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Steady growth and optimism
in short sea shipping
There has been a long line of growth since I last wrote about the temperature in Short Sea Shipping – this month’s theme. During the twelve months since the last time, almost every sector of the maritime business under the umbrella of short sea shipping has seen a rising line of growth to the extent that it gives me the opportunity to write this: Never has such a large amount of goods been at sea moving from one point to another.

In the last twelve months there has been a development like that of the twelve months before, showing sales of older and smaller vessels – both in coasters, coastal tankers and ro-ros. The sold vessels have been replaced by new (or newer) ones, but all larger than the previous ones in the trade.
This indicates a growth trade to a larger extent giving a better economy all over, from the shipowners to commercial organising of vessels (brokers) to cargo handling in ports.

All participants benefit from larger units coming with larger cargos. Also the ferry service, which is also a part of the short sea segment, has grown. Mols-Linien in Denmark is at present so much up in traffic that there is close to 90 per cent coverage of all units. Therefore the company is in the market for another high speed ferry and another ro-ro vessel for its trailer service from Århus.

Looking at other trades: Finnlines have several new and larger vessels on the Malmö–Travemünde run. The operators of services from southern Sweden to Poland and Germany have also changed tonnage to larger units. Scandlines has chartered an additional ferry, the Rostock (formerly the Thjelvar), for the Gedser–Rostock service, which has been a growing corridor to Europe. The Cobelfret service from Esbjerg with unaccompanied trailers to Zeebrügge has proven to be an interesting service, which again this year has demanded a bigger ro-ro vessel.

In the coaster segment, which over the last decade has been a declining business, some optimism is back.

In this month’s theme section, SSG has met two optimistic Danish owners, who both have enlarged their fleet with a new second-hand coaster of a size much bigger than the existing fleet.

Rederiet C. Rousing has found a niche in sailing one of the currently better commodities: steel scrap. Until only a few years ago a cargo not worth looking for, but with a potential growing need for steel plate all over the world, steel scrap has been something worth paying for. The Rousing fleet collects it from various ports in Denmark and sails it to a treatment plant in Odense in schedules almost like a freight train coming every morning. This is industrial sea transportation and that is what the customers want, according to Carsten Rousing, the owner of a four ship fleet in the steel scrap trade.

The other Danish company, Rederiet Venus, is a tramp company, which now has moved over the 3,000 DWT barrier for the first time since its start in 1937. The step has been a necessary move to stay in the market. All the growth has been made in fine symbiosis with the lorries on the roads. It is these that are transported on the ferries and the ro-ro-vessels, and also these that take the cargo from the various ports to the factories or warehouses before going to the consumers and everyone using the roads on a daily basis can see for themselves that the number of lorries has grown dramatically.

As much as they annoy us drivers, they are needed for a healthy short sea business in the maritime sector to grow.

Bent Mikkelsen Special Feature Editor

This month in Denmark we saw the report from the Government commission for infrastructure for traffic for the coming period until 2030. There were no real visions or surprises in the report. More motorways in the hot spots on the Danish map and more railway traffic for commuters were the main issues. Not many words about ferry traffic as a cheap and reliable transportation form between the two parts of the country.

It seems as if the main concern for the commission is the number of wasted man-hours in congested traffic commuting to the bigger cities in Denmark, inbound every morning and outbound every evening.