Containerships increasing U.K./South Baltic frequency

Containerships increasing U.K./South Baltic frequency Helsinki, Finland-based short-sea operator Containerships Group is upgrading its United Kingdom/South Baltic service by improving the frequency to key ports from every four days to a fixed-day twice-weekly service.
   The service will soon call at Liepaja in Latvia; Klaipeda, Lithuania; and Immingham in the U.K., with two fixed-day sailings per week, while Gdansk in Poland will receive a fixed-weekly sailing.
   Containerships deploys two vessels on the service, the 750-TEU “Spica” and the 366-TEU “Baltic Sea,” but has plans to replace the smaller ship with another of similar size to the “Spica.”
   “Our objective is to grow the volume of traffic we handle by 15 percent in 2007, and the upgrading to two fixed-day sailings a week is in line with this ambitious plan,” said Martin Dale, Containerships’ sales director.
   Containerships is majority-owned by Icelandic shipping and logistics company Eimskip, which took over Lithuanian short-sea operator Kursiu Linija at the end of last year.
   Since February, all Kursiu Linija services are operated under the Containerships brand. The Finnish carrier now operates nine vessels in the Baltic Sea region serving St. Petersburg in Russia; Klaipeda and Liepaja in the Baltic States; Gdansk in Poland; as well as Hamburg, Bremerhaven, Rotterdam, Teesport, Tilbury and Immingham in western Europe.