long-standing agent there, Garland, which covers the whole of this relatively compact country. In Spain, it has four agents, partly because of regional preferences but mainly because it is a large country and it pays work directly with companies headquartered in a specific area. There is little sense in operating to Madrid and then across to Valencia, for instance, although Madrid is a convenient hub for trucks heading south. PSL serves the peripheral Spain and Portugal


regions of


– the Azores and Madeira via Garland’s Lisbon depot for instance Gibraltar via Madrid mostly and the Balearics via its agent Nadal in Barcelona. As well as groupage, PSL offers


a full load service to all parts of Spain and Portugal. Mostly, this is concentrated on the UK but it does serve other markets in Europe and in some cases it is convenient to triangulate trucks via the Continent.


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