EU | UK news digest. 14 July
With the peak season approaching, more uncertainties arise. As some ports experience minor improvements, new challenges make it doubtful that stability is looming over.
Despite Brexit and the post-pandemic reality, not all ports experience too many difficulties. In particular, the Port of Antwerp’s TEU throughput grew by 4.3% year-on-year (YoY), according to the recent data. Antwerp has big potential to become a getaway between the EU and the UK. However, it will take a while to happen, as the sky is not really clear above the port – Maersk and MSC temporarily omit the Antwerp call for six weeks.
Ocean lines have become targets of new allegations. Ocean carriers are being accused of forcing shippers to purchase extra products, such as customs clearance and insurance to increase their prospects of shipment. Without buying these add-on products, shippers would struggle to get their cargo booked which is a low blow for small ones.
It may seem that Brexit has only made the situation more perplexed, however, for the China-UK route it has offered the development of Kaliningrad as a transhipment point. It allows bypassing EU, thus avoiding additional declaration and controls, and proves to be faster. It is not the only alternative offered to the rail market. If the situation with Belarus does not improve, the Zamość terminal near the Polish-Ukrainian border will be a great point to respond to the growing number of Europe-China trains. The expansion of it implies the construction of a new area with more capacity.
Will rail prosperity concern the UK in the light of the upcoming peak season? Experts are uncertain as they call the government to access the situation critically before it takes summer recess. So far, the officials have identified three key strategies as a part of the Integrated Rail Plan or the Transport Decarbonisation Plan.
Meanwhile, the UK ports are also confused about how they will operate and be governed, several months after eight winning bids were announced for the new economic zones. They were considered a key imitative for the post-Brexit recovery as these zones are generally exempt from customs duties.
The truck shortages have revealed another pain point – the workers have been underpaid for long and drivers have experienced unsociable hours linked to container work and numerous other challenges. The government’s attempt to resolve it has failed. Even for the UK alone, data shows that the full scale of the driver shortage may not be realised for some time, thus drivers simply leave/move to warehouses.
On the way to a sustainable future, the EU is to announce a revision to environmental policy that will include aviation and maritime sectors. The intention itself already demonstrates that authorities recognize the fact that climate has no borders and all sectors have to be involved.
The Ever Given saga has led to devastating consequences for anything but the canal’s revenues that despite the hardships have reached a record US$5.84 billion in its financial year (FY). Additionally, the canal authority said that 9,763 vessels passed through the Suez Canal during the first half of 2021, increased by 217 ships compared with the same period last year.
The Rhein-Ruhr-Rail Connection (3RX) will welcome a new study on the feasibility of it in the fall. The updated SCBA will be broader in scope than the previous SCBA with Belgium taking the lead.
The notoriously famous story of sinking of Pearl-X got a new span – X-Press Feeders has made an initial payment of $3.6 million to the Sri Lankan government is continuing to contribute to the clearance of the water. Discussions are ongoing on the payment of further claims.
Tinsley, the marshaling yard shared Sheffield and Rotherham is seeing a resurgence of traffic. The point will prove a further opportunity to move more goods by rail and the associated environmental benefits.
German CargoBeamer taps into multimodal development and sets its first full multimodal terminal into operation amid to build the new brand of road-rail combined transport to France and Northwest Europe.
