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Issue 8 2014 - Freight Business Journal


///SCANDINAVIA Multimodal firm sees great future for rail


Managing director of Samskip associate company Van Dieren Sweden, Lars Lerstorp, which markets Samskip’s multimodal services, is enthusiastic about the development of his company’s intermodal rail services between Scandinavia and the rest of Europe. The core route is between


Sweden – where Samskip Van Dieren Multimodal has five terminals covering the main population centres such as Helsingborg, Gothenburg, Jönköping and Stockholm - and Duisburg in Germany. Samskip Van Dieren charters its own block train and operates regular daily services between the two regions. Most of the Sweden/ Duisburg train’s volume is taken up by Samskip Van


Dieren


Multimodal’s own volume, although


some third-party


space is sold, mostly to tank and bulk container operators. The trains themselves are run


by the third party operators that have emerged since the Swedish rail market was deregulated


and include Hector Rail and DB Schenker. Rail traffic between Sweden and continental Europe has also been greatly helped by the opening of the Oresund fixed link between Denmark and Southern Sweden. The rail service operates reliably, Lerstorp adds. All the trains are point to point shuttles, with no intermediate shunting. Scandinavia has a very


‘green’ image, but companies’ decisions to use rail and other environmentally-friendly modes of transport are oſten based on commercial criteria, as it would be anywhere else. Rail doesn’t enjoy specific subsidies in Scandinavia, other than those provided by the European Union. The trimodal inland hub of


Duisburg, where Samskip Van Dieren Multimodal has its own terminal and which is about to be further expanded with a second gantry crane, is the centre of a growing network of intermodal rail services which already link Scandinavia to


a wide swathe of central and southern Europe. There are also connecting services by other rail operators linking Duisburg to Lyon, southern France and Spain, northern Italy and, three times a week via Trieste and a ferry service, to Turkey. A new development is a link to the French-Spanish border via Bettembourg in Luxembourg. Duisburg itself serves a large area of central Europe, including Benelux, Paris, Stuttgart and southern Germany. There are also links between Sweden and the UK and Ireland,


via Duisburg and Rotterdam. Barge, rail or road links are available between Duisburg and Rotterdam, from where short- sea shipping provides service to Tilbury, Hull, Grangemouth, Belfast, Dublin, Waterford and Cork. The UK flows helps balance the traffic between


out


Scandinavia and the rest of Europe, says Lerstorp. He adds: ”Historically, trade between the UK and Sweden was quite imbalanced but more goods are moving from the UK. To this can be added substantial quantities


of RDF, so the imbalance is diminishing.” “The intermodal network is


really expanding,” he continues. “We see a huge potential to Spain, as there are major Swedish exports like paper and steel, while Sweden imports a lot of fruit and vegetables from there.”


Samskip Van Dieren


Multimodal has been testing reefer containers on the route and while it is early days yet, there could be a major market for perishables. The upsurge of interest in rail


is not specifically to do with the widely publicised new sulphur emission rules, which could push up the cost of short-sea shipping. The effects of this are still not clear, says Lerstorp, though it is fairly certain that it will push up costs for operators and their customers. Lerstorp believes that there will be some switch to rail or even road transport where short-sea costs and rates rise substantially. For the moment, Samskip’s rail terminal network in Sweden will


remain substantially the same, but there could be developments in Denmark. There is already a service to Copenhagen, but additional Danish points are a very strong possibility. Sweden itself is well covered; there is also a connection by a third party rail operator to the north of the country. Norway is mainly serviced


by short-sea shipping, although a


rail link is available via


Gothenburg. All parts of Europe have


experienced challenging economic times, Lerstorp considers, but Sweden in particular has fared better than average. Volumes have been affected by the uncertainty in Germany and the East, so the future is a little clouded, but in the last year or so “Sweden has done very well,” although unfavourable exchange rates may have weakened Swedish companies’ order books somewhat over the past. Norway has done well from its oil and gas exports too.


Swedish-headquartered forwarding and shipping company GreenCarrier is living up to its name and pursuing a truly green agenda, says CEO


Björn Eklund. “We’re


focusing more than ever on environmental issues,” he told FBJ. “Even though we’re a non-asset-based company, we have a role to play in helping our customers find the right transport mode


and we’ve


developed a tool that provides them with all the emission levels for the various types of transport.” At


the same time,


GreenCarrier staff have been going


through an education


programme, expected to be complete by the end of November. It’s all part of GreenCarrier’s responsibility


corporate


programme, under which the company also allocates a set percentage of its annual profit to environmental good causes. Companies need to be aware


of the changing business and environment and keep abreast of the changes in customer expectation, he says. “It used to


Green by name, green by nature FedEx builds for Nordic growth


be that big companies would eat up the small ones. Nowadays its more that the fast-moving firms will eat up the slower ones.” Customers are becoming


much more environmentally aware and are looking for less carbon-emitting, greener alternatives. Scandinavia is at the heart


of the new Marpol maritime emission control


area. The


shipping industry may have many misgivings about it, but the plan enjoys wide support among the general public in Scandinavia and the Nordic region, Eklund points out. Their only complaint is: ‘Why should it only apply in our region?’ It could have some effects on


shipping costs, though Eklund personally believes


that the


effect will be smaller than that suggested by the gloomier commentators. Today, GreenCarrier employs


around 650 people, and has recently amalgamated its shipping and logistics and freight departments to give more of a customer focus and to allow every office to sell all the company’s products. It is


present in all the Nordic and Baltic markets, along with the UK, China and others in Europe. “We’re growing at quite


a steady pace,” continues Eklund. A takeover of a small Finnish forwarder has given GreenCarrier a presence in the Tampere region of that country. It has established an officer in Stavanger, Norway to tap into the oil and gas market and it has also opened up at Jönköping in south- central Sweden, midway between Gothenburg and Stockholm. Further afield, another


Chinese office has been added at Xiamen. In the UK, where GreenCarrier Immingham and


took over


Ipswich-based groupage operator PTS some time ago, the four former PTS owners will all have retired by the end of the year, with former PTS owner and managing director Robert Gaunt replaced by Chris Hunt. The future outlook for the main Scandinavian economies


seems reasonably bright, Eklund concludes. True, there are storm clouds brewing over the EU’s relations with Russia, a major trading partner for all the Nordic countries and especially Finland, but the fundamental economic situation in Sweden, Denmark and Norway is pretty strong. Finland with its smaller and less diverse economy is perhaps a little bit more vulnerable, but overall, the picture is reasonably bright.


FedEx is enhancing its presence in Scandinavia and the North with a new Nordics Gateway at Copenhagen airport. Vice president, finance for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Indian Subcontinent, Helena Jansson described it as “another milestone for FedEx Express’s growth in the Nordic region.” It will serve as a gateway for inbound and outbound shipments for Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. She added: “We are investing in this facility to give our customers even better connectivity from the Nordics to Europe and the rest of the world. We decided to build the new gateway at Copenhagen airport because it is the largest


cargo hub in the Nordic countries and is ideally situated to serve as a trucking hub between the Nordics and the rest of Europe.” Copenhagen is also an ideal choice because of its strong freight transport infrastructure and the central location of its airport.” Jansson added: “E-commerce


is thriving globally at three to four times the rate of traditional retail buying in bricks and mortar stores. Reliable delivery to customers is critical to e-tailers. Whether it is a complex, high-volume online retail operation, or an entrepreneurial home-based online store-front, the new gateway is well positioned to help them achieve their growth aspirations.”


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