Challenges abound for shortsea container shipping
Coastlink conferences cover a wide range of subjects, both technically and geographically, and so provide the association’s members and friends with expanded opportunities for networking. Costlink is a neutral pan European members organisation dedicated to the pormotion of short sea and feeder container shipping.
Since 2004, Coastlink has held conferences in the UK, France, Belgium, Sweden and Estonia never in Germany. This omission will be corrected with the Hamburg conference where the focus wil be not only on Hamburg but also other German ports. It will take place at Hotel Atlantic Kempinski, Hamburg, on 19th and 20th April 2011.
The new Wilhelmshaven container terminal, which is due to receive its first ships in mid 2012, will alter the dynamics of the German port industry as it will enable ships with a draft of 16.5m to berth at any time of the day. Coastlink will be asking whether any special provisions are being made to avoid delays to feeder vessels if, as expected, the new terminal turns out to be a big success.
Traditionally Hamburg has always been a major hub port for the Baltic trades but 2010 saw a temporary shift of some feeders to Rotterdam. Is this a short term reprieve or does the Elbe port have what it takes to hold on to this business for years to come? The jury is still out, but the changing ways in which the deepsea lines are choosing to serve the Baltic Sea ports, and especially the Russian market, will undoubtedly have an impact.
Maersk surprised observers when it added Gdansk to one of its main China schedules, so establishing the Polish port as its Baltic hub. Its decision to extend its Ecubex South America service right through to St Petersburg was further proof that the world was changing.
However, while Russian ports are expanding, how quickly the country’s trade volumes will increase to fill this new capacity is still open for debate. In the light of these various developments, speakers at Coastlink Hamburg Conference will discuss what might come next for the Baltic trades.
Recently, Coastlink has come under pressure to expand its geographic coverage southwards and the Hamburg conference will be taking time out to look at the evolution of those trades between Northern Europe and the Mediterranean/North Africa. As per coastlink, in 2012, the organisation hopes to hold our first conference in the Mediterranean.
At the conference new design concepts and solutions will be discussed which will keep shortsea shipping competitive despite forthcoming draconian emission regulations in the North Sea and Baltic.
The programme can be downloaded from the Coastlink website www.coastlink.co.uk
