RLL Container Report - 10 September 2014
From: John Keir, Ross Learmont Ltd Email: john.keir@telia.com Date: 10 September 2014
Coming to a container terminal near you.
As reports indicate a steady rise in box traffic, analysts are predicting that port traffic could, in the coming years, experience a further dramatic increase. In July, container volumes on the key Asia to Europe trade rose by more than 7.3% to register 1.4 million teu. If this growth can be sustained, we could see 840 million teu passing through global ports by 2018. That figure would be double the box traffic registered only a decade ago in 2004. By 2013, box volumes had risen to 642 million and if projections are correct, a further 32 million will be added this year alone.
This explains why container terminals are hurrying to add new portal cranes to process the extra containers carried on the Triple E class vessels shuttling between the Far East and Northern Europe. This also explains why it is essential to complete work on the widening of the Panama Canal to accommodate all those medium-sized box carriers that will be shifted from the Asian trade route to work on the Pacific run via the canal to the Gulf and the East Coast of the USA.
In Europe, it is not only the leading sea terminals that are receiving major cash injections to bring the basic intermodal infrastructure up to the required standard. The ripple effects are being felt further away from the base ports and up into Scandinavia. Denmark and Germany have agreed to construct a tunnel under the Fehmarn Belt, the 18 kilometre wide stretch of water that separates Germany from Denmark. The Fehmarn Belt will be crossed by an immersed tunnel due to be completed in 2021. As well as being the world’s longest immersed tunnel, it will also be the world’s longest combined road and rail tunnel. For a small nation, Denmark has an impressive track record of bridge and tunnel construction, including the Oresund Link between Denmark and Sweden. When completed in seven years’ time, the Fehmarn tunnel will provide a much shorter and far quicker rail connection between the container terminals in Hamburg and markets in Scandinavia.
In response to the Danish plans for the Fehmarn, their neighbours in Norway and Sweden intend to upgrade road and rail links south from their respective capitals to link up with the new connection to Northern Europe. Following a meeting of the Sweden’s Ministry of Industry and Norway’s Ministry of Transport on 27 August, the two Nordic neighbours have drawn up a joint strategy to upgrade the main rail line south from Oslo via Gothenburg. At the same time, the two capitals will co-operate on an upgrade to the rail line linking the Swedish mining centre in Kiruna with the Norwegian ice-free port of Narvik. In addition to the upgrade to the West Coast line from Oslo to Gothenburg, the Swedish government is pushing ahead with a major upgrade to the main rail line running south from Stockholm via the Baltic port of Norrkoping and Linkoping and on to the Oresund bridge and from there to Germany via the Fehmarn tunnel.
Quick to take advantage of the improvements to the Swedish rail network, Samskip Van Dieren Multimodal introduced upgraded shuttle services from Germany to the new rail terminal in Katrineholm. The service accommodates all types of intermodal traffic including 13.6 metre long trailers, refrigerated and tank containers as well as the full panoply of dry cargo units. Samskip has now introduced a new rail service from its base in Duisburg to France and Spain. A thrice-weekly service will connect Duisburg with Lyon and from there on to Spain giving Samskip a 3,500 km long rail corridor connecting southern Europe with cities and ports on the West Baltic Coast.
Meanwhile, on the East Coast of the Baltic, the shift towards intermodal transport is progressing at an ever faster pace. Here, however, the impetus comes from major producers, who wish to take greater control of their own logistic operations. Uralchem moved to take majority control over its terminal operator, Ventamonjaks. Ventamonjaks is the largest liquid ammonia transhipment terminal in the Baltic Sea. It has an annual capacity of 1 million tons and is located in the ice-free port of Ventspils. Uralchem explains the purchase of the terminal as consistent with the company’s strategic goal of providing logistic security to the supply of its full range of products.
At the same time, Uralchem has invested heavily in developing its fertiliser terminal, RFT, in the port of Riga. In the initial phase, RFT will handle 2 million tons per annum but this will soon rise to 3.5 million tons. Plans are well advanced to containerise a significant share of Uralchem’s dry fertiliser exports via Riga. This will be achieved by taking advantage of the abundance of empty export containers, which pass through the Latvian port. Indeed, there are no major obstacles to chemical producers such as Uralchem making use of most of the containers, which are shipped out empty from Baltic ports. Belarussian fertiliser producers have for several years been containerising their cargoes passing through the port of Klaipeda. The Lithuanian port saw container traffic increase by 11% in the first eight months of the year to 290,800 teu leaving plenty of empty units to carry export cargoes such as bagged fertilisers.
At the same time as taking control of its port facilities, Uralchem placed orders for a fleet of 100 new ammonia tank car wagons. This deal will cost Uralchem Rbl 500 million but is viewed as essential to ensure the independence of its logistics chain. The company has increased the proportion of ammonia tank cars from 40 to 71%. In total, Uralchem now owns 1200 of the 1700 tank cars it needs to distribute its liquid chemical products.
Developments on both shores of the Baltic serve to demonstrate just how radically the intermodal sector is changing the face of the transport industry. This rapid containerisation of a wide range of goods from consumer products to dry and liquid chemicals underlines the massive changes that are reshaping the transport infrastructure both in the Baltic region and around the globe.
John Keir, Ross Learmont Ltd.
10 September 2014
Copyright ©, 2014, John Keir