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An almost perfect transport chain
Short Sea Shipping, this month’s theme, becomes more and more important in modern society and everyday life. The maritime part of it is ro-ro, container-feeders and ferries carrying ton after ton of goods on wheels in a fine symbiosis, forming an almost perfect transport chain.

The system has been developed during the last couple of decades after changes ashore. Especially the change where the production of various goods from commodities has moved away from the quayside in our ports, extending the use of lorries and trailers. For some years the maritime sector has seen lorries and trailers as enemies and competitors, but most of the participants in the maritime sector now view them with much more sympathy than before.

In fact one can say that the new system with intensive use of lorries has produced more sea borne traffic. Looking at how much the ro/ro under the DFDS Tor Line flag lifts out of Göteborg every day, I must come to the conclusion that never before has so much cargo been travelling across the water. Every night some 9,000 tons leaves Göteborg for Immingham in England. If this were converted to 500-tonners it would be 18 coasters every night to Immingham alone – and there are several other sailings from Göteborg every day. Again looking at DFDS Tor Line, Stena Line and Color Line and their services sailing along the Danish coasts, it can be noted that they are conducting a highly environment friendly operation, which on a daily basis gives a better climate in Denmark. All three services transport trailer after trailer on the environment friendly waterway instead of the Danish roads on the transit voyage to European industrial areas. Nice and easy transport without any accidents, much less pollution and usually overnight with a minimum of manpower used. There is much overlooked history in the public debate on environment friendly transport in Europe.

The Danes should be overjoyed that so many lorries do not use the Danish roads. Cobelfret’s sailings from Esbjerg to Zeebrügge, and Samskip’s sailings from Oslo to Zeebrügge are part of the same story. From a Swedish point of view the Finnish/German motorway from Hankö to Lübeck/Travemünde has exactly the same effect on the environment. Thousands and thousands of tons of paper and wood products are wheeled on board a fleet of modern ro/ros for discharge in Travemünde, with a direct connection to the European motorways for distribution to the whole of Europe.

Like the DFDS network from Göteborg, this sea-borne motorway was invented by cargo owners and ship operators without any help or money from any politicians. The EU system has sent money to several projects like Cobelfret’s Esbjerg service and Superfast’s service to Rosyth in Scotland. Other shipowners have protested against the waste of public money in unnecessary business, claiming that if the service was needed and economically healthy, an owner would certainly have set up a business. We do not need public aid, is the straight answer from shipowners in general.

//Bent Mikkelsen

 

Woefully inadequate response to Server accident
Although accidents at sea are relatively few and far apart, they do happen, but time and time again contingency planning to meet the threat of pollution proves woefully inadequate. The latest Norwegian incident occurred in the second week of January when the 33,333 dwt dry bulker MS Server hit the rocks off Fedje north of Bergen and spilled 370 tonnes of fuel oil and an unknown amount of diesel oil. Admittedly, the weather was foul, but it did not stop the helicopter rescue service from lifting the 25-men crew to safety after the vessel hit the rocks. The Norwegian Coastal Administration (Kystverket) is responsible for the contingency planning and all of the relevant equipment as it was during the Green Ålesund and John R. incidents in 2000, Gudrun Gisladottir in 2002, Rocknes in 2004 and Fjord Champion in 2005. And nothing seems to have improved. We wrote last year that the Norwegian oil spill contingency planning is assuming that nothing will – hopefully – happen.

And nothing major has happened in terms of a big spill, like an aframax tanker from Murmansk hitting the rocks. Pushing tanker 12 miles offshore will not necessarily prevent tankers from hitting the coast with the prevailing winds, especially if the Norwegian Coastal Administration (NSA) is to direct the towage. Norwegian environmental organisations say that the NSA is more preoccupied with covering their own back and finding excuses for their own inadequacies rather than improving response time and equipment. Even Norwegian ministers were nearly lost for words when nothing much happened in the two days after the Server accident. It actually took two days to get the clean-up equipment in place. NSA bureaucrats refused an offer of help from Statoil, and prevented a second hawser from the tugs being attached.

Bureaucrats working for the contingency unit based at Horten in Eastern Norway have no seafaring experience and cannot be expected to understand that an accident never adjusts to the system.

//Petter Arentz