Continuing growth in new vehicle and other freight traffic out of northern Europe to the Far East at a time of declining volumes in the reverse direction-until recently the stronger trade-is forcing some deepsea ro-ro operators to rethink how they serve a number of markets worlwide.
That need is arising from the fact that the carriers concerned are looking to reduce their westbound sailings ex-China and other Far East points, while still maintaining sufficient capacity to meet current strong demand on the return sailings from Europe to Asia and other markets served en route.
"We have in the past operated around six sailings a month from the Far East to Europe, which then run back via Africa and Australia/New Zealand," says Trond Sjursen, Head of Region Europe for Höegh Autoliners.
"We may reduce that number to five, which means that in order to maintain our present commitment to the trade ex-Europe, we will need to find alternative capacity. That could mean adopting some 'extraordinary' measures and we assume some of our competitors might do the same."
Such measures, says Sjursen, could include ballasting tonnage (sailing vessels without cargo) into Europe. "One option might be to ballast from the US but there are others. We are working on that right now."
Meanwhile, many other European deepsea ro-ro trades remain pretty steady, report industry sources. Certainly, that is the picture painted by Sutcliffes Maritime, a UK-based shipping agent/forwarder, which has for many years offered ro-ro services to East Africa (Mombasa and Dar Es Salaam) and southern Africa (Durban, Port Elizabeth, Walvis Bay and Maputo) out of Sheerness and Antwerp, and the Middle East (mainly Jeddah and Dubai) from Southampton.
Director Helen Palmer says: "East Africa, for example, where we mainly ship used vehicles, particularly road-building equipment, plant, trucks, tractors, trailers, cars and 4x4s, is a good and stable market for us.
"The volumes tend to stay much the same from month to month. We do not often see any real dips or surges."
Palmer adds that similar trends are apparent to Sutcliffes Maritime in both the southern Africa and Middle East ro-ro trades out of Europe.
"Our capacity has been fairly straightforward, despite current market conditions and the future projections for ro-ro are looking very promising indeed."
Elsewhere, deepsea ro-ro lines are continuing to find new markets opening up, particularly in developing economies. For example, Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL) recently added Antofagasta, Chile, to its ocean service route along South America's west coast and now serves that port on a monthly basis in addition to its established service to Guayaquil in Ecuador and Callao, Peru.
Cargo transported on the route is primarily a mix of heavy equipment and breakbulk. "That call has really been added to cater for breakbulk and high and heavy traffic rather than new car business," confirms Paul Reeves, MD of WWL UK.
The background to that development is explained by Rich Heintzelman, EVP and Head of Commercial for WWL Americas. "Due to major infrastructure developments and construction expansion, as well as mining and energy projects, the demand for equipment to support improvements in western South America is undergoing significant growth." |
