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Issue 8 2020 - Freight Business Journal


says Focus- E conomics .


However, the country’s international trade slumped due to restrictions and disrupted supply chains. Available data for the third


quarter hints that a recovery is underway. Economic activity continued to improve in July, with its best reading since January, while sales continued to expand, suggesting strengthening


domestic


demand. But in August the unemployment rate rose to its highest level since May 2018, while consumer confidence slumped, which could dampen spending ahead. While economy is projected


to contract sharply in 2020, strong government measures should support activity somewhat. In 2021, Focus- Economics sees the economy rebounding from the downturn, although a weak recovery in


key trading partners and high unemployment pose risks. The Bank of Finland says


that the country’s GDP will contract by 4.7% in 2020 and, even


though the recession


appears to be shallower than feared in the spring, it is still deep, and recovery will be slow. Employment threatens to weaken for a protracted period, and the global recession is overshadowing the outlook for exports, it adds.


///SCANDINAVIA


OceanBlue celebrates 15 years in business


Scandinavian specialist OceanBlue Logistics is 15 years old this year, having opened its head office in Laceby, near Immingham in November 2005. Coincidentally, it is also the 13th birthday of its Bradford office and


the eighth anniversary


of Airdrie, which opened in November of 2005 and 2010, respectively. OceanBlue now has four


Brexit has become enough of an issue in Finland for the country’s customs service to have launched a dedicated helpline for traders, reports Janne Lehtimäki, chief executive of fourth party logistics company, Leafhill Solutions. However, most logistics firms and their customers are fairly sanguine about the matter, and will probably take it in their stride, he says.


Finnish companies are well


used to trading in even more demanding environments – Russia is a next door neighbour and major trading partner – and carrying out customs clearances is a routine matter for most of them. There is good awareness among


Finnish


firms of Brexit, and although there may well be some issues with recovering VAT and the like, most will probably cope, he believes. Finnish customs is highly automated, which will help companies to deal with any issues. Trade through Finland’s


seaports has meanwhile held up remarkably well, overall, Lehtimäki continues. Imports into the largest, Hamina-Kotka, did drop by 23% but exports were up 5.3% there, and also rose by 12% in Rauma and 29% in Helsinki. The Covid crisis and the shut down of Chinese industry at the beginning of the year may have affected imports but exports have gained from the strength of Finland’s metals and machinery sectors.


Stena boosts space to Latvia and Sweden


Stena Line is to replace its current vessels on the Travemünde (Germany)-Liepaja (Latvia) route with two modern ro pax vessels, adding a further 40% freight capacity, shortening crossing times and offering a fixed timetable with six weekly departures in each direction. The new vessels will also offer improved on-board facilities. It follows the announcement


on 15 October of the deployment of


two new modern ro-pax


vessels on the route between Nynäshamn in Sweden and Ventspils in Latvia during 2021. The lengthened vessels will add 30% more lane metres of freight capacity and a modern on-board experience to the route. Trade director Baltic Sea North, Johan Edelman, says: “We


have seen an increase in demand from our customers across the Baltic Sea region. We are now strengthening our position and customer offer further with new modern vessels, more capacity and an attractive on-board


Airfreight though is another


story. Freight traffic dropped by 42% in the first nine months of 2020 compared with last year, with Covid of course a major factor. Passenger traffic through Helsinki, the country’s dominant airport, collapsed by no less than 99% and with passenger planes not flying, there was no bellyhold space for freight either. Other smaller air gateways have been closed entirely. Passenger capacity on the


country’s leading carrier, Finnair, fell by 88.5% year- on-year in October and there were no scheduled flights at all to North America. Europe suffered a 90% fall in capacity and Asia 86.6%. Finnair’s cargo tonnage did


experience on both our routes to and from Latvia during 2021.” The route between


Travemünde and Liepaja is currently operated by the two sister vessels, Stena Gothica and the Urd. During the spring of 2021 they will be replaced by two as yet unnamed vessels, increasing lane metres by 40% and cutting the crossing time from 27 to 20 hours.


locations in the UK, including Hull. It has also invested in a company in Finland OceanBlue Logistics, based in Vantaa near Helsinki. Managing director, Daniel


Morrison says: “Our main focus for the next five years - aside from Brexit - is to position growth for all Nordic sectors and increase


rise 26.1% from September 2020, but capacity was still down by 87.4% year-on-year as the carrier suffered from the loss of the belly hold capacity on its passenger aircraft. The express integrators have


though been doing well lately in


Finland, although Following some


have racked up extra costs due to Covid.


change


of management, matters have also settled down at the somewhat troubled Finnish Post service after a number of not altogether successful acquisitions of logistics companies in the past two years. But the traditional postal


services are still under pressure in the main cities from new competitors such as Fiuge, which describes itself as a crowdsourced delivery service


volume on consolidation, part and full loads.” The forwarder covers the


whole of the Nordic region, including the more remote offshore areas such as the Faroe Islands or Iceland. It operates its own dedicated road and sea freight services from the UK to Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark. It can handle most types of hazardous cargoes for all areas of Scandinavia, subject to correct documentation. It also offers out-of-gauge


services to Scandinavia including flatbeds and lo-loaders with their own loading gear. As for Brexit, OceanBlue is


opening a customs clearance office under its umbrella to control documentation of its


and uses people with a bit of spare time on their hands or taxi drivers to carry out drops and pick-ups. Another Finnish Post acquisition, logistics operator Transval Group, bought in late 2018 and merged with its existing Flexo service, has now settled down quite well and is currently looking to recruit more people, says Lehtimäki. There has also been quite a


lot of international interest in Finland’s freight market, with operators including DSV and Dachser setting up logistics warehouses. Rail services between China


and Finland remain busy, though there has been some chopping and changing of operators, with one operator, Kouvola Cargo Handling ceasing but new services


own international movements as well as servicing other sectors of the supply chain. OceanBlue Clearances 24/7 (OBC-24/7) will be manned from 1 December in preparation for the post-Brexit era.


Morrison comments:


“OceanBlue already carries out a vast number of clearances, but we feel a new challenge awaits us. The office will be open 24/7 and will be based at our head office in Laceby. In addition, our Bradford office will also have infrastructure to make live clearance documentation. Clearances can be done at all UK ports for both imports and exports. The overall vision is to have plans in place which allows the clearance office to take more volumes on, this being our main central clearance office for any UK exporters or importers struggling with clearance headaches.”


starting, with reports of


more to come. At the time of writing, Nurminen Logistics was running every two weeks, in both directions, between Helsinki and Hefei. Sa-Tu Logistics was due to start a Zhengzhou-Helsinki service on 20 November and Maersk was also planning a China-Finland service. Rail has even been used to


move refrigerated fish from Narvik in Norway to Russia and China via Finland. However, says Lehtimäki:


“We are a small country and I don’t think we have enough business for all these operators. Yes, we have good exports to China and some airfreight has been transferring to rail, but our volumes are really quite minor compared with other countries.”


Europa copes well with the Covid crisis


The Scandinavian market has held up very well compared with most others in Europe during the Covid crisis, says Europa managing director Andrew Baxter. “Swedish exports did decline during March and April but had returned to near-normal by May,” he said. “Imports from Sweden are just a little bit down on last year.” The Danish market showed a similar pattern of a fall followed by a strong recovery. Sweden’s strong performance


could well be due to that country’s much less stringent lockdown measures compared with much of the rest of Europe, which has allowed a reasonable level of economic activity to continue. The Dartford-headquartered


groupage operator operates daily (six days a week) services to Denmark and Sweden and also serves Norway and Finland via the latter country. Daily groupage services operate via Calais from the UK


to Malmo, southern Sweden, in partnership with N-Tex. The latter company, based in Immingham, also operates from Scandinavia to the UK in its own right, but in the full- and part-load markets, so the two firms’ activities dovetail neatly. “We offer a 48-hour transit to Sweden, and it’s still the fastest way to go,” says Baxter. Europa’s partner in Denmark


is Freja, with whom it runs a daily service into Aarhus and three times a week to Copenhagen.


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