The northeast England Port of Tyne is experiencing an increase in cargo as the deadline for the transition period for the UK to leave the European Union jurisdiction draws near.
UK rules and regulations will apply from 1 January with cargo, although many industry figures say that more clarity is needed on the new rules. However, there is an expectation that the Dover and Folkstone region in the southeast of the country will become heavily congested as a result of the changes.
Richard Newton, Commercial Director for Logistics at Port of Tyne, was keen to talk up the benefits of delivering cargo direct to the northeast region by sea, bringing freight closer to its retail market, as opposed to using polluting trucks to drive containers either from Dover and Folkstone in Kent or from major ports such as Felixstowe to the northeast.
“We have seen extra freight from Ijmuiden, near Amsterdam coming on the DFDS ferry service,” said Newton, who added, “there are not many passengers these days so freight has to take up the slack.”
Newton believes that shippers need to re-evaluate their supply chains so that they are shorter, with the manufacturing centres closer to the retail and delivery centres, that will make them more reliable and there will be fewer emissions from truckloads of cargo travelling long distances which is “not only safer, but cheaper,” said Newton.
The Port of Tyne is situated on the River Tyne between the cities of Newcastle and Sunderland, with short sea services such as those operated by BG Freight and Unifeeder, that operate regularly from Rotterdam to Feliixstowe and north to the Port of Tyne.
“It takes one lorry driver two days to drive from Newcastle to Felixstowe and back to Newcastle on a 600 mile round trip, but if you put the container on a feeder vessel you can save thousands of road miles,” said Newton.
Short sea vessels can take 20 hours to sail from Felixstowe to the Port of Tyne, but once the vessel has called at the port it is a short ten-mile drive into the city centre. And it is the decrease in traffic, costs and emissions that Newton believes will attract new business to the port. “There is a little bit of pent up demand from Brexit, but also as the Covid pandemic has unfolded it has added further impetus,” explained Newton.
The Port of Tyne lists the following key advantages
As one of only two deep sea ports in the north east, Port of Tyne offers a number of key advantages for container shippers:
- Regular and scheduled feeder connections to the global gateways of Felixstowe and Rotterdam;
- Operational capability to handle large container feeder vessels of up to 230m and 13 container rows across;
- Flexible labour agreements with the ability to accommodate short notice changes in vessel scheduling;
- Integrated logistics offering with an in-house transport fleet to perform the ‘final mile’ delivery;
- Excellent relationships with the key stakeholders in containers shipping supply chains;
- Environmental, cost and operational efficiency benefits from shipping goods closer to the point of consumption.
- Cost efficient alternative route to market with an established daily coastal feeder service to save road miles.
