Expansion in Klaipeda

To this end, this month, the company has signed an order for 10 more RTGs and two more STS cranes from Konecranes, with an SWL of 65t and an outreach of 52m. It already operates seven Konecranes RTGs and three Konecranes STS cranes. Deliveries are scheduled for November and December 2019.

MSC has started calling with its Australian Express and Indian Ocean/East Africa Express services, so the terminal is now handling between four and seven services a week. TIL has embarked on a major investment programme, which involves deepening the water area, building a new berth capable of accommodating vessels up to 13,000 TEU, and adding 13-ha of backland, including a new rail yard.

“Our stockholders have given us a specific task to handle 1M TEU by 2022 or 2023,” said Rimantas Juška, Klaipedos Smelte’s director general, adding that the company is already creating competition for Poland’s port of Gdansk, up to now the only Baltic Sea container hub.

With a lack of suitable alternatives, Gdansk had been able to dictate conditions to shippers, forwarders and transport companies, and hence has been charging higher tariffs than Klaipedos Smelte, he added.

Through MSC and other lines, he continued, shippers and importers will have new opportunities for their trade in the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, without having to go through feeder services to a North Continent port.

Read this item in full
This complete item is approximately 300 words in length, and appeared in the August 2018 issue of WorldCargo News, on page 7. To access this issue download the PDF here.