SHIPPING & FREIGHT

Freight by rail volumes begins to recover

On 16 August, the Ballina/Dublin container rail service operated by Irish Rail on behalf of Forwarder IWT, returned to a five-times weekly in each direction schedule. The congestion issues at Dublin Port that had led to a temporary suspension of the long-established service have been sidestepped by the introduction of a later evening shift at the Port’s Common User terminal.

XPO Logistics will now introduce its Ballina/Waterford container rail service in Week 40. General Manager, Kelvin Bulmer, advises that traffic commitments for the new service are already more than sufficient to meet the initial one train a week schedule. Samskip has enhanced its service through Waterford Port, initially adding a weekly Amsterdam call to the twice weekly Rotterdam service and now adding a Rotterdam call to the Amsterdam service.

Jerry Hallissey, Head of Business Development at Shannon Foynes Port has advised that the company is optimistic about the development shortly of the planned road and rail links to the European Core Port of Foynes. The company has recently been awarded a grant of €2.3 million under the European Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). The co-funding will support a feasibility study to prepare for the development of a further deep-water berth and associated infrastructure at the port.

FURTHER TAKEOVER ACTIVITY IN THE FREIGHT FORWARDING SECTOR

The DHL Group has announced the takeover of liquids specialist, the J.F Hillebrand Group and its subsidiaries at a cost in the order of €1.5 billion. Hillebrand is a global service provider specialising in ocean freight forwarding, transport and logistics of beverages, non-hazardous bulk liquids and similar products, shipping over half a million TEU’s in 2021.

For DHL, the deal aims to include additional services within the comprehensive range of ocean freight products the company already offers its customers globally. It is expected that this transaction will generate healthy margins in a fast-growing business. Deutsche Post DHL Group will fund the transaction with available cash. The deal remains subject to regulatory consent in a number of countries.

Maersk Group has announced that it intends to acquire B2C Europe Holding B.V., a logistics company focused on B2C parcel delivery in Europe. The company offers its cross-border services to retailers, brands, and logistics operators. The acquisition will allow Maersk to offer ‘Europewide’ last mile rates on one platform. The deal is expected to close in Q4.

DSV Panalpina A/S has completed the acquisition of Kuwait based, Agility’s Global Integrated Logistics (GIL) business. This takeover makes Copenhagen based DSV a global top-three player in the transport and logistics businesses. The combined workforce tops 75,000 employees with locations in more than 90 countries. This acquisition by DSV follows its takeover of Swiss based Panalpina in 2019 and the American Uti worldwide in 2016.

STENA GROUP’S E-FLEXER FERRY DESIGN AND BUILD WINS FURTHER ORDERS Stena Estrid into service, sailing on the Dublin/Holyhead route. Since then, the vessel owners, Stena Ro-Ro who had commissioned the design and building of the vessel at the AVIC Shipyard in China, has built and chartered a further six similar vessels to a mix of operators including Brittany Ferries and DFDS as well as Stena Line itself. A further two lengthened vessels which will be chartered to Stena Line for Baltic region service are presently under construction.

A tenth e-Flexer vessel has now been ordered, this one by the Canadian Marine Atlantic service operator, while Brittany Ferries will charter a further pair of these vessels, due for delivery in 2024/2025. Each of the new order vessels will be powered by dual fuel/battery hybrid systems.

DHL ORDERS BATTERY POWERED CARGO PLANES

DHL Express has ordered 12 battery powered small freighters, each capable of carrying 1179 kgs and with a range of 440 nautical miles, for delivery in 2024. They will operate within California and batteries will be fully charged in the 30 minutes it takes to unload and re-load the aircraft. The initial design specification was for a nine-seater air taxi, but development of the cargo model has proven to be more practical. Text: Howard Knott – howard@fleet.ie

Ashbourne Truck Centre, Ballymadun, Ashbourne, Co. Meath, Ireland Tel: 00353 18350573 Josef: 0035387 255 66 77 Sarah J: 0035386 255 66 77

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