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Issue 3 2021 - Freight Business Journal


///UK NORTH WEST


Coping with a crisis


Faced with the biggest upheaval the country has faced since World War II, the freight industry in the North-west has buckled down and got on with things, helping to keep life as normal as it can be under the circumstances.


port callings, and will ship directly into the UK, where many of Allseas’ customers are located. It also offers guarantee that once space is booked, the cargo will be shipped. Darren Wright, managing


Heavylift shipping operator Allseas Global Logistics’ DKT Allseas arm is to operate three sailings


to carry containers


from Shanghai and Ningbo to Liverpool during April. While they will be ‘one-off’ operations, similar to the one- off sailings to continental Europe


operated earlier in


the year by forwarders such as GeoLogistics and German purchasing association XStaff, DKT Allseas suggests that there could be potential for a more


regular service from China to the northern gateway. The first service is due to


depart Shanghai on 4 April, with two additional sailings on 22 and 25 April. The initiative is intended


to provide relief to customers facing increased ocean freight rates and reduced reliability of liner services due to the knock-on impacts of the global pandemic. The service will have a 28 day transit time and the vessels


director Allseas Global Logistics said: “This service, which is under our own direct charter, has been born out of necessity and frustration with the current supply and demand issue. By taking a progressive approach we can offer a guaranteed


longer term, frequent niche service from China direct into Liverpool.” David Huck, managing


director of Liverpool’s owner, Peel Ports said: “Cargo owners need assurance during these challenging times that their supply chain partners can be both reliable and provide innovative solutions to mitigate the effects of the pandemic. The Port of Liverpool continues to demonstrate


its strength, service,


will be feeder size, rather than panamax or larger. This will offer multiple benefits to cargo


Liverpool comes to the fore in supply chain crisis


Brexit and Covid-19 continue to highlight the vulnerability of supply chains to disruption and the need to improve resilience, writes David Huck, managing director, group ports at Peel Group, owners of the port of Liverpool. While the industry had more


than four years to prepare for Brexit, it also faced a hard-hitting third wave of Covid-19 going into 2021. The eff ect of these challenges has been seen already in England, with delays and bottlenecks in supply chains


felt by traders using southern ports before Christmas, all in addition to the challenges traders are now experiencing when grappling with new Brexit- related paperwork, rules and checks. As a result, we are seeing


some distinct shiſt s in supply chain and logistics strategies. For example, the uncertainty


caused by the pandemic, coupled with the need for new Brexit paperwork, has led to hauliers choosing the routes that best avoid these challenges and potential delays. We are


now seeing a new trend emerge whereby it’s benefi cial for companies to choose longer sea routes. We’re also seeing a shiſt away


from accompanied freight to unaccompanied. This might be a combination of Covid and the introduction of testing of drivers at Dover, both having an equally distorting eff ect on the market. Some of these changes will


stay for the long-term and ports will therefore need to respond to these market changes and adapt to the changing demands of cargo owners, hauliers and


owners as it will significantly reduce the chance of port delays, as there are no multi-


shipping lines alike. Now, in mid-March, we are


starting to see much of the stock built up pre-Christmas and Brexit starting to erode and longer-term trends should start to emerge. We still have further Brexit


hurdles ahead, including the introduction of checks at UK borders from 1 July. In the North West, we have


recognised the need to ease congestion in southern ports closer to the EU border. Our customers have been looking for diff erentiated services, fast transit times and effi cient access to their inland destinations. At the Port of Liverpool, we


have been working closely with the world’s leading shipping lines to encourage more


without deviation or additional port calls, from Shanghai and Ningbo into Liverpool, at a sensible price. “We hope that the demand,


particularly from North UK customers, can support a


services to the port and help to alleviate some of the pinch points in supply chains that have previously relied on goods to enter and exit the UK via the south east. By adding new connections, it


helps goods move more quickly from Europe to the UK and avoid potential congestion at the English Channel. It will help minimise the impact of external pressures faced by supply chains during the Covid-19 pandemic and changes which have come into eff ect following the recent Brexit deal agreement. We believe that ports in the


North West off er a greener solution, helping to reduce road miles and emissions from long- haul overland transits. The Port of Liverpool is ideally


agility and resiliency to relieve pressure on traditional routes and provide a gateway direct into the heart of the cargo owning community of the UK. “We continue to play a vital part in the transformation of UK logistics by enabling innovative solutions like this”.


located and connected by road, rail, and sea to the rest of the UK to bypass the congestion associated with road and rail crossings into the country. We want to continue to enhance our North West connectivity by introducing new services to accommodate many changes being made by supply chains as they look to add resilience. This includes introducing


new ro ro services from Iberia with CLdN, short-sea container services with the likes of BG Freight and Containerships and deep-sea services such as the transatlantic services operated by MSC and Maersk (2M). Liverpool City Region’s


successful application for freeport status presents an


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