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Issue 5 2020 - Freight Business Journal


Solent Stevedores set to expand London container handling


Solent Stevedores has started work on expanding its empty container handling facility at DP World London Gateway. Solent Stevedores first opened its five-acre facility at London


Gateway in 2016. The expansion will increase the site’s capacity by 82% to 4,300teu and will be fully operational by the end of 2020. The empty container yard, located on berth 7 of London


Gateway Port, provides services such as empty container and reefer storage; maintenance and repair; and shunting. The container yard is at Berth 7, outside the ISPS perimeter and adjacent to the port main gate. It has been running at capacity


for some time. Additional shipping services calling at the port and increased requirements from existing and new clients have made expansion imperative.


XPO to restore Waterford rail link


XPO Logistics is planning to start a new rail service between Ballina and Waterford from the fourth quarter of the year, restoring a long-standing link for the east coast


Irish port,


according to a report by Tim Casterton in the Multimodal newsletter. The principal customer will be soſt drink concentrate importer Ballina


Beverages, but space will be available for other customers. XPO and Irish national rail


company Iarnród Éireann operated a trial train over the route in March this year, transporting a number of reefer containers on it to Rotterdam and onwards to European destinations. An inbound trial is also to take place shortly.


Stena pushes ahead with retonnaging plan


Stena Line has started construction of two new larger E-Flexer ferries in Weihai, China, despite the Corona crisis. The vessels were ordered in 2018 and delivery is expected in 2022. They are the last of five vessels


Miniver is a bicycle ambulance rider with the MAMaZ Against Malaria programme, Zambia


In times like these, functioning supply chains are more important than ever.


We have never been prouder to be a part of the transport and logistics industry. From keeping


supermarket shelves stocked to delivering vital medicines, the industry’s response to meet the demands of the Covid-19 pandemic has been truly incredible.


Transaid is also rising to the challenge by helping rural Zambian communities like Miniver’s tackle Covid-19.


Join our journey: transaid.org Registered charity number 1072105. Patron: HRH The Princess Royal.


of the E-Flexer series that Stena Line ordered through sister company Stena RoRo


The first two, Stena Estrid and


Stena Edda, entered service on the Irish Sea earlier this year. The third vessel, Stena Embla, is in the final stages of construction and has been confirmed for service on thea Belfast-Liverpool route as planned in early 2021. The two larger E-Flexer vessels will be 240 meters long


///NEWS


Irish-owned logistics operator IWT already operates rail services between Dublin port and Ballina and for a time also ran between Waterford and Ballina before deciding to concentrate on the Dublin route. In years gone by, Waterford was a major rail container terminal for Bell Line with services radiating from there across the island of Ireland but this operation ceased aſter the demise of the short- sea operator. The port is still rail connected and handles a limited amount of non-container traffic.


with a load capacity of 3,600 lane metres, compared to the first three which are 214m long and have a load capacity of 3,100lm. All five vessels are delivered


gas-ready, to allow conversion to methanol or LNG fuel. The two longer vessels will also be equipped to use shore power during port calls to reduce emissions. The electricity connection also


enables a


conversion to electric hybrid in the future.


Aerospace is big business but outlook uncertain


Before the Covid crisis, aerospace was and indeed is big business for Air Charter Service, and will be in future, says group cargo director, Dan Morgan-Evans. He is optimistic that the business will continue aſter the crisis has passed, although the future of aviation remains very uncertain. Aerospace – both feeding the


manufacturers’ production lines and the movement of spares to aircraſt on ground – is an important part of the UK-based aircraſt charter specialist’s activity. Indeed, explains Morgan-Evans, ACS can offer a complete package of services to the aviation industry,


comprising the movement of urgently-needed spares by cargo aircraſt, private jet or on-board courier but also rapid chartering of replacement planes if necessary. The aircraſt manufacturing


side of ACS’s business is mostly concerned with the rapid movement of parts and material to help


customers catch up


production where there has been a stoppage. The aircraſt on ground


(AOG) business has meanwhile continued strongly throughout the Covid crisis, says Morgan- Evans and indeed had lately doubled its volume. Speaking


in mid-May, he explained: “Now, there are fewer


aircraſt flying


around the world, but they still need spares, although production of new aircraſt has naturally largely ceased.” Whether there will be a rush of


AOG spares to be moved around once planes start flying again in numbers remains to be seen, though. One possible factor is that the airlines, faced with the need to cut back their operations, will retire the older and more failure-prone aircraſt first, while the newer ones that remain will, theoretically at least, need fewer emergency spares.


Ontruck goes international


Digital road freight platform Ontruck has added international distribution to its portfolio. It


enables shippers to book


international long-haul full truck loads across core distribution lanes in Western and Central Europe and will facilitate exports from Spain into Portugal, France, Germany, Benelux and Poland and imports from across Europe into Spain and Portugal. Ontruck plans to bring the international service to the


UK. It is currently rolling out the product across routes in


mainland Europe and hopes to adapt it for the UK in 2021.


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