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Issue 5 2020 - Freight Business Journal New crane lifts


Portico’s prospects in Portsmouth


Portsmouth stevedore Portico has taken delivery of a new 432-tonne mobile harbour crane. Able to provide tandem liſt s up to 250 tonnes, it is expected to boost the south coast port’s presence in the heavyliſt market and will be


essential to handle the business of current customer MHI Vestas for managing some of the world’s largest wind blades when they arrive on bigger vessels. The £3m crane is owned by the council and leased to Portico.


Portsmouth plans for the future


Council-owned Portsmouth International Port has appointed international engineering and project management fi rm Royal HaskoningDHV to help deliver its long term master plan. From July, consultants will


engage with customers and stakeholders, looking at current market trends and growth forecasts, to deliver a plan


Swissport to slash UK workforce Airport handling company


Swissport says it will cut 4,556 jobs in the UK – over half its 8,500-strong workforce - blaming the eff ects of the corona crisis. The company employs cargo handlers as well as staff


dealing with passenger baggage and check-in. Chief executive Jason Holt


said the measure was necessary for the company to survive. In a message to staff , he said that the crisis facing the airline industry


was worse than any seen before, surpassing the Ash Cloud, 9/11 or the fi nancial crisis. Signifi cant changes were


taking place to travel and the way goods move around the world. He warned that the


Portsmouth


///NEWS


for the entire port authority harbour area, including Portico and the Camber. Once completed by the end


of the year the master plan will contribute towards the statutory


City


Council Local Plan. It will reveal how the port could look, with design ideas and suggestions for development.


industry was now smaller, and would remain so for some time to come. Swissport handles cargo


at 13 UK airports including London Heathrow and Stansted, Manchester and East Midlands, plus Dublin, Shannon and Cork in Ireland.


Shareholders come to the rescue of Virgin


Manston gets green light


The Secretary of State


for Transport has given development consent to a scheme by RiverOak Strategic Partners (RSP) to reopen Manston Airport in Kent as a cargo hub. The decision was originally due to be taken in January and was postponed to May before being postponed again. According to the Department


for Transport, it would be able to handle at


cargo movements


least 10,000 air per


year


while also offering passenger, executive travel, and aircraft engineering services. RSP said construction will


begin in 2021 with the airport operating its first cargo services in the first quarter of 2023. It added that the Covid crisis had demonstrated the fragility and inflexibility of the UK’s air cargo network, which relies almost exclusively on passenger aircraft to carry freight, as well


as the urgent need to keep air freight going. It said: “It is widely accepted that demand for passenger air travel will take a number of years to return to pre-pandemic levels, if it ever does, and so building the UK’s specialist freight capacity has become even more vital.” It would provide dedicated


air freight capacity adjacent to the London airports, “free of the uncertainties that face airports reliant solely, or predominantly, on the income from passenger traffic”. RSP director Tony


Freudmann, said: “Once built, Manston will be one of the most modern, efficient and environmentally friendly freight hubs in the world, able to cater for traditional freight as well as the rapidly expanding international e-commerce sector that the UK has so heavily relied upon during the period of lock down.”


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Shareholders have pumped millions of pounds into Virgin Atlantic


in a bid to


save the troubled airline from bankruptcy. It announced a “solvent recapitalisation” in mid-July, including a restructuring plan based on a five year business plan, with the support of shareholders Virgin Group and Delta, new private investors and existing creditors. It paves the way for the airline to rebuild its


balance sheet and return to profitability from 2022, it said. The recapitalisation will


deliver a refinancing package worth about £1.2bn over the next 18 months in addition to cost savings of around £280m per year and some £880m-worth of re-phasing and refinancing of aircraft deliveries over the next five years. Shareholders are providing about £600m in support over the life of the plan,


including a £200m investment from Virgin Group, and the deferral of about £400m of shareholder deferrals and waivers. Global institutional


investment management firm Davidson Kempner Capital Management


is providing


£170m of secured financing. Virgin Atlantic is owned 51%


by the Virgin Group and 49% by US carrier Delta Air Lines. Cost saving


measures


including closing the London Gatwick base, while retaining a slot portfolio at the airport, and consolidating services on London Heathrow and Manchester. The carrier says that by 2022 it will fly the same number of sectors as 2019 despite its smaller scale, with a streamlined fleet of 37 twin- engine aircraft. Seven 747s and four A332s will be retired while deliveries of A350s and A339s will be rescheduled.


Accurate cargo description is still essential, says ITAL chief


Many companies, particularly freight forwarders, are failing to properly describe goods being moved within the European Union, says managing director of Manchester-based Ital Logistics, Phil Denton. While there is no requirement


from Customs to give accurate descriptions for intra-EU traffi c, it is still important for other reasons, especially where fragile, high value goods and foodstuff


based products are concerned, he argues. Moreover, with the UK’s impending exit from the EU and the reintroduction of full customs controls, such casual practices will in any case soon have to come to an end. Phil Denton told FBJ:


“The maritime industry has SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) requirements, and more recently, those for Verifi ed Gross Mass (VGM). Furthermore, there


is, quite rightly, an increasing emphasis on the misdeclaration of dangerous goods - so why is it ‘accepted’ practice in the forwarding industry to have little regard for the correct cargo description when moving goods within the EU?” He says that ITAL, one of the


leading carriers of dangerous goods between the UK and continental Europe and which frequently moves shipments


on behalf of other operators, oſt en receives bookings - mainly from fellow forwarders - which describe cargo only as either ‘spare parts’, ‘non-hazardous goods’ or


something similarly


vague. Denton, who along with


other members of ITAL’s staff is a qualifi ed Dangerous Goods Safety Advisor (DGSA) says: “It is becoming rather tedious. The same companies have to declare correctly when shipping outside the EU, so why not exercise the same


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