HEAVY LIFT\\\


One of Europe’s most exciting regions for heavyliſt and project freight are the Balkans, says Dave Roosen, managing director


of Croatia-based


specialist forwarder, R&B Global Projects. Not only is there widespread development in the region itself, but it is also finding its rightful place as a maritime gateway for landlocked countries to the north, he told FBJ. He explains: “All the countries Croatia


north of – Hungary,


Austria, Czech Republic and Slovakia – are landlocked and in the past automatically directed cargo to northern gateways such as Antwerp or Rotterdam. But in the last couple of years they have switched to the ports


in the south and we now have a lot of enquiries for Koper and Rijeka.” The Balkans have the


advantage of shorter distances, direct rail links and lower costs. “The disadvantage used to be


the lack of services, but these are developing fast. More lines are calling, and things have improved very much,” says Roosen. Permits


for abnormal load


operating transport


on roads in the Balkans are generally now easier to obtain than in Germany and other countries to the north, where the regulations have recently been tightened up. Getting permits generally takes no more two weeks, or perhaps 3-4 weeks for the very largest pieces where route surveys need to be carried out, says Roosen who adds: “The only issue to consider are the many tunnels, which are 4.5 metres high.” Motorways in Croatia itself better


are quality and less


congested than in countries like Germany, he considers, although this is less true of neighbouring Serbia or Bosnia. But the Balkans’ other great transport asset is the River Donau (the local name for the Danube) which provides an uncluttered


north-south link


through the heart of the region all the way from the North-west


Project work keeps Dublin agent busy


Project freight has helped keep Dublin-based Celtic Shipping Agencies busy over the past few months, says operations director David Lee. The operator, which is a member of the XL Projects network of specialist forwarders, is handling an increasing amount of oversize cargo on the weekly K Line KESS short sea ro ro service


from Zeebrugge into Dublin. Indeed, traffic on this routing has increased in preference to Southampton since Brexit at the end of the year, says Lee. Other ro ro services are


available via Antwerp and Celtic is considering setting a road shunt service between there and Zeebrugge.


Another strand to Celtic’s


business is windfarm work for GE into both Waterford, about 80 miles south of Dublin, and Foynes to the west of Limerick. The forwarder has an office in Waterford and a storage area, which has handled a number of cargoes, including some for the Dublin region. The latter included a major


shipment for a new Intel computer chip plant at Leixlip, to the west of Dublin, with 18 metre long, 4m wide and high pieces shipped into Waterford from


Issue 2 2021 - Freight Business Journal


15


European ports and Germany down to Romania and the Black Sea.


The river is also the main


outlet for the small amount of project business between the region and the UK, via the north-west European ports. Understandably, the UK isn’t a very popular destination for truckers at the moment. Danube river ports are


improving slowly, although there is much that could still be done, says Roosen. Some have been upgraded, although they are still largely geared to bulk rather than project shipments, so R&B oſten has to hire in mobile cranes for which it has partnered with some of the best local operators. Croatia has fewer river port


options than Serbia where the privatised Smederevo a few kilometres east of the capital, has good cranes. Since setting up R&B in Croatia


eight years ago, its husband and wife team – originally from Belgium – have found no shortage of opportunities for local work and, indeed, business is so good that the company has recently taken on a graduate from a local maritime university. Covid doesn’t seem to have affected the local market and R&B’s business in 2020 matched the record year of 2019, says Roosen. “But it will be interesting to see what 2021 brings,” he adds. “People say that government projects are decided two years ahead, so it is possible that there will be some slowdown.” The general freight forwarding


market has indeed suffered somewhat, but there is no sign yet of this spreading to the heavyliſt and project segment. China has invested heavily in the Balkan region’s


Houston and then, following storage in Celtic’s yard, moved overnight by road to Leixlip. “Initially, the operation was


set to use Dublin port, but that wasn’t ideal,” Lee explained. “The roads in Dublin port are very challenging and there is also the Dublin port tunnel to deal with, so we pushed for Waterford instead.” While using a port 80 miles


from the city might seem counter- intuitive to some, Waterford is only a couple of miles from the national motorway network


allowing the pieces to be brought on unrestricted route to within a couple of miles of the final destination. Waterford is also a good base


for the windmills destined for the centre of the country, while the deepwater, mainly bulk port of Foynes serves the west and Kerry region. Ireland is fast catching up


with the UK and rest of Europe in developing wind power, including a major offshore project at Arklow Bank, which could use the ports of Dublin,


Rosslare, Waterford and Arklow. Celtic Shipping has already handled exploration vessels for this project at Dun Laoghaire, a small port south of Dublin that older


readers will remember


as the terminal of Stena Line services from Holyhead for many years. There are still a couple of small berths available for cargo at Dun Laoghaire and Celtic Shipping has handled large brewing tanks for Guinness’ St James Gate brewery in Dublin there, though the road journey isn’t the easiest.


infrastructure including railways, mines and windfarms in the mountains – the latter using a Chinese-developed type of mill that can operate at lower wind strengths. Oſten, the Chinese have developed infrastructure in exchange for the products of the Balkans’ extensive metal mining industry. Unlike much of the rest


of Europe, ship building and ship repair is also important in Croatia, along with LNG


development in the north of the country. R&B is a member of several


freight networks including the Project Cargo network (PCN), the Overseas


Project Association and the Cargo Project


Logistics Alliance (PLA); it is a founder member of the latter. It also lends its project forwarding expertise to some general forwarding networks including the UK-based Maritime Standard and the Africa Logistics Network.


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