WASHINGTON: Port of Hull’s operator, Associated British Ports (ABP) has said that feeder operator Unifeeder added a second container short sea route to the UK via the Baltics. Already Unifeeder operates a short sea freight service from the Baltics to the UK region of Humber. Its new Lithuania-Hull service will complement its existing weekly sailing from Lithuania-Immingham, which departs from Klaipeda in Lithuania and also calls at two Polish ports, Gydnia and Szczecin. Adding the sailing, which also routes via Gydnia in Poland, Unifeeder plans to double weekly capacity on this route.
It says it is meeting demand for unitized cargo from manufacturers in the Baltics and Poland. It expects the container short sea service will compete with daily Ro-Ro ferry traffic, which accounts for a large part of cargo shipment to the UK. Already ABP has invested in the two UK container terminals at Hull and Immingham. Pouring in a total of £50m, Unifeeder has allocated £15m to be put towards improving Hull Container Terminal by adding two new Liebherr ship-to-shore container cranes in 2018. Hull will subsequently have a two-berth, four-crane operation with high discharge and load rates, it said.
Andy Ellis, UK Country Manager for Unifeeder, said: “Having worked in partnership with ABP for around 30 years, I have seen dramatic improvements across the organisation, especially within the container terminals. “We market ourselves as a leading logistics provider therefore we need a port who can provide an efficient and effective service in order to meet our customer demand and ABP is continually improving. “Regional distribution centres are setting up in the heart of the country and the ports on the Humber are ideally situated to reach the M62 corridor.” Simon Bird, Regional Director at ABP, Humber said: “We are extremely pleased to have secured this deal with Unifeeder as it means that together, we are able to provide door to door delivery around the clock to customers across the country.” “In the wake of the Brexit referendum we have heavily invested in our facilities as we have faith in our economy and this agreement demonstrates that we made the correct decision.”
