BREB

MODERN HANSEATIC SHIPPING

German company BREB GmbH & Co KG has over 70 years’ experience as a fully-integrated shipping company operating its own fleet, plus liner-services, chartering, forwarding and port agency departments. Managing Director Arne Ehlers discussed the state of the industry and the growth of BREB in conversation with Phil Nicholls.

The shipping industry is now bouncing back after a challenging decade. In response to the recovering market and firm freight rates, BREB GmbH & Co KG focused on its assets and is now full-owner of six vessels.

“We invested in our own fleet over the past 12 months,” explained Managing Director Arne Ehlers, “and are now fullowners of four C-Class vessels: BREB CUXHAVEN, BREB COUNTESS, BREB COURAGEOUS and BREB COURTESY. In addition, two coasters were purchased from Briese Nederland and renamed BREB TIMBER and BREB TRADER.”

BREB arose from Bremer Reederei Eilemann & Bischoff GmbH, established in 1951 at Bremen. The company combines traditional Hanseatic ethics with state-of-the art technology and modern managementt ools. In 2016, BREB entered a joint venture with Danish Blue Water Shipping to create Blue Water BREB GmbH, to serve the inter national energy industry in all German ports with departments in the two main German offshore-hubs of Cuxhaven for the North Sea and Sassnitz/Mukran serving the Baltic Sea.

The company operates out of three offices in Cuxhaven, Sassnitz and Zeebrugge, the

latter as part of BREB Belgium bvba. BREB has a total of 25 permanent employees who supervise a fleet of nine vessels, both owned a nd under a long-term charter, capable of shipping 1.5 million tonnes of freight annually. When demand increases, BREB also has the option to book additional ton nage to meet the needs of its clients.

Timber and terminals

The two coasters purchased as part of BREB’s recent fleet expansion were part of the company’s expanding trade around the Baltic Sea and North Sea.

“These two vessels also stand for a revival of trading forest products and commodities i n our Baltic and North Sea range,” said Mr Ehlers. “This was originally BREB’s main business activity. We are still in the process of acquiring more tonnage, but this is difficult due to the current high market demand.”

The other major recent investment by BREB was in its Cuxhaven terminal, oper ated as Blue Water BREB. This operation has shipped 3,000 WEC components at the ter minal annually, plus 10,000 MW of o n /off shore turbines handled via the German Offshore Industry Centre Cuxhaven since 2017. From 2022, BREB operates the largest custom-free-zone in the port of Cuxhaven, with up to 30,000 sqm available to clients.

“For Cuxhaven, BREB purchased another Liebherr mobile crane, the LHM 550,”

STTAT GROUP

Established by the late Mohamed Ben Abdallah in 1962, Société Tunisienne de Transit d’Agences et de Transports (STTAT) and its subsidiaries (GMS, GMC, TARROS TUNISIE and CARBOX TUNISIE) are specialised in forwarding, logistics, shipping services, and all other maritime transport related ser vices. The group has been a pioneer in the Tunisian maritime transport sector for more than half a century.

Vast experience, great know-how, as well as modern infrastructures and materials, allows STTAT to provide customers with high-quality and cost-effective services related to stevedoring, shipping agency, chartering brokerage, freight forwarding, customs brokerage, ware housing, road haulage, handling equipment hire as well as tick eting agency.

STTAT’s open policy and branch office network encompasses the whole Tunisian coastline, offering our diverse customer network a wide range of complementary services to fulfil all their requirements.

ISO 9001 and OHSAS 18001 certified, STTAT pursues a tradi tion that ensures proximity to our customers by always listening to their needs and simultaneously providing them with better quality services.

Mr Ehlers explained, “to enable more effi cient loading and unloading processes for our customers and our own vessels. Growth in business, especially trade in Windenergy c omponents, made this step inevitable.

“In early 2021, Blue Water BREB took delivery of its first Liebherr Mobile Harbour Crane, a LHM 600. Purchasing a second crane within 17 months is a clear commitment to our clients to meet their future requirements. For a young company like Blue Water BREB, this is a significant investment of more than €8 million within a short period.”

Traditionally, BREB specialised in break bulk shipments of forest products. Today, it is a genuine multi-purpose carrier ship ping bulk goods, containers, out-of-gauge, and heavy-lift cargo. BREB offers portagency services in all German ports and in Antwerp-Zeebrugge, catering to shipping lines, charterers and owners, as well as for offshore projects. These BREB services include full crew change arrangements, customs clearance, cargo documents, bunker supply and more.

Regular routes

BREB operates two own liner services to North Africa with weekly sailings from the Adriatic, the BREB Adriatic Parcel Service, and monthly sailings from the north of

Europe as the BREB Continental Line. In close partnership with Mukran Port Terminals, BREB also operates the containerline ‘Baltic-Sea-Bridge’, as an integrated part of the new Silkroad from China to Europe. Alongside a return to the Baltic timber trade, Mr Ehlers outlined a similar new project at BREB: “Last year we started to ship sawn timber from Austria and Germany to the UK and North Africa via our terminal i n Cuxhaven. On average, we have two or three sailings per month to the UK and one sailing to North Africa.

“The total volume for 2022 is budgeted at 250,000 to 300,000 cbm. The timber is forwarded to Cuxhaven by truck and rail, then shipped by our vessels to its final destination. This business model has proven to be extremely reliable, as well as being cost- and time-efficient for our cus tomers. Here is an excellent example of our one-stop-shop logistic solutions.”

Sustainable service

BREB focuses on the needs of customers and offers a broad package of services. The team supports between four and six trainees for the office and terminal every year to build skills within the industry, and operates exchange programmes with companies and cities to further promote the port of Cuxhaven.

Mr Ehlers is clear about the appeal of BREB to clients: “Our key to success is the combination of all these different cargoes and shipments on board our vessels and within Europe, north and west Africa. The utilisation of all the features of our modern MPC-fleet grants our clients a maximum level of unbeatable flexibility.”

BREB operates sustainably, offering maximum positive benefits to all its stake holders: clients, employees and colleagues, the shipping industry and society as a whole.

Shipping, by all criteria, remains the most environmentally friendly means of trans port. Producing only 2.7% of the worldwide emitted CO2, shipping transports 90% of all goods worldwide. In contrast, the 10% of goods transported by air, rail and truck are responsible for 22% of worldwide CO2 emis sions. BREB applies any reasonable means to use the most environmentally friendly fuel and reduce emissions to a minimum. As an example, the Blue Water BREB ter minal in Cuxhaven is supplied with elec trical power from 100% renewable sources, certified by TÜV NORD.

BREB values its partners and during the shipping crisis, it tried to keep the rates and quality stable to meet all

requirements of its clients. A more recent c hallenge has come from the war in Ukraine which affected the ‘Baltic-Sea-Bridge’ route which had shipped cargo across Russia by rail. BREB is responding by investigating alternative routes, including via Georgia and across the Black Sea to Romania.

Challenging the future

“The biggest challenge,” explained Mr Ehlers, “is definitely the goal of CO2-neu tral shipping by 2050. As the Global Low Sulphur Cap introduced on 1st January 2020 has shown, we are able to switch over from one fuel to another, despite a lot of uncertainty in terms of the technical standards of the new fuels. If the industry is supplied with sufficient eco-fuels world wide, then we can make seaborne trans port 100% green from one day to another! So, this challenge is more on the side of the fuel producers.”

In the face of the global shipping crisis, BREB secured sufficient tonnage for its clients. The company developed new strategies and solutions in cooperation with its logistic partners, including rail and trucking. BREB is one of the few ship owners to belong to CIT, the International Rail Transport Committee, based in Bern, Switzerland. CIT members include railway undertakings from 43 countries across the three continents of Europe, Africa and Asia. Overall, BREB’s market is recovering, and freight rates reached an historic high in 2021, then maintained a firm level.

“At the core of BREB is the shipping industry, transporting goods at sea,” con cluded Mr Ehlers. “We do this with all the knowledge and experience of many decades, putting our hearts and souls into what we do. BREB has been in the market for more than 70 years and we will do so for the next 70 years and more.” n