MacAndrews launches UK-Spain reefer express service
French shipping group CMA CGM's British subsidiary, MacAndrews, recently started its Reefer Xpress Service that links Rotterdam, Bilbao, on the Atlantic coast of Spain with Sheerness on the south coast of England.
The first sailing was made from Bilbao by the 300-TEU George Mitchell. The vessel is being used to provide a fixed-day weekly service that will be operated twice weekly in 2008.
Reefer Xpress offers a four-day door-to-door service to the UK market, and is targeted at the 60,000+ reefer truck market moving fresh produce by road from southern Spain to the UK every year, a company statement said.
MacAndrews managing director Geoff Smith said the aim of the new service is to tackle the dominance of road transport in the Iberian fresh produce market and provide customers with a cost effective alternative.
"With the focus now on the carbon footprint of every commodity moved, we are confident that the environmentally friendly aspects of this service will appeal to shippers such as supermarket chains. The time has come for a seaborne alternative at a pallet rate equivalent to that offered by the overland service," he said.
The introduction of the reefer service is said to come after two years of extensive trials covering every category of fresh produce currently moving by road, in response to "strong support from the market."
The new service will provide 45-foot reefer containers to match the loading capacity of trailers. At the Iberian shipping hub of Bilbao, Abra Terminales Maritimas SA (ATM) has invested in a purpose-built cross-docking facility specifically for the new service to enable produce to be transferred via the Bilbao cold store.
The UK hub for the new service is the Port of Sheerness, the UK's premier reefer port. According to MacAndrews, the port offers efficiency and proximity to the southern UK markets.
The first sailing was made from Bilbao by the 300-TEU George Mitchell. The vessel is being used to provide a fixed-day weekly service that will be operated twice weekly in 2008.
Reefer Xpress offers a four-day door-to-door service to the UK market, and is targeted at the 60,000+ reefer truck market moving fresh produce by road from southern Spain to the UK every year, a company statement said.
MacAndrews managing director Geoff Smith said the aim of the new service is to tackle the dominance of road transport in the Iberian fresh produce market and provide customers with a cost effective alternative.
"With the focus now on the carbon footprint of every commodity moved, we are confident that the environmentally friendly aspects of this service will appeal to shippers such as supermarket chains. The time has come for a seaborne alternative at a pallet rate equivalent to that offered by the overland service," he said.
The introduction of the reefer service is said to come after two years of extensive trials covering every category of fresh produce currently moving by road, in response to "strong support from the market."
The new service will provide 45-foot reefer containers to match the loading capacity of trailers. At the Iberian shipping hub of Bilbao, Abra Terminales Maritimas SA (ATM) has invested in a purpose-built cross-docking facility specifically for the new service to enable produce to be transferred via the Bilbao cold store.
The UK hub for the new service is the Port of Sheerness, the UK's premier reefer port. According to MacAndrews, the port offers efficiency and proximity to the southern UK markets.