U.K. ports, ship operators to discuss coastal shipping

U.K. ports, ship operators to discuss coastal shipping    Senior executives of competing regional ports and ship operators in the United Kingdom will discuss the potential expansion of short-sea shipping at a forum scheduled for May 19 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
   The new gathering, called Coastlink U.K. 2004, was formed as concerns are rising over road and rail congestion in the U.K., and as government considers potential subsidies for operators of coastal shipping services.
   The forum was organized by Gavin Roser, head of consultancy firm Pantrak Transportation Ltd. and former managing director of Contship Overland, and David Cheslin, of Dunelm Public Relations. They believe that short-sea shipping competitors should start to cooperate to provide a broader range of services, with a higher frequency, and increase the attractiveness of coastal shipping as a transport mode.
   The forum will assess the potential for moving more freight from road to water. Although coastal shipping for both domestic container moves and international box moves will be discussed, it is expected that only international shipments could be economically viable, Cheslin said.
   At the meeting, Roser will propose a concept of setting up a coordinating body that would publish schedules incorporating the individual sailing schedules of operators that are providing container services between two or more U.K. ports. This would include services originating outside the United Kingdom, such as those to and from Scandinavia, the Baltic, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, France and Iberia.
   Such a schedule would enable shippers to see at a glance what is available and may provide operators with the opportunity to coordinate their sailings “so that they complement rather than compete with each other,” Roser said. “It is amazing to note that there is little cooperation between the various shortsea lines.”
   Speakers at the forum include Bill Burns, managing director of Hunterston Container Hub Co., a subsidiary of Clydeport Ltd., John Buckley, managing director of Southampton Container Terminal, and David Robinson, managing director of PD Teesport.
   In a separate development, the port of Tees in the east of the England reported that more containerized cargoes are being diverted away from the congested Southeast U.K. ports and roads to regional ports further north.
   Nigel Chew, general manager of PD Teesport, told a conference of the IFLN forwarder network in London on Monday that all major British ports are concentrated in the Southeast of the United Kingdom, but this is where congestion is the most acute.
   “Congestion is beginning to bite this year,” he said, pointing at delays of up to eight hours borne by truckers in the port of Southampton last year. There is also insufficient road and rail capacity in the south of England, he said.
   “One of the drivers is to try and look at feeding,” he told the forwarder group. Feeding containers via a continental European port to a regional port effectively bypasses congested Southeast U.K. ports and lowers inland transport costs, he argued.
   Chew said PD Teesport has encouraged shippers to put pressure on carriers to provide feeder services to Teesport, and that new services and higher traffic volumes have followed.
   Commenting on the recent decision of the British government to block the development of a large new container port at Dibden Bay near Southampton, Chew said there are still two remaining container port projects awaiting regulatory approval.
   But these are “two to three years away from approval, let alone construction,” he said. By contrast, port congestion is happening this year, he added.