Transfennica’s Zeebrugge switch

In an oversupplied market, the Spanish container handling sector has been through turbulent times.

The Finnish line is now a core part of Grimaldi’s shipping and port network.

Transfennica has responded to market conditions by switching ships between services. One ship, CAROLINE RUSS, has been added to the Zeebrugge-Bilbao service, enabling the line to step up frequency from three weekly departures in each direction to five.

Transfennica has announced the introduction of a third vessel on the fast growing Zeebrugge/Bilbao route. The third vessel will join the service as of 15th September

Europe’s container manufacturing industry has been reduced to a mere handful of companies, all of which are battling against an increasingly harsh economic climate.

The Franco-Spanish bilateral com mission seems to be fixed on the idea of driver-accompanied freight for the Bay of Biscay “motorway of the sea” service. But is that too limiting? Le Havre, France’s leading container port, has come up with a study that identifies significant opportunities for containerised services linking it with the Iberian Peninsula, following consultations with French, Spanish and Portuguese industrial shippers that use road transport today.