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Issue 2 2015 - Freight Business Journal
///IRELAND Small firms regain their appetite Woodland Group’s Irish
operation notes “a bigger appetite from SMEs” for its third-party logistics
services
in recent months. “Some of their accounts
have almost been in limbo for the last four or five years, but they’re coming back,” says managing director Kevin Brady. A good proportion of this business is fast-moving consumer goods, where the company saw increases of up to 25% in 2014. Overall import volumes from Asia have “really kicked off in the last six months,” he adds. The Ireland-US trade lane
is particularly important, and Woodland, which has six US
offices, specialises in ocean and air consolidations in both directions. “We do
a good
amount of full-load business but our main strength is ocean consolidation, where you have only three or four real players into Ireland. “We are also planning launch
to a direct ocean
consolidation service from Atlanta to Dublin which should be operational by the third quarter of this year. This will really open up the south- east corner of the US. There’s a lot of manufacturing down there,” Brady says. “In the past, some shipping
lines have only been interested in calling at European base
Peel Ports promotes productivity
Dublin’s three container terminals were putting through only enough cargo for two in the depths of the recession. They are all rather busier now as trade volumes pick up. Peel Ports, which handles
30% of the containers entering and leaving Ireland via MTL in Dublin and Victoria Terminal 3 (VT3) in Belfast, strives to ensure that all its facilities operate to similar procedures and performance levels, says Gerard Gaffney, head of port operations Ireland. The same philosophy applies to its major terminals on the UK mainland, such as Liverpool and Greenock. His priority last year was to
increase productivity. In the first quarter of 2014, VT3 was achieving 17.8 moves per hour but by the end of quarter three, the figure was up to 21.1. MTL saw a similar increase over the period, from 20 to 23.7 moves per hour. The improvement has been achieved without major restructuring. Gaffney claims streamlined vessel management and better lines of customer communication have had the knock-on benefit of
reducing hauliers’
turnaround time. Further efficiency gains are
promised when Peel rolls out its Navis 4 operating system
in Ireland, though Gaffney is not committing publicly to a date. “We need to migrate data efficiently from the old to the new system,” he says. Dairy processors such as
Glanbia are ready to scale up production of
milk powder
as soon as the EU ends dairy quotas in April. MTL says this will boost exports, but hopes a generally stronger economy will stimulate inbound cargo. “Shipping lines are repositioning empties into Ireland but would much prefer to bring in laden containers,” Gaffney comments. The situation in Belfast is
more uncertain, as the port authority has repeatedly deferred its decision on who is to run VT3 when the smaller BCT terminal closes. Peel has had to re-submit its proposals on how it will handle the merged business if it gets the go-ahead, but BCT incumbent Irish Continental Group is also in the mix. The rival bidders may have
to wait a little longer longer yet. The Belfast Harbour board met in late February to consider the VT3 concession project but a spokesman told us: “There are outstanding actions required before a final decision can be taken and thus we are not in a position to confirm an outcome.”
ports on imports and don’t want to get involved with feeders into Ireland or other European feeder destinations,” he claims. “You need exports to redress the imbalance with the lines. This dynamic will change as exports of Irish beef and dairy products increase in 2015.”
Irish dairy products such as
cheese and butter already sell well in North America, but the US Department of Agriculture only last year decided to end its long ban on EU beef, introduced after the “mad cow disease” outbreak in 1998. In addition to its
transatlantic ocean services, Woodland also offers weekly eastbound air consolidations out of JFK and Atlanta. The group’s logistics
division has a million square feet of dedicated and shared warehouse space in the UK
and is developing parallel facilities for the entire ‘island of Ireland’, with the aim of adding value for existing clients across all 32 counties. “In addition to
our core product offering we have seen significant growth with our ‘cross trade’ business,” Brady adds.
“A lot of
what we do is controlled from Ireland but doesn’t touch us here. We’re talking with a number of Irish companies, for example, about setting up warehousing or fulfilment services in the UK and Europe.
“We
have
also
begun
offering consultancy, taking a forensic look at all aspects of a client’s supply chain from inception of order through to final delivery.”
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