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WHILE
many in shipping see low-sulphur fuel mandates
and the advent of mega alliances as challenging
if not problematic, not so Sweden's major
Port of Gothenburg.
That's
because Gothenburg sees shipping alliances
bringing needed direct calls with good import
volumes just as it sees the new January
1 United Nations fuel rules in the English
Channel, the Baltic and North Sea bringing
a flood of exports.
The
low-sulphur fuel mandate is expected to
wipe out a profitable seagoing trade to
Sweden's northern lumber yards and steel
mills because it will be far too costly
to have ships go north go empty - not with
with fuel costing 50 to 60 per cent more
that it does now.
This
will drive the sea trade to road and rail
cross country from the Baltic side of Sweden
to the Atlantic side where the Port of Gothenburg
is sitting pretty when the fuel rule goes
live on January 1.
That's
how way Claes Sundmark, the port's vice
president for the containers, ro-ro
and rail, explains the situation in an interview
with the Container Shipping Manager at the
recent Shenzhen Logistics and Transportation
Fair.
As
for imports, Mr Sundmark's positive view
of shipping alliances is derived from his
belief that they can act as intermediaries
to channel cargo to Gothenburg in quantities
that justify direct calls.
With
alliances, cargo for Sweden's main port
can be amassed by six sales teams - he was
referring to his old G6 customer - and put
on a single ship, creating a critical mass
to justify a direct call. Which in turn,
benefits from the containerised exports
bound for the Far East waiting on the dock.
This
differs from the usual scenario of a multiplicity
of sales teams working for a multiplicity
of shipping lines putting what little they
collectively collected for Sweden on a multiplicity
of ships in such small quantities that it
only justifies feeder services from a northern
range transshipment port to Gothenburg.
Mr
Sundmark reminds us that the Gothenburg
volume to and from China takes 35.7 per
cent of total imports to Sweden and 12 per
cent of total exports from Sweden.
But
with shipping alliances, new efficiencies
are possible, he said. Now each liner's
independent sales team can put Swedish cargo
on the Gothenburg ship on which they share
slots.
Once
amassed, that designated ship with its Swedish
cargo can skip a port on a loop, and go
to Gothenburg directly instead of some other
port of the regular service rotation.
Such
arrangements could be replicated, providing
direct calls to other ports with good export
potential, which would not otherwise merit
direct sailing without shipping alliances
to making it possible.
"OOCL
by itself cannot come here with a 9,000-TEU
vessel. Nor can NYK or Hapag-Lloyd. But
by joining their volumes together in the
alliance, they have enough to justify
a direct call," he said.
There
are problems, he conceded. "Alliances
are demanding for us, because if we
talk of Ocean Three, all three must think
the port of Gothenburg is the right
approach, then add Gothenburg and drop Qingdao,
Ningbo or maybe Dubai," he said.
"It
is demanding having the lines agree to this
within the alliance. With all the
alliance members, if they put their volumes
together, they have enough to make it,"
he said.
Gothenburg
took time to develop this approach and more
time to convey, or educate sales teams to
the possibility. They were dealing with
a direct call from the G6 Alliance from
China.
Local
sales teams focused on developing exports,
which grew well, he said. The problem was
on the import side.
"Their
colleagues in China and Hong Kong were selling
the full network of the alliance line,
they didn't yet have the knowhow of the
loop to Gothenburg," said Mr Sundmark.
"So
it took some time before they consolidated
everything for Gothenburg in Loop 3. They
had five different loops and Loop 3 was
calling directly at Gothenburg," he
said.
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