fleetMaritime: IRISH SHIPPING & FREIGHT
MARITIME 1 |
51
Compiled by Howard Knott Edited by Jarlath Sweeney email: maritime@fleet.ie
Volume 8, No. 2 Spring 2013
Stena Line moves into the Pacific region
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n a surprise move, Gothenburg based Stena Line has announced the start up of its fi rst Ro-Ro ferry service outside Europe. On 19 March, the Ro-pax Ferry, M/V New Blue Ocean opened a new route operating between the South Korean city of Sokcho and the Russian Port of Zarubino. The operator, named Stena International Freight will be based in Sokcho and the initial service rotation with this single vessel will be two round trips a week from there to Zarubino and once weekly to Vladivostok. The vessel, M/V New Blue Ocean has a capacity for 1400 lane metres of trucks, trailers and containers as well as 750 passengers. Explaining the rationale for the introduction of the service, Hans Nilsson, CEO of Stena International Freight said; “The region around Zarubino and Vladivostok is developing into a transport hub for traffic to both Russia and China. In addition, there will be direct access to the Trans-Siberian Railway making journeys all the way from Korea, via Russia, to Europe easier. At the same time, the route also provides direct access to the Korean market.” The Company, in which locally based, Daea has a 10% interest, expects passenger traffic on the route to quickly grow to 100,000 persons a year and it very much sees the new route as a fi rst step in a significant shift into the Asian markets. Stena Line is a part of the Stena Group which has significant global interest particularly in the
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Dry Bulk and tanker markets, but this new move into Asia is probably the fi rst move by a ferry Operator outside its local marketplace. Stena has two ferries operating in the Newfoundland area but these are on long term charter to a local operator, while Irish Ferries Group, ‘Isle of Innisfree’ is on charter to a local operator, Interislander, running between the North and south islands of New Zealand. Back on the central corridor services between Dublin Bay and Holyhead the vessel ‘Finnarrow’ had been covering for the ‘Stena Nordica’ while that vessel, in turn covered for each of the other vessels in the Irish Sea fleet as they were drydocked, most of them at Harland & Wolff in Belfast. Finnarrow had to be withdrawn early from service following an incident, and then
returned to Finland. Stena replaced the capacity by bringing in the freight ferry, ‘Stena Scotia’ to operate a daily rotation between Dublin and Holyhead carrying mainly unaccompanied trailer traffic, while it also retuned the HSS ‘Stena Explorer’ to her Dun Laoghaire to Holyhead route a month earlier than had been planned. The HSS vessel runs a similar schedule to the summer service but at a slightly slower speed covering the run in two hours, fi fteen minutes. Speaking about the return of this vessel focussed on the driver accompanied trailer traffic; Frank Nieuwenhuys informed ‘Fleet Maritime’ that the use of the HSS in this way is proving highly successful. At the time of going to press, Stena has not confi rmed the fi nal configuration of its central corridor services for summer 2013.
Maersk Refrigeration Containers Find New Use in Storing Archeological Artifacts
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igh-tech refrigeration containers from Maersk Container Industry have found a new and unconventional use: on the spot conservation of fragile archeological artifacts.
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MCI’s Star Cool reefers are deployed in Luebeck, Germany, where a unique and ancient wooden structure came to light during new housing construction. A rescue excavation on the UNESCO world heritage site revealed a wooden storage cellar from 1180. Among the crops once stored in the cellar were apparently hops and cereals that could provide insight into medieval
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German beer production. Conservation of the cellar is difficult. Artifacts of this kind will decay and disintegrate if they are exposed to radically different temperature and humidity during relocation. “Star Cool was chosen because of its extremely precise temperature and atmospheric control. Such precision is a must if you want to preserve sensitive cultural assets like wet organic structures,” said conservator Maruchi Yoshida who is associated with the Fraunhofer-Institute for Building Physics and Leibniz-Gemeinschaft to manage the reefer container project, ARCHe.
Normally, Maersk reefers with the so-called CA and AV+ technologies are used to transport sensitive cargos like bananas, vegetables, fish and meat around the globe. Now, the ARCHe pilot test may yield new business perspectives. “We are looking at a business plan for a company that on short notice can provide conservation services and reefers upon sudden discovery of new archeological sites,” says Maruchi Yoshida. “Such a company would benefit both urban developers and cultural heritage care offices, but above all the society to whom the cultural heritage belongs.”
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FREIGHT FERRY SERVICES FLEETMARITIME | SPRING 2013
52 | MARITIME 11
COAST LINES Warrenpoint Port has seen a very satisfactory start to 2013 according to Chief Executive, Peter Volume Th 5,eNo. Winter 2010the head of Conway. Port4located towards Carlingford Lough had been established in the 1970’s to replace the very constrained Port of Newry, and in the wake of the virtual closure of Greenore Port on the south side of the Lough following the ceasure of the Mail Boat service to Heysham from that port. Its building also coincided with the development of the city of Craigavon, close to Portadown. Warrenpoint’s main business streams over the years had been the Kersten Hunik and other container shipping services to the Benelux Ports, fuel, and paper and other forest products, but, apart from paper imports for the local SCA mill, much of the paper and timber business switched to Belfast, closer to major importers while the Kersten Hunik container service was absorbed into Eucon and also moved to Belfast. In the mid-1990’s the Ro-Ro service now continued by Seatruck, commenced. Th is continues to operate to Heysham, currently with twice daily sailings in each direction. It is a freight only service with limited driver accommodation but is actively supported by a number of substantial hauliers many of them based within the Port’s catchment area. In its 2011 annual report Warrenpoint Port Authority reported a tonnage throughput of 2.7 million tonnes, up from 2.6 million tonnes in 2010 and a profit of GBP 179,000. The recorded throughput increase was mainly due to an increase of 6% in volumes aboard the Seatruck ferries. The Cardiff Container Line which is controlled by the Associated British Ports Group now operates a twice weekly service between Cardiff and Warrenpoint with calls from time to time to Dublin. The base cargo for this service is shipment on 20ft , ISO flats of steel coil to the Tata plant at Lisburn, but the company is now actively seeking further containerised cargo traffic and is offering the full range of container equipment.
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During 2012, Westland Horticulture Garden Health, which is based at Dungannon, County Tyrone and a supplier of peat based products to major Garden Centres in Britain, trialled the shipment of packed peat moss using containers shipped on a chartered vessel sailing from Warrenpoint to Bristol. The experiment proved to be highly successful for the Dungannon based company, so much so that it has now chartered a 270 TEU vessel to shutt le between the Ports on a continuous basis giving sailing of, at least, once a week. The operation is done in conjunction
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FLEETMARITIME | SPRING 2013
with Northern Ireland based Surefreight, which in addition to delivering the containerised cargo to Warrenpoint for shipment, takes care of distribution from Bristol Port to the customers’ Distribution Centres. The haulier also sources return loads for containers to Warrenpoint. A further boost to the Port’s early 2013 business has been a major increase in the number and size of vessels bringing in animal feed. Because grain harvests throughout Western Europe were very poor in 2012 due to wet weather, the feedstuff s have had to be sourced further afield. Th is has led to cargoes being shipped through Warrenpoint from the Ukraine in significantly larger vessels then are usually used to bring animal feed into Irish Ports. Peter Conway, CEO, told Fleet Maritime “In the course of a recent discussion that the Port’s recent investment in dredging both at the Quays and in the Port approach were now paying dividends in its ability to handle these larger vessels. It has also launched a marketing campaign to position Warrenpoint as a base for servicing Off-Shore renewables, particularly the Wind Farms planned for off the Counties Down and Louth coastlines. He was disappointed that the Authority did not receive planning consent to develop a 250 berth marina at the original town dock and was anxious to move on a road project that would link the Port to the M1 motorway, south of Newry. The Port recently took over further land to the west of the Ro-Ro area and this is being used by a local fi rm to fabricate “Pop-up” hotels which will be shipped from the Port to locations around the British Isles. While Fleet Maritime was in Warrenpoint, a vessel chartered by Scot Line, having completed discharge of timber from Sweden was now loading cement from Derrylin to Rochester in Kent.
Derry/Londonderry Port expects to see a substantial boost in business following the development there of two major Power Plants. The ESB has received planning consent for a 400 MW gas-fired plant and Cork based Kedco plans to build a Biomass powered electricity and heat generation plant at the Port. Translink /NIR has completed the re-laying of track on the Coleraine to Derry stretch of line and has done this to a spec that will enable heavy freight trains to be run from the Port to all parts of Ireland. The Port is also the loading point for a coastal shipping operation run on behalf of Coillte bringing logs harvested in North Donegal to Waterford for pulping. Dun Laoghaire Harbour saw the early return of the Stena HSS service from Holyhead on the same February day that the 6,120 tonne M/V Myrtle docked at the Carlisle Pier to discharge a cargo of Fermentation Tanks. These tanks, each with a capacity of over one million pints are to be installed by Diageo at their re-built Guinness Brewery at St. James’s Gate. When loaded on specialist low-loader trailers brought over from Holland to transport them to the Brewery, each unit was between 7 and 7.5 metres high. Th is vessel was the first of three similar ships required to complete the job with all tanks delivered by mid-March. The Ship’s agency and logistics planning was carried out by Celtic Forwarding Ltd and putting the whole project together took almost three months. The same company had taken care of a similar shipment landed in Dun Laoghaire twenty five years ago and that was, in fact, the last substantial freight shipment through the County Dublin Port until the February arrivals. The harbour company is hopeful that the large clear area of the Carlisle Pier which is located in the centre of the harbour will now be used for further ‘out of gauge’ shipments. It will be used also by up to ten cruise vessels planned to call there during the coming summer months. The Doolin2Aran Ferry Company will launch an up to four times a day passenger/tourist ferry service linking Dun Laoghaire Harbour with Howth Harbour during April. The vessel being used, the 26 metre “St. Bridget” is one of five vessels on its fleet. Th is will be the fi rst such service linking the two harbours. Ironically, Howth Harbour was originally built as the Terminal of the mail boat service from Holyhead in the early 1800’s but the completion of the much larger and easier to access both from sea and land, Dun Laoghaire Harbour in 1817, led to a switch of the service to the South Dublin Harbour.
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IRISH SEA ROUTES
MARITIME 111 | 53 Dublin Port will host its fi rst ever “Dublin Port River Fest” over the June National Holiday weekend. The idea of the festival is to celebrate the role Dublin Port plays in the local community, the City and the Nation as a whole. The event will, to some extent, follow the format of the “Port Days” held at various Continental Ports in which the objective is to bring to the public mind the role that the Port plays in their lives and to show the career opportunities in the Maritime Sphere. Dublin Port also expects to top the 100 mark in Cruise Ship calls during 2013 while Cork also hopes to establish a call record of 65 vessels with some calls in which passengers can join or leave the ship at Cobh.
Waterford Port hosted a large gathering on Monday 4h March to see off the fi rst DFDS intermodal train of the new service linking the Port with Ballina. On board were 18 mainly 45 ft . containers. Initially the service will run twice weekly, linking in with the Line’s LoLo container service to and from Rotterdam. The event was attended by Gert Jakobsen, the DFDS Group V.P. Communications who told the gathering that this was an important next step in the re-invention of DFDs as a full service logistics company and is an extension of its network across Ireland. Michael Connolly, Sales Manager of DFDS in Ireland told Fleet Maritime that the Line’s recently reorganised calling schedule, in which the import led Dublin call is made fi rst and followed by the export led calls to Waterford (twice weekly) and Cork (once weekly), not only gave exporters a faster transit time but also enabled the Line to take empty equipment from Dublin to the southern Ports for use by those exporters. Where space on board allows, DFDS will also ship empty containers to the Southern Ports on behalf of other lines so as to reduce the amount of empty equipment trucking.
Drogheda Port handled over one million tonnes of cargo over the Quays during 2012. Th is is a significant growth on the 2011 figure and the fi rst time that the million tonnes mark has been reached since 2007. While import volumes remained low, exports through the Port mainly of minerals, construction bulks and agri-trades all grew. A major product growth shipping through the Port has been that of cement products. The Port welcomed its fi rst cruise liner in 2012 and expects a number of calls during 2013. It will also host a Tall Ships Gathering during the May Holiday weekend and local people will be encouraged to join the crew of these vessels as they sail on to Liverpool.
Shannon Foynes Port Company has launched its “Vision 2041” Masterplan which envisages a doubling of the Port’s traffic over the next three decades. At present the Port handles 37% of Ireland’s dry bulk traffic amounting to 10 million tonnes. The plan anticipates that the Port of Foynes will require an extra 127 hectares of Port development land to fulfi l its promise. The plan envisages berthing facilities for vessels of up to 80,000 tonnes and these will probably be provided on Foynes Island which has water alongside of up to 20 metres depth. By 2041 the plan envisages that there could be an additional 1370 HGV movements a day on roads to and from the Port, though this could be significantly reduced by the re-development of the rail link to Limerick and the national network. The cost of this restoration work has been estimated by the Port Company at €12 million.
Launching the plan at the Foynes Flying Boat Museum which has now been extended to take in the history of the Port and of the Shannon estuary, Transport Minister Leo Varadkar T.D. said: “I commend the Port for draft ing such a realistic, achievable and ambitious plan. Shannon-Foynes is an important asset for the south-west of Ireland and for our national economy. I welcome the plan’s goal to att ract significant international investment. The significance of the Port has been recognised internationally by its designation as a TEN-T core Port by the European Council.
Volvo Ocean Race 2014-2015 The Volvo Ocean Race will return to Sanya’s sparkling Serenity Marina in 2014-15, with the Chinese holiday destination once again confi rmed on the race route after making a great impression on its debut in 2011-12. Th is means the race will be visiting China for the third edition in succession, having become a fi xture on the Race calendar after a stop in Qingdao in 2008-09 and Sanya in 2011-12. Sanya, a tourism capital in Hainan province boasting year-round sunshine, will be the fourth of 10 Host Ports along the route and as in the 11th edition in 2011-12, the stopover will come between Abu Dhabi and Auckland. Sanya made a striking debut as a Host Port in the 2011-12 Race, with hundreds of thousands of visitors gett ing their fi rst taste of the Race amid the tropical conditions of the island. The city is the ninth to be unveiled on the route for the 2014-15 edition, which will start in Alicante, Spain and fi nish in Gothenburg, Sweden.
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The other confi rmed stopovers for the next race are Recife on the north east coast of Brazil, Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, Sanya in China, Auckland in New Zealand, Itajaí in the south of Brazil and Newport, Rhode Island before a transatlantic crossing to Lisbon.
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EUROPEAN ROUTES FLEETMARITIME | SPRING 2013
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PORT PORTALS DFDS Seaways has moved quickly to secure the business arising from the cessation of the ‘North Sea Ro-Ro’ services linking Britain with Scandinavian Ports, an action that led to an immediate increase in profit Volume for 5, the No.DFDS 4 Winter forecasts Group2010 and a surge in share price. In anticipation of the very strict pollution control scheme being put into play on the North Sea and English Channel from January 2015, DFDS is making arrangements with all of the Ports there through which it operates, for ‘cold ironing’. Th is means that on arrival in Port the vessels plug in to shore electric power so that they can close down their on-board generators. While the group is investigating the use of Exhaust Gas Scrubbers it is, in the meantime, requiring the Terminals used by its freight ferries to install LNG refuelling facilities. DFDS Seaways and P & O Ferries, both of whom now compete with Eurotunnel and its associate My Ferry Link have both expressed satisfaction with the interim ruling by the UK competition regulator. In a statement, the UK Competition Authority, Deputy Chairman, Alasdair Smith said that it would seem that Eurotunnel moved into the ferry business because it was concerned at the increased competition it would face if another operator bought the Sea France assets. A fi nal ruling from the Authority is expected during April. Brittany Ferries The Britt any Ferries service linking Cork with Roscoff using the “Pont Aven” commenced its Saturday from Cork schedule on 23rd March and will continue through until 2 November. LD Lines. The only ferry service now operated by this company outside the co-operation with DFDS Seaways is the link between St. Nazaire and Gijon. Th is operates three overnight sailing a week in each direction and plans are still on track according to the company for the deployment of a second vessel from the end of 2013. Th is would facilitate the increase of service frequency to daily. Th is is a ‘Blue Corridor’, EU supported service with a view to relieving congestion at Irun on the Spanish/French Border. The promoters have now secured EU funding of €1.1 million for a study on the installation of LNG fuelling facilities at Gijon that would enable low-carbon objectives of the corridor be achieved.
Irish Ferries parent company, Irish Continental Group recorded a 2.2% decline in its operating profit for 2012. Chairman, John McGuckian commented that these are resilient results in the face of a challenging economic background. He went on to say: “There was some emerging evidence of an improvement in the Irish economic background,” but added that the company remained cautious, “particularly in relation to freight capacity.”
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On the Ro-Ro ferry business the number of freight units shipped fell 5.6% year on year to 183,700, a figure that, the company says reflected a “challenging” year with overcapacity and “unsustainable” rates continuing to plague trade lanes. The company operated 4316 ferry sailings during the year and car volumes were down by 1.9% for the year as a whole but the figures for the second half were considerably better, being up by 2%.
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FLEETMARITIME | SPRING 2013
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