Norfolkline makes move for Norse Merchant

Another tempting site will soon come on the market in Rotterdam, as DFDS moves from its 20-hectare deepwater facility at the Maasvlakte to the terminal at Vlaardingen formerly occupied by Norfolkline, which was taken over by DFDS last year.

In a major consolidation in the European ferry industry, DFDS is to acquire 100% of the shares in Norfolkline from the AP Moller-Maersk Group in a €346M deal.

Norfolkline is claiming “unprecedented reliability levels” for its Great Britain-Italy intermodal service via the Channel tunnel. The company says that the service achieved 100% performance for on-time arrivals during the whole of 3Q/09.

Danish logistic group DSV has withdrawn its bid for DFDS shares

Temperature-controlled rail freight has returned to the Channel Tunnel after a gap of several years. Earlier this month a cargo of melons from Italy for major food manufacturer Bakkavör was shipped in a Unit45 integral reefer as part of the regular Norfolkline intermodal service from Novara to Hams Hall in the UK.

A P Møller-Maersk has confirmed that it is in talks to sell Norfolkline, the shortsea ro-ro line that operates cross-Channel (Dover-Dunkirk) and Irish Sea (Liverpool-Belfast and Liverpool-Dublin) services and has just inaugurated a service linkng Rosyth with Zeebrugge