Dynamar launches Intra-North Europe (2013) Container Trades report
Dynamar has just published “INTRA-NORTH EUROPE (2013) CONTAINER TRADES”, the latest report in its Container Trades and Markets series, said in the company's press release. Salient details and some interesting findings of the new report are discussed here below. Intra-North Europe (2013) Container Trades … is all about the more than 160 services operated by 40 different shipping companies deploying container, Ro/Ro and multipurpose ships with container capacities of 100 to 3,400 TEU that populate the intra and coastal European waters. Through more than 130 ports in 19 countries, they serve over 500 million people in frequencies of between once and 12 times per month, carrying an average of 175,000 full TEU of regional trade and feeder boxes every week.
The new, unique report literally dissects the intra-Europe container trade as it daily unfolds within the Reykjavik, Murmansk, St. Petersburg, Cadiz and Reykjavik quadrilateral. It provides an assessment of the overall trade with respect to its size in terms of volumes, capacities and throughputs, as well as an in-depth competition review (companies, services, ships, capacity analyses, liftings).
Services and ports
The more than 160 intra-Europe shipping services carrying containers call at total 134 ports large and small spread all over seaboard North Europe. Combined, these services offer nearly 1,000 sailings per week, an average of one departure every day from each port. Variations in this sailing frequency are huge, ranging between less than one call per month at Archangelsk (Arctic Russia) to over one-hundred per week at Rotterdam.
In line with this, also the throughputs of the around 90 intra-Europe ports for which this is known differ substantially: between 4,150 TEU (Kemi, Finland) and 11,877,000 TEU (Rotterdam), 680,000 TEU average for all relevant ports. On a country basis, it is Germany that handles the largest number of containers (import and export, full and empty, including transhipment): more than 15 million TEU in 2011. Hamburg and Bremerhaven combined provide the highest Baltic-related feeder volumes: around 3.1 million TEU (in 2011) two-ways, full and empty.
Component Trade Areas
The intra-North Europe trade is organised in five component trade areas, which in alphabetical order are: Baltic - Iberia Atlantic - Iceland-Faroes-Norway - North West Continent - UK/Ireland. The number of services and the annual capacity operating to, from and within each of those sub-trades varies greatly.
North West Continent
Intra-Europe services calling at ports in the five countries -Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany and the Netherlands- forming the North West Continent provide an annual capacity of 5.5 million TEU. They connect this area with all other component trades. This will not come as a surprise, considering the large intercontinental ports in this part of Europe. Of those, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Bremerhaven and Hamburg handle the bulk of all transhipment containers these being destined for feeder ports across North Europe.
Atlantic Iberia
At the other end of the line is Atlantic Iberia, comprising North and South East Spain and Portugal. The annualised trade capacity of the services calling there, connecting with ports in North West Europe, UK/Ireland and the Baltic is around 400,000 TEU, the smallest of the five component trade areas.
Iceland-Faroes-Norway
It may come as a surprise that the second largest number of ports served by intra-Europe shipping services is in the sparsely populated Iceland-Faroes-Norway arc (IFN). Here, the just 5.3 million people (of which 93% live in Norway) are served through no less than 39 ports. The vast majority of those are located along Norway’s dotted-with-fjords-coastline: 32. It is fair to say that pretty much every port in Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Norway is a local gateway with the services calling there to be considered lifeline. In all, this region receives 5% of all intra-Europe annualised trade capacity, most of which in connections with North West Continental outlets.
Baltic
The Baltic is the near-inland sea stretching between Gothenburg, where the Skagerrak flows into the Kattegat, St. Petersburg at the ultimate eastern end of the Finnish Gulf and Kemi, Finland’s northernmost port on the Bay of Bothnia. The Baltic’s shores accommodate 45 ports, spread over nine countries, served by 91 container shipping services. Those are operated by 28 different carriers, deploying nearly 200 ships of 810 TEU average, ranging between 200 TEU (Nor Lines) and 3,500 TEU (MSC). With an annualised carrying capacity of 800,000 TEU, Unifeeder is clearly the largest Baltic-trades carrier. St. Petersburg is by far the biggest Baltic port with a total throughput of 2,525,000 TEU in 2012, an increase of 7% over 2011.
UK/Ireland
Out of the 21 carriers connecting the UK/Ireland with all other intra-Europe component trade areas, five are doing so on a dedicated basis. Offering six sailings per week with three ships, three companies exclusively trading between UK/ Ireland ports provide an annualised capacity of 44,000 TEU. The ports they serve include such destinations as the Shetland Islands and the Channel Islands Guernsey and Jersey. Two others exclusively operate between the UK and North West Continental ports, contributing 188,000 TEU or 15% to the total space deployed on this route.
Carriers and ships
Of all 40 carriers active in the intra-Europe waters, Unifeeder deploys the largest number of ships. However, the total nominal capacity of its 32 ships is 28% smaller than the 41,200 TEU provided by the 24 vessels operated by MSC. Actually, the latter is known for deploying larger ships than its competitors in nearly all trades. By annualised trade capacity across the whole of the intra-Europe trade, the top 3 carriers (CMA CGM, MSC and Unifeeder) have a combined share of 49%. Six lines deploy more than 10 vessels, while ten companies trade within North Europe with a complement of one to four vessels.
“K” Line’s Ibesco line, connecting four of the five component trades, serves the longest route by nautical miles of all 40 carriers in Dynamar’s Intra-Europe study. When its two chartered, 8,000-dwt, 700 TEU ships with 110 reefer plugs each have returned to Gijon (North Spain), where they started their fortnightly trip along Lisbon, Leixoes, Felixstowe, Teesport, Gothenburg, Aarhus and Rotterdam they have travelled a distance of 3,700-nm.
The profiles on all 40 intra-Europe carriers in the report provide company details and background, overall and specific intra-Europe fleet size and capacity, including by component trade.
More than just loading, discharging and sailing
Although the average intra-Europe container trade mileage may not be long, serving this trade doesn’t come easy.
Intra-Europe regional merchandise is packed on so-called Euro-pallets and is therefore preferably if not exclusively carried in (40’ and) 45’ high cube pallet-wide containers. This is the only equipment having the capability of competing with 13.6-metre tilt-trailers, the preferred transportation mode within Europe. Being non-ISO, the 45’ high cube pallet-wides must be accommodated on deck, unless the ship is equipped with adjustable cell-guides. Tanks and half-heights, usually heavy stuff, are also frequently carried in quite large numbers.
To be able to operate in the northern part of the Baltic (the Finnish Gulf and the Sea and Bay of Bothnia), highest ice-class vessels are required for around 6 months of the year.
Effective 1 January 2015, all ships entering and operating within the English Channel, the North Sea and the Baltic will be required to burn fuel with a maximum sulphur content of 0.1%. The relevant bunkers will be (much) more expensive (if sufficiently available at all) than the prices for the current 1% variation. The alternatives of scrubbers and LNG are not only pricey but also consume cargo space.
Those issues and many others are addressed in Dynamar’s Intra-North Europe Container Trades report as well.
Issued in mid-March, the Intra-North Europe Container Trades publication is Dynamar’s latest report in its Container Trades and Markets series. It uses the most recent (2011 final, 2012 estimates) statistics on port/country carryings, vessel capacities and port throughputs and gives a profound insight into the intra-North Europe regional and feeder trade, background, characteristics, goings and present status.
Analyses in the report are based on services and fleet details as of late December 2012. By definition, shortsea operations, the feedering segment in particular, fluctuate strongly with the markets they serve, which comprise both the regional intra-Europe and (feedering) the worldwide trades. Hence, vessel sizes and numbers, and the related capacities fluctuate regularly, albeit without actually affecting the competition picture. More detailed carryings can be made available upon request.