Brexit raises many issues for UKrest of EU trade and transport, and Dover Straits traffic is at the top of the list. Every day, around 14,000 HGVs cross the Dover Straits by ferry and Eurotunnel Le Shuttle, of which around 15% are reefer trucks. At the height of the Calais crisis in 2015, with truck queues 30 miles long, there was talk of developing unaccompanied services for reefers from Rotterdam and Zeebrugge by fitting ferries with threephase electrical sockets, although nothing materialised.

According to Chris Sturman, CEO of the Food Storage and Distribution Federation (FSDF), because of the migrant crisis and the UK import/export trade imbalance of almost 2:1 via the Dover Straits, only about one in 10 trucks using the Straits are UK-registered. Border delays with trucks tailing back 30 to 40 miles – what the Port of Dover has termed the “Armageddon scenario” – could result if the EU plays ‘hardball’ with the UK, but the queues would mostly be on the French side, and non-UK EU truckers would be the hardest hit.

The same applies to cabotage. The trade imbalance means that non-UK hauliers will lose much more from no longer being able to carry UK domestic loads as part of their return trip. As the Road Haulage Association (RHA) has argued, since UK hauliers will not be able to perform cabotage within any other EU member state, cabotage by EU hauliers in the UK must also cease.

The RHA wants an end to cabotage once the UK leaves the EU. RHA members voted 2 to 1 in favour of “leave” when polled in 2016, and its policy formulations reflect that. Non-UK EU trucks have grabbed a bigger and bigger share of UK domestic transport work as backhauls, due to what many British haulage firms regard as unfair competition.

Instead, the RHA wants the UK and EU to agree to a comprehensive land transport agreement that provides mutual recognition of driver and technical licenses and complete freedom of access to international transport work for UK and EU hauliers.

Worries about CHIEF

From a technical standpoint, the reintroduction of customs should not be a problem. As Chris Sturman says, there is no reason why, say, a Spanish shipper of salad crops could not file the paperwork electronically with UK customs when the truck leaves the Spanish packing plant. All the same, FSDF and all other transport professionals are concerned that CHIEF, the UK customs system, which is now around 20 years old, does not have the capacity to handle potentially a five-fold increase in annual clearances after Brexit to 300M, more than twice CHIEF’s estimated capacity.

The replacement Customs Declaration Service (CDS), combining off-theshelf tariff and declaration processing products from IBM, is not due to go live until 2019, the Brexit year, and it is unlikely there will be no teething problems. Whether CHIEF or CDS, LTL (less than truckload) consignments and other FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) are particularly exposed to delays, and there is no room in the ports for customs sheds.

Another point of concern is driver shortages. According to Jolyon Drury, chairman of CILT’s Public Policy Committee, there are around 180,000 non-UK EU nationals currently employed in the UK logistics industry – 40,000 order pickers, 90,000 warehouse forklift/pallet truck operators, and 50,000 truck drivers.

At a recent Danish shipping seminar in Grimsby, it was noted that driver shortages would lead to more unaccompanied trailer transports, but land for ports to expand their trailer staging and marshalling activities is scarce and expensive. Unaccompanied simply cannot absorb today’s volumes, says Drury, because of sheer scale, and official UK port statistics bear this out (see accompanying table).

One way or another, ro-ro is the second biggest freight category for UK ports, behind only liquid bulk. According to figures from the UK Government’s Department for Transport (DfT), ro-ro accounted for 106.4 Mt in 2016, not far off 20% of all freight, while lo-lo container traffic totalled 65.3 Mt. Leaving aside deepsea PCTCs, UK roro is essentially about intra-EU trade. It is thus the most exposed sector to high-friction borders post-Brexit. Within ro-ro, driveraccompanied (including Le Shuttle Fret) is the most vulnerable, because, as ‘flow through’ trade in perishables, other FMCG including LTL consignments, JIT (justin-time), etc, it has no buffers.

Plenty going on

Despite the uncertainties, there is plenty of activity in the ro-pax and ro-ro freighter newbuildings market by companies active in the North Sea. In June, CLdN RoRo confirmed an order for two 5,400 lane/metre ro-ros in Korea, with options for two more. This is part of the company’s “game changing” strategy that will see the first two 8,000 lane/ metre vessels delivered this year, with the first, CELINE, due to appear in the North Sea this month. All the vessels are LNG-ready, and the company is expanding its port facilities (C.RO Ports) in Zeebrugge and Rotterdam.

In early summer, DFDS placed an order with China’s Jingling shipyard for two more large ro-ro freighters, each with an intake of around 450 trailers on 6,700 lane/ metres. They are slated for delivery in 2019, and will be deployed in DFDS’s North Sea network.

“The new ships are part of our newbuilding programme, to enable us to offer our customers the required transport capacity, and to improve our efficiency,” stated Niels Smedegaard, CEO of DFDS.

The design complies with the IMO’s EEDI (Energy Efficiency Design Index) standard, and will be equipped with scrubbers, ballast water treatment systems and other environment-friendly features. The investment is understood to be around €134.5M. The ferries were designed by Danish naval architecture firm Knud E Hansen.

Meanwhile, the second newbuilding from FSG Flensburger Schiffbau Gesellschaft, TULIPA SEAWAYS, was launched and entered service in the summer. Both TULIPA and GARDENIA SEAWAYS are 210m-long and have a capacity for 262 trailers on 4,076 lane/metres.

Both vessels are on bareboat charter from Siem, and are currently operated on the DFDS route between Rotterdam and Immingham. “Despite Brexit, the cargo volume on our North Sea services is growing substantially,” said Niels Smedegaard.

In June, Brittany Ferries confirmed an order with FSG for a new dual fuel ro-pax ferry, for delivery in June 2019. HONFLEUR will be deployed in the operator’s Caen-Portsmouth servce, and will replace NORMANDIE, which was built in 1992. The 187mlong, 31m-wide vessel can accommodate 1,670 passengers, and has 2,600 lane/metres for 130 trucks, or 64 trucks and 55 cars.

More from China

Last month marked the start of the construction of the first of four ro-paxes ordered by Stena from the AVIC Weihai Shipyard in China. The vessels have a planned delivery timetable during 2019 and 2020, and there are options for four more. At 214.5m-long and 27.8m-wide, and with 3,100 lane/metres for freight, in a drive-through configuration, plus 120 cars and 1,000 passengers, the vessels will be 50% larger than today’s standard ro-pax vessels. This significant investment shows Stena’s continued confidence in the ro-pax concept as part of its operational business model. The vessels are LNG-ready and are also prepared for scrubbers, as well as catalytic converters.

“Through standardisation and built-in flexibility, we are planning to secure a highly reliable ferry operation, which will provide even better support to our customers and help them to grow,” said Niclas Mårtensson, CEO of Stena Line. “We foresee continued growth within ferry transportation, and this is an important step in preparing our business for that growth. At this stage, we are planning to introduce the vessels onto the Irish Sea.”

Irish Sea trades are a whole new ‘can of worms’ in a Brexit context, and would require a dedicated article to cover fully. It is estimated that around 80% of Republic of Ireland (RoI) ro-ro/ ro-pax freight is o/d GB, and, because of this, GB acts as a transit country for RoI-continental EU freight. Post-Brexit, more direct maritime connections between the RoI and the continent are to be expected, which could benefit ro-ro and lo-lo (see WorldCargo News, February 2017, p26).

In July, Stena announced that it would be withdrawing the ro-ros CAPUCINE and SEVERINE from its twice daily Harwich-Rotterdam (Europoort) service, and replacing them with two larger freighters, MISIDA and MISANA, increasing capacity on the route by 20%. The two vessels will be chartered from Godby Shipping at the beginning of next year, when the existing charter agreements expire. The change coincides with the expected completion of a second ro-ro berth at Rotterdam Europoort.

Godby has disclosed that it will sell its ro-ro freighter MIRANDA by the end of the year, when the time-charter with Stena – which sub-chartered the vessel to Transfennica – expires. The buyer has not been disclosed.

Eva Mikola-Karlström, VP at Godby, explained that the plan is to order new vessels that are more tailored for customers’ requirements, but “ships should not be too specialised, as we need to retain flexibility”. The company is negotiating in China for two 2,000 lane/metre ships. Mikola-Karlström added: “We are very focused on energy efficiency. To order two vessels, it is useful to get into some kind of liner service, and then it is clear that the client will have identical ships.”

Stena has also reported a significant increase in freight traffic in its Poland-Sweden service in the past 20 months or so. It has added to capacity by time-chartering the 2,362 dwt, 865 lane/metre ro-ro freighter GUTE from Gotlandsbolaget to complement STENA VISION, STENA SPIRIT and STENA BALTICA in the Gdynia-Karlskrona service, increasing the number of weekly sailings on the route by eight to 44.

Alternative ro-ro

Turkey-based Alternative Transport Ltd (ATL), part of Ekol logistics group, has secured a €27.5M loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to help fund a new ro-ro freighter, which will expand its owned-fleet operating in the Turkey/ Mediterranean trades to five. ATL, which was founded in 2013 by Turkish entrepreneur Ahmet Musul, who also founded Ekol, runs regular services between Turkey and Italy (Trieste) and France (Sète).

In addition, EBRD will provide ATL with a junior loan of €4.5M, as part of its Green Logistics programme. ATL qualifies because its/Ekol’s sea-rail distribution, with “last mile trucking”, keeps thousands of trucks off the highways and away from the problematic Turkey-EU (Bulgaria) land border. Turkey-domiciled Isbank is also advancing €16M.

The new freighter is estimated at €55.5M, and will have a capacity for 283 trailers. It will be slotted into the line’s Haydarpasa (Istanbul)-Trieste service. The EBRD previously helped finance three ro-ros for ATL with a loan of €63M.

In July, Grimaldi took delivery of a new PCTC from Jinling Shipyards in Nanjing. GRANDE BALTIMORA is the first of three sister ships, with an intake of 6,700 CEU, or 2,500 CEU and 4,000 lane/ metres for other rolling freight. The vessel is fitted with a side ramp and a quarter ramp, the latter having a loading capacity for 150t, and four of the car decks are hoistable, allowing ‘high and heavy’ loads up to 5.2m-high to be loaded.

The vessel is fitted with a hybrid scrubber system to meet the new regulations for the reduction of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, and with a hybrid exhaust gas cleaning system for the abatement of sulphur oxide emissions (SOx). Moreover, she is equipped with a ballast water treatment unit, which will allow her to meet future international regulations. Grimaldi’s North America-Mediterranean/North Europe service calls Gemlik, Gioia Tauro, Civitavecchia, Savona, Halifax, New York, Baltimore, Veracruz and Antwerp.

Grimaldi is also expected to confirm an order for a new series of ro-ro freighters in China, under the scope of its G5GG (Grimaldi Fifth Generation Green Ships) project. According to managing director Emanuele Grimaldi, the G5GG ro-ros will have double the trailer intake of the ships currently deployed in the Mediterranean. This suggests an intake of up to 500 trailers.

The company is initially thinking of ordering up to six vessels, with options for up to four more, representing a potential investment of €1B. Details of the propulsion are not known, but it seems that hybrid drive is envisaged, using Lithium-ion batteries.

At the time of writing, MSC is rumoured to be in advanced negotiations with Guangzhou Shipyard for four ro-pax ferries, with an option for four more, at a price of US$110M per vessel. Originally, Onorato (Moby) was involved in the negotiations, so MSC and Moby would each buy two ships, but MSC has taken over the whole contract.

The new vessels will be LNGready. They are somewhat smaller than originally envisaged, with lower passenger intake, and 3,000 instead of 3,500 lane/metres for freight. The bigger ships would have cost US$150M each.

LGL expanding

Finally, the fleet of US-flagged carrier Liberty Global Logistics (LGL) has expanded after it took delivery of a new vessel, the NOCC BALTIC, from tonnage provider Norwegian Car Carriers AS on time-charter this month.

The vessel is now operating under the US flag as the MV LIBERTY PEACE, where the PCTC will be deployed in the automotive trade between the US and Far and Middle East.

The vessel measures 199m x 32m, with a capacity of 6,500 CEU. A lot of the cargo will be specialist military vehicles that are considerably larger than a CEU, including tanks and helicopters.

Robert Wellner, president of LGL, said: “We are looking forward to having our newly expanded ro-ro service with four modern US-flag PCTC vessels, which will increase our ability to serve both our government and commercial customers in the global marketplace.”.

Simulators and rodeos

Ports America is combing a training simulator with “ro-ro rodeos”, where longshore workers learn to drive different pieces of heavy equipment with hands-on training.

The Port of Baltimore has been staging ro-ro rodeos for over 20 years, and Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL) has replicated the concept in South America, staging a rodeo for roro personnel from 10 different ports at the Port of Manzanillo in Panama, which has now also become an annual event.

This year WWL and Ports America launched a new event in Galveston, Texas, where members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) had the opportunity to train on nine different pieces of equipment provided by WWL customers, such as Case New Holland (CNH) and Caterpillar.

As reported last month, Ports America’s Port Newark Auto Terminal (PNAT) has now purchased a mobile ro-ro operations labour training simulator, which prepares drivers for a variety of vessel scenarios involved in ro-ro operations.

Jorge Taboada, Ports America’s general manager for PNAT and Bayonne Auto Terminal (BAT), led the development of the simulator. He explained to WorldCargo News that the simulator fulfils a different, complementary role to hands-on training in rodeo events.

“The program is designed to help longshoremen become more in sync with ro-ro procedures,” he said. “The simulator is structured training with simulated environments based on manoeuvring patterns inside a vessel, such as following directions and signs, waiting for traffic cop directions, keeping a three-car distance between the operator and the car in front, staying alert for pedestrians (lashers, drivers, ship crew), slowing down during turns, not exceeding 12 mph inside the vessel, reducing speed during approach to inner ramps, and so on.”

These procedures, Taboada continued, are the same for all ro-ro cargoes, including passenger cars and heavy equipment. “The system, however, has the option to add alternative types of software that can address additional procedures related to moving heavy equipment, if needed,” he said. “One of the most important components of a simulator is that the instructor can create different training

scenarios.”

In other port applications, simulator training has been used to reduce the amount of hands-on training required on actual equipment. Taboada said this also applies to its ro-ro simulator, which helps improve the consistency of training for current workers and new hires, as everyone works through the same exercises and scenarios.

However, Ports America will still be holding rodeos. “It is critically important for machine operators to be familiar with where the steering, throttle and controls are located on heavy equipment. Therefore, the ro-ro rodeo is definitely a great way to expose longshoremen to different equipment and get to learn the controls on different equipment,” concluded Taboada.

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This complete item is approximately 4000 words in length, and appeared in the September 2017 issue of WorldCargo News, on page 45. To access this issue download the PDF here.