Containership operator Samskip is shaking off uncertainty over Brexit to launch a new service connecting the UK with the European continent.
New group chief executive officer Kari-Pekka Laaksonen said the Netherlands-based multimodal carrier will this month establish a new liner service linking Portugal with the UK.
The Rotterdam-based operator will launch a weekly service using two ships as part of a vessel sharing agreement (VSA) with X-Press Feeders.
The 1,036-teu Nordica (built 2011) and Helena Schepers (built 2012) will connect Tilbury in the UK with Lisbon and Leixoes as well as the multimodal port of Rotterdam.
The upgrade will allow Samskip to grow its Portugal-UK volumes by 50% to 60%.
The service is being launched despite the occasional spikes in demand on the intermodal trade to the UK.
Volatile
Brexit had made the business “very turbulent and volatile”, said Laaksonen.
“One week you get all the orders and you need to stretch your capacity to the limit. And the next week when the Brexit pressure has faded away, you feel on the opposite journey.”
“The worst thing for all of us is uncertainty. We all have to adapt our operations and systems.”
In March, Samskip introduced a pre-Brexit surcharge due to an expected surge in shipments before the presumed UK exit from the European Union.
Laaksonen believes the surges in demand as likely to level out, but sees the “threat of volumes going down a bit” in the longer term.
“We’ve been following very closely. We’ve been changing our systems to be ready for a hard Brexit.”
That seemed less likely at this point in time, “but nevertheless we had to be ready for it”.
On a positive note, the new liner service could benefit from a shift of containers from road haulage to sea on routes from Portugal.
The direct service hopes to target exports of foods and drink.
“Even though we might be seeing reducing volumes on the UK trades, there is a lot of speculation and already some signs that there will be some trailer conversion taking place,” said Laaksonen.
“This might bring in some volumes for the multimodal and short sea operators.”
At the same time, southbound volumes are boosted by Norwegian exports being transshipped following the Dutch carriers acquisition of Norwegian operator Nor Lines in 2017.
Scrubber option
Laaksonen took on the job at Samskip in August having previously worked for eight years with rival shipping operator Containerships.
The position gives him oversight of a fleet of 25 containerships, multipurpose vessels and reefer vessels.
That includes five owned vessels from 300-teu to 900-teu which are operated in services between Baltic, North Europe and Iceland.
These will operate on low sulphur fuel oil with the introduction of legislation linked to IMO 2020, but scrubber refits are not ruled out a later stage.
“We are now considering whether we go to go for scrubbers for some of the lanes or corridors where we feel there is a real benefit,” Laaksonen said.
