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Issue 6 2020 - Freight Business Journal P&O chief steps down


P&O Ferries chief executive Janette Bell has stepped down, handing over to managing director David Stretch who will become


acting chief executive. Bell oversaw an unprecedented period in the ferry operator’s history, including preparations for Brexit


and the collapse of passenger traffic during the Covid pandemic, which in turn has triggered a plan for around 70 redundancies on the Dover-Calais routes. But her tenure also saw a million


€260 contract signed


with Guangzhou Shipyard International for two 230-metre ferries – the largest ever to sail between Dover and Calais – to go into operation by 2023, with options to build two further vessels by 2024.


///NEWS


News Roundup Forwarding & Logistics


The Thames Estuary Growth Board, led by Government- appointed Envoy Kate Willard, has launched ‘The Green Blue’ scheme to boost the potential of the east London, north Kent, south Essex and the Thames regions. The Board also includes local


councils and the Port of London Authority. It will work to leverage private


sector investment and is currently working to increase freight and passengers moved on the river by 25% and 50% respectively over five years. The Board is also establishing a hydrogen production, storage and fuelling infrastructure to support a shiſt to green vessels and support green, land-based transport.


Key projects in the Thames


Estuary include the possible freeport at Tilbury and London Gateway. Other schemes are a plan to


consolidate the historic London markets of Smithfield, Billingsgate and New Spitalfields into a single 42-acre site at Dagenham Docks, by 2023, creating the UK’s largest wholesale food destination. It will offer environmental benefits through the use of the rail network and river Thames to transfer produce. The Board is also exploring


whether the Thames Clippers vessels that provide a regular passenger service along the Thames could also carry freight. While there have been attempts


in the past to move more freight on Thames, with varying levels of success, Kate Willard said that the new board had the backing of government and, moreover, would be able to take a holistic ‘helicopter’ view of issues. This would help it overcome barriers such as cost or the need to develop new technology. “We are in a position to leverage investment, for instance in freight wharves, and we are keen to talk to anyone that has freight that could move on the river corridor,” Willard stated. With growing interest in


decarbonisation, moving freight by water was “no longer just a ‘nice to have’ but a commercial and social imperative,” she told FBJ. Companies were now serious


Brittany slashes ships and sailings


Brittany Ferries has cut its services in the face of a slump in passenger business, including the closure of the Cherbourg-Portsmouth and Le Havre-Portsmouth routes. The Connemara, currently serving the two routes, will be taken out of service entirely from 7 September. It follows the previously announced closure of


the St-


Malo Portsmouth route from 7 September and the continued closure of Cherbourg-Poole, which ceased operations at the end of March, for the remainder of the year. The company’s busiest route,


Caen-Portsmouth remains unaffected for the time being. The Normandie and Mont St Michel will continue three daily departures


about achieving modal shiſt, but they needed backing to overcome obstacles, she said. These included not only developing an infrastructure for clean vessel fuel but also helping operators identify backload opportunities or consolidating different loads together to make operations stack up commercially as well as environmentally. The board has also been in


discussion with port and city authorities in other countries where river estuaries play, or could potentially play, a part in logistics, including Rotterdam and Sydney. To discuss potential logistics


opportunities on the Thames, visit https://thamesestuary.org.uk


continue to take decisive action to reduce our costs to get us through the worst of this unprecedented crisis.” Brittany Ferries will however


expand its services between Ireland and France including a new Rosslare-Cherbourg route due to open in March 2021. Earlier this year, Brittany Ferries


as normal, with Armorique covering each ship’s technical stop in November and December respectively, running in freight- only mode. The Bilbao/Portsmouth and


Santander/Portsmouth services continue until a three-month technical lay-over, beginning in December. The Bilbao/Poole freight only service is continuing as normal. The


cuts follows the UK


government’s decision to impose quarantine restrictions on arrivals from Spain, and more recently France, which led to an immediate run of cancelled bookings The company also reports significantly weakened demand for services this autumn. Director


general Christophe


Mathieu said: “Passenger traffic accounts for around 75% of our income, so our bottom line has been hit hard. It’s is why we must


Samskip restores Amsterdam-Hull link


Multimodal operator Samskip has reintroduced direct


links


between Amsterdam and Hull. The service will operate three times a week from 5 September between


the TMA Terminal


Amsterdam and ABP’s Queen Elizabeth Dock, Hull, augmenting the separate Rotterdam-UK routing. The Amsterdam-Hull link


was suspended in March during the corona crisis. However,


says head of UK trade, David Besseling, while the total market fell, “the reliability of multimodal transport into the UK persuaded new shippers to convert from trailers to containers during lockdown, especially from Italy.” With drivers in short supply


in Europe, low diesel prices are encouraging hauliers to focus on Continental business instead of running trucks into the UK. Recent trailer rate rises are


evidence of a short sea market tipping in favour of the container, he says. Meanwhile, Samskip and


Nunner Logistics are launching direct rail services between Amsterdam and Duisburg that will provide a missing link between China and the UK. The new trains will connect


Samskip’s rail terminal in Duisburg with TMA Terminal Amsterdam, initially with two


opened a new mainly freight service connecting Rosslare with Bilbao and Roscoff. Hauliers have asked for the weekly French rotation to be moved from Roscoff to Cherbourg and Brittany Ferries has confirmed two weekly rotations from Rosslare to Bilbao, as well as a single Rosslare- Cherbourg


rotation from next


March. There is also an extra mid-


week sailing for the existing Cork- Roscoff route.


weekly departures in each direction, but increasing to three round trips per week from September. Nunner Logistics also operates


weekly trains from Xi’an and Changsha in China to Duisburg. The service also offers


connections with Samskip’s three-times-weekly Hull


and


Tilbury vessels as well as to the Norwegian West coast. High frequency rail shuttles will also extend beyond Duisburg, to Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Italy and Turkey.


Press reports have named Essex forwarding and logistics company Uniserve as one of the major beneficiaries of Government spending on supplies of personal protective equipment during the Covid crisis. According to articles in the Daily Mail and online Huffington Post, the company had five contracts with the Department of Health worth £186.4million, the second largest amount spent with any company. According to Uniserve’s website, it has been delivering ventilators, goggles, surgical masks, gloves, gowns and millions of litres of hand sanitiser urgently to hospitals and other locations around the country.


CEVA Logistics has opened its own offices in Ecuador and Uruguay as part of its expansion across Latin America. In Ecuador, air, ocean and ground operations will be headquartered in Guayaquil, and multi-modal operations in the capital, Quito serving customers in perishables, consumer and oil and gas. In Uruguay, the operation in Montevideo will especially serve customers in agriculture and livestock farming. It will also target key markets such as the technological, industrial and healthcare sectors.


Geodis has appointed Gary O’Connor as its managing director in Ireland. He was previous managing director of Ceva in Ireland and joins a team at Geodis’ new facility at Dublin Airport Logistics Park.


Distribution business CM Downton is to be rebranded as EV Cargo Logistics. It will be one of five business divisions within the EV Cargo global logistics and technology business, offering UK-wide chilled and ambient logistics. CM Downton was formed in 1955 by Conrad Michael Downton and was acquired by EmergeVest in 2018.


EV Cargo Global Forwarding – formerly Allport Cargo Services - says that while its global sea and air freight volumes were initially severely hit by the Covid pandemic, it benefitted from its diverse markets and has reported a steady return in volume over recent weeks. Its latest accounts cover an 18-month period ending June 2019, and are not directly comparable to other financial periods; earnings before tax increased by over 50% from calendar year 2018 to 2019, while trading during 2020 has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, EV Cargo has successfully implemented a number of cost reduction measures.


Gollcher Group has joined forwarding network The WACO System as the new member for Malta. It offers services including airfreight, ocean freight, trucking, warehousing, hazardous cargo, project cargo, perishables, pharmaceuticals and live animals from a warehouse at Hal Far, located between Malta Freeport and Malta International Airport. Gollcher holds Authorised Economic Operator status, as well as ISO 9001:2015 and International Air Transport Association accreditations.


Austrian forwarder Gebrüder Weiss (GW) has increased its presence in Germany by acquiring large parts of the operational business of Bremen-headquartered Ipsen Logistics, for an undisclosed sum and subject to regulatory approval. The move also expands its global air and sea network to include national companies in Belgium, Poland, and Malaysia. Ipsen’s national companies in Morocco and Algeria will continue to be partners in the GW network, but remain unaffected by the acquisition, as does Ipsen Industrial Packing in Bremen.


P&O Ferrymasters has launched a consultancy service to help customers manage complex supply chain challenges. It starts with data cleansing, analysis, modelling and mapping to visualise the customer’s current supply chain and create a clear baseline. The consultants then work on multiple scenarios, fully assessed for timing, availability, costs and environmental footprint, and ultimately can manage the tendering process to hand-pick the best solutions and assist with warehouse engineering.


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