P&O Ferries today reports that the number of freight units shipped between Gothenburg and Britain via its new link to the Scandinavian port has almost doubled compared with 2015.
The ferry and logistics company launched a partnership with Swedish Orient Line (SOL) last year which means that continental exporters can ship freight via SOL’s Gothenburg to Zeebrugge service, which then connects onwards to Britain via P&O Ferries’ Zeebrugge-Tilbury and Zeebrugge-Teesport routes.
Between July and September, P&O Ferries’ customers shipped 1,541 units of freight between Gothenburg and Britain – a 92 per cent increase on the same quarter last year.
Henrik Pedersen, Director of Sales at P&O Ferries, said: “These numbers demonstrate that there is significant and growing appetite among continental exporters for a reliable service which takes goods from the largest port in Scandinavia to within touching distance of the principal markets of England and Scotland.”
“Our partnership with SOL Line means that customers only have to make one call to arrange shipment of goods from Gothenburg to Tilbury or Teesport, with office furniture, house modules, paper, timber and car parts all being transported in growing quantities. We expect more interest in this ground-breaking service in the year ahead as projections show the British economy continuing to grow faster than the rest of the EU.”
Zeebrugge is P&O Ferries’ main continental hub, with connecting services to Hull as well as Tilbury and Teesport. Together with its logistics division, P&O Ferrymasters, the company also operates road and rail links from Zeebrugge to countries across the continent including Romania, Italy and Poland.
In July P&O Ferries announced that it is doubling freight capacity at Zeebrugge in order to meet increased structural demand from exporters to Britain. The expansion – which comprises a fourth berth and significantly enhanced rail capacity – will give the ferry company the capacity to handle 700,000 units of freight every year at the Belgian terminal compared with the current figure of 370,000.
P&O Ferries is a pan-European ferry operator, sailing on eight major routes between Britain, France, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Holland and Belgium. The company operates 20 vessels which carry more than 10 million passengers, 1.6 million cars and two million freight units every year.
