NEWS\\\


UK/Scandinavia shipping line TransPal Line has been closed down, say owners TransAtlantic. The Swedish operator blamed weak market conditions facing its Industrial Shipping division. TransPal ran regular container


services from Hull – which had lately taken over from Goole as the UK call – to Hamburg, Szczecin (Poland), Ahus and Norrkoping is


Southern Sweden. In a press statement,


TransAtlantic said: “As a part of the efforts to improve the profitability within Industrial Shipping it has been decided to immediately close down the unprofitable container service TransPal Line involving closure of offices and terminal in Hull (United Kingdom) and Szczecin (Poland). The


New East coast feeder launched


Tilbury’s London Container Terminalhas signed an agreement with MSC Geneva, Italian freight forwarder


Zeta System and


shipping operator BG Freight to launch a new UK East Coast feeder service. The two-ship weekly service which will call at Rotterdam, Felixstowe, Tilbury and Grangemouth and is aimed especially at Italian export customers to the UK. The service


connects with MSC vessels from Italy in Rotterdam. Sole director of Zeta System, Mr


Antonio Zaccagnino, said: “This is an important new service for us. Our customers including Miller Brands need a reliable service to the UK market. We have recently invested in our own fleet of 45’ containers for this service and we look forward to working with Tilbury more in the future.”


decision affects 70 employees, mainly in the UK, Poland and headquarters in Gothenburg.” Details of the TransPal schedule


have been removed from the company’s website, although services between the Continent and Scandinavia and intra- Scandinavian services remained. In its year-end results for 2013,


Issue 2 2014 - Freight Business Journal


3 TransPal Hull-Sweden link axed


Transatlantic – which makes much of its money from offshore work- added that an agreement was signed in December to divest the two small container vessels TransOdin and TransFrej used on the TransPal Line. The transaction was concluded in January. Niels Smedegaard, president and CEO of DFDS, which operates


competing ro ro and container services from Immingham to Sweden, said


the withdrawal


of the TransPal service “could potentially boost our own traffic, but it remains to be seen.” The two lines have rather different customer bases, he pointed out. Meanwhile, the Swedish/UK corridor “was not seeing fantastic


growth at the moment,” he added. Smedegaard pointed out that all


operators on the North Sea would have to deal with the impact of the new sulphur regulations from 1 January next year. Prices could increase from anything from 9% to 35%, although much depended on the length of route and load factor, he said.


Evergreen goes into an alliance at last


Evergreen, one of the last major shipping lines to operate independently,


is to join in an


alliance with four other lines. The Taiwanese operator, together with Cosco, K Line,. Yangming and Hanjin – who together form the existing CKYH grouping - will set up the CKYHE Alliance which will operate only on trades between Asia and Europe, including the Mediterranean. The lines said they would


formally begin the new Alliance on 1 March, subject to compliance with regulations. Actual operations are expected to start in mid April with six joint services between Asia and Northern Europe and four loops on the Asia-


Mediterranean route. The lines say that customers will benefit from faster transit times and more frequent sailings, as well as helping to reduce environmental impact. The new alliance will continue to slow steam and to reduce CO2 emissions. In response, the European


Shippers Council said that freedom of choice must remain key and individual


deep sea on price, carriers


must continue to distinguish themselves


service


and routings. ESC points out that Evergreen’s decision to join the CKYH Alliance leaves the market with just three alliances, if the rival P3 alliance is allowed to go ahead.


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