RO-RO\\\


Issue 4 2015 - Freight Business Journal Lines to all points on the map


The route map of Grimaldi’s ro ro services is an impressive sight. In Europe, it stretches from St Petersburg in the North, via the UK, Ireland and Iberia into all parts of the Med, including North Africa and as far East as Turkey, Egypt and Beirut. Taking into account Grimaldi’s services to Africa and those of its ACL subsidiary, its


reach extends well down the West African coast as far as Luanda and across the Atlantic to cover all the main gateways of the US East Coast and Brazil and Argentina. Finnlines, 80% owned by


Grimaldi, is an important part of this mighty network of specialised ro ro freight vessels. In the UK, explains sales director Annika Ord-


Hume, there are links from Hull to Helsinki and St Petersburg direct, another route from Immingham, Tilbury, Antwerp and Amsterdam to Helsinki. To this has been added a transshipment option via the AET terminal in Antwerp – an important hub for the network - to Paldiski in Estonia, mostly to cater for volumes from Spain but


NMT: success through networking


NMT, by its own admission, is a hard company to categorise. Based in the Netherlands but with an extensive network of offices throughout the world – including four in the UK – it describes itself as both a “global carrier to shippers” and “global shipper to carriers”. It runs its own services


through a network of sometimes its own controlled tonnage, sometimes chartered vessels in the wheeled cargo trades, but it can also operate as a freight forwarder for such traffic. But, it states: “We like to control the cargo process and even employ our own port captains in major ports.” Vessel operators who do not


want to sell capacity themselves on a particular voyage can


instead hand the task to NMT, which has its own customers and market. In the UK, NMT operates


from offices in Southampton, Newcastle, a port office in Sheerness in Kent and, the latest addition to its network, Omagh in Northern Ireland, added about 18 months ago. From the UK, it runs its own services to West and South Africa, to the Middle and Far East and South America, operating from Southampton, Sheerness, Killingholme and Immingham. NMT’s market from the UK is


mainly second-hand vehicles – mostly to those countries that drive on the ‘proper’ (that is, leſt) side of the road and wheeled machinery. The latter category of traffic was one of the motivations


for opening the Omagh office, as there are several manufacturers in the area. NMT doesn’t handle much


new car traffic from the UK, as this is mostly controlled by the manufacturers. But last year was a tough time,


with a lot of excess capacity in the market, says NMT’s manager in Southampton, Scott Reeves. “We hope 2015 will be better,” he says, adding that early signs are that it indeed is improving, with demand for second vehicles and machinery picking up in the Middle East, though Africa remains slow due to recent elections in Nigeria and the Ebola crisis. But with its extensive office network, NMT can at least capitalise on available cross trades.


WWL just keeps rolling along


Rolling cargo and high and heavy specialist carrier Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL) has increased the frequency of its key Asia to Europe route, as well as upping frequencies between Asia and the US Gulf, says vice president, key accounts, Borge Kibo Bodogaard. “Between Asia and Europe we


are now operating five vessels a month (not all vessels call at all ports). The Transatlantic is another core route for us, and we believe we have the strongest frequency and port coverage of any operator on that route.” The US produces a huge variety of cargoes


– not just


cars, but heavy engineering and aircraſt components, all of which can easily be handled on WWL’s latest


generation of vessels.


Ramp capacity of the newer ships is anywhere between 320 and 500 tonnes and internal deck heights are up to 6.4 metres. WWL recently launched the Thermopylae, the first of its new


available for UK traffic too. “Traffic to Russia


is picking


up,” says Ord-Hume. “The Rouble is stronger, so they are able to buy more.” Finnlines traffic, she continues, “is a real mixture, of containers, trailers, bulk or machinery.” There is quite a bit from the UK in the form of project engineering, although there could always be more. The average age of the Finnlines


fleet is less than ten years, she adds. With plenty of life leſt in the ships, it has been viable to fit scrubber systems to the vessels to comply with the new SECA emissions area in Europe. This caused a lot of uncertainty in the industry, not to mention predictions of doom and gloom, but in the event it has passed off without any untoward effects, helped by the fact that underlying fuel prices are now on the way down. ACL’s new fleet of five G4 con-ro


vessels will be getting on for double the size of the ships they replace – but John Fricker, general manager


of ro ro and special projects for Europe does not anticipate having any problems filling them. “I think we will be more or less full straight away,” he told FBJ. There is plenty of wheeled


construction equipment, agricultural equipment, project cargo and high and heavy items to fill the ships, at least in the westbound direction to North America, he believes. (The trade car space is chartered out.) “Business is pretty good – nearly every ship to the US is full,” says Fricker. The G4s will have space for


3,800teu, the equivalent of 764teu of ro ro space and capacity for 1,307 cars, compared with figures of 1850teu, 525teu ro ro space and 1,000 cars for the 30-year old G3s that they are replacing. The first G4 is scheduled to


go into service during the third quarter of 2015 and the other four will all be in service by the second quarter of 2016. Despite their increased


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capacity, the new ships will have the same footprint as the old ones, so they will be able to use the same berth at Liverpool’s Seaforth terminal. ACL will not be moving into the new Liverpool2 terminal, because its ramped vessels need a terminal inside the lock. Liverpool is the sole UK port


of call for ACL’s own vessels, although it also a space sharing deal (for containers only) with Hapag Lloyd. Ports served on the Continent


are Antwerp, Hamburg and Gothenburg; the line provides an intra-European service between these ports for abnormal loads – pieces of up to 320 tonnes have been handled and the ramp capacity is 420t - that otherwise would create congestion on the road system. In North America, ACL serves Halifax, New York, Baltimore and Norfolk. A cabotage service between these points is not possible because the US Jones act reserves such activities for US- flagged vessels.


generation of Post Panamax HERO (High Efficiency RoRo) PCTC (pure car and truck carrier) vessels. She is the first of a total of eight similar ships that will go into service between 2015 and 2017. The Hero class features five


liſtable car decks, allowing for


more configurations for


cargo of various sizes and hence increased capacity for cars, trucks, equipment and breakbulk. The vessels’ shallower draſt allows them to call at more ports. They also comply with the latest sulphur dioxide and


nitrous oxide


emission rules. While the large ro ro vessels


operated by WWL may still be thought of as primarily car and vehicle carriers, these days ‘high and heavy’ pieces are gaining in importance and are beginning to influence the pattern of port calls. In the UK, for example, where Southampton has long been the main port of call, thoughts are turning to also serving other ports to cater more for WWL’s customers in the heavy engineering sector. China and Asia are still


growing strongly for WWL, not just China but increasingly Thailand which is emerging as an important regional car manufacturing and engineering centre.


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