Geest to restructure Scandinavian, Baltic services

Geest to restructure Scandinavian, Baltic services    Rotterdam-based Geest North Sea Line will this month increase capacity and restructure its operations in the Scandinavian and Baltic markets, including Russia.
   Geest took over the services from Samskip following the Icelandic shipping-to-logistics company acquisition of Geest in March 2005.
   The changes are being made to integrate the services with Geest’s intermodal network in Rotterdam. As well as introducing larger ships, Geest will switch calls from Terneuzen to Rotterdam, establish a hub operation at Helsingborg in Sweden and add direct calls in Denmark and Lithuania.
   Geest has linked the United Kingdom, Continental Europe and Sweden with a weekly service calling at the ports of Hull in the United Kingdom, Terneuzen in the Netherlands, and Wallhamn and Halmstad in Sweden. Geest also provides a daily rail service operated by its sister company Van Dieren Maritime that links Herne in Germany with Almhult and Norrk'ping in Sweden.
   Geest’s weekly Latvian service links the port of Riga with Moerdijk in the Netherlands, and Hull and Blyth in the United Kingdom. A southbound call in S'lvesborg, Sweden, is also offered.
   Effective this month, Geest’s Swedish service will have a revised rotation of Hull, Rotterdam, Alborg, Helsingborg, Varberg and back to Hull. A 500-TEU ship will replace the existing 350-TEU vessel.
   In May, the Latvian service will drop calls at Moerdijk, Blyth, S'lvesborg and Riga, instead calling at Helsingborg and Ventspils. Two 350-TEU ships will replace two 210-TEU vessels on a revised rotation of: Hull, Helsingborg, Ventspils, Klaipeda, Helsingborg and Hull. Rotterdam will be connected to Latvia and Lithuania by transshipping over Helsingborg.
   “The restructuring of our service network in this region is geared to carrying many more containers than we do today,” Gerard de Groot, Geest’s commercial director.
   “There is a strong demand for short-sea shipping capacity that we believe will grow further as road haulage rates increase and reliability becomes a serious issue. Short-sea shipping can deliver the quality of service that supply chain managers need and at a price that is acceptable to them. In addition our multimodal services ensure environmental efficiency.
   “We felt that to hub in Sweden was the best way to serve the many ports we need to cover in the Baltic and Scandinavia. We looked at the various options and Helsingborg clearly has everything we need. It has space and spare capacity, modern facilities and it has excellent rail connections, not only with all of the major cities in Sweden but also with Norway. Moreover it is geographically well situated to ensure fast transit to and from the Baltic states,” de Groot said.