Shipping and Road Haulage Groups Strengthen Their Freight and Logistics Positions

This week saw two of the most substantial players in their own fields underline similar tactics for dealing with a turbulent freight market. Clarksons the London based shipping services group announced it had acquired EnShip Ltd the Aberdeen based shipping agency and marine industry logistics specialist via its Clarksons Port Services Group. Meanwhile French giant Norbert Dentressangle completed its acquisition of APC Beijing International, a China-based freight forwarding company.

Enship, formed in 2004, has built a reputation as a vessel agency within the UK, as well as being a provider of related support services to both its UK customers and worldwide client base. EnShip also encompasses Opex Industrial Supplies, a procurement house supplying the marine, oil and gas industries. It will retain brand identity and Clarksons says it complements its port sector strategy to expand its geographical reach and broaden its services to existing and new customers in bulk shipping and the offshore and renewable industries. Gross assets acquired amounted to £3 million.

Dentressangle has followed up the Memorandum of Understanding signed in July to take over, APC Beijing International which last year generated revenue of €50 million. APC employs a staff of 270 spread throughout 16 offices strategically located in China’s key costal and inland regions. Known best for its European road haulage operations the acquisition strengthens Dentressangle’s foothold in Asia and says it will enhance the company’s service offering in airfreight forwarding

Shipping schedules Specialist movements Freight essentials UK Haulage Overseas agencies 05 December 2011 UAE Air Cargo Specialists Just Keep Breaking Freight Records

WORLDWIDE – Lots going on at Emirates SkyCargo with several developments this month, including a pair of heavy lift records and the announcement of a couple of new routes. Not satisfied with setting a new record for the heaviest recorded single item ever carried by a Boeing 777F the airline has now broken its own record for a freight forwarding project by shipping an even larger piece via a Boeing 747.

Firstly the cargo carrier shipped a blowout preventer, a specialised valve used to seal, control and monitor oil and gas wells weighing 21,157kgs, from Iraq to Dubai. The piece cubed out at over 8m3 and bordered the limit of the 777’s capacity by less than 500kgs. Nihal Wickrema, Emirates’ Manager Freighter Operations & Charters commented that the preparations by the ground handling staff, dnata in Erbil and SkyCargo personnel in Dubai, had been impeccable.

Now the cargo airline has transported its heaviest ever single piece, a 36 tonne rudder section for an urgent delivery from the shipyard in Korea to Dubai using a Boeing 747. The move entailed two 50 tonne cranes and two high loaders to stow and offload the massive piece via the aircraft’s hinged nose section.

A Boeing 747-400F will also feature in the newly announced service which SkyCargo will in future be offering between Dubai and Ghana every Friday. Parent airline Emirates has been operating a passenger service to Accra, with a weekly cargo capacity of 120 tonnes each way in the bellyhold of an Airbus A330-200, since 2004. The new service, to Kotoka International Airport, will operate via Lome, Togo, on the outbound journey and return to Dubai through Frankfurt, Germany. Emirates has also started a regular service to Buenos Aires due to commence on the 3rd January 2012.