Samskip, PSA HNN to develop ZeebruggeÆs short sea business
Samskip has reached agreement with PSA Hesse-Nord Natie, the Belgian stevedore of Singapore's PSA International, to use the Port of Zeebrugge as its second Benelux hub for its short sea container activities in Northern Europe.
Following a market study, Samskip will Jan. 18 start using PSA HNN's Container Handling Zeebrugge terminal to provide a weekly connection to ports in Ireland.
'Our business continues to expand and we knew that, unlike most major European ports, Zeebrugge had spare capacity and room to grow as demand warranted,' said Paul Swaak, chief operating officer of Samskip Multimodal Container Logistics.
'Zeebrugge has excellent connections to the European hinterland and easy access to the North Sea. With the extra cargo volumes we expect to bring to the port, we believe we can contribute positively to the development of these inland connections, especially the encouragement of new intermodal rail links. Zeebrugge will enable Samskip to grow its existing business and simultaneously explore new markets,' Swaak said.
Frank Kho, head of the container division for PSA HNN, said the deal with Samskip will help position Zeebrugge as a strategically located short sea container port. 'PSA HNN is a highly experienced deep sea terminal operator, but we recognized some time ago that we were ignoring a potentially huge extra source of business, namely the fast-growing short sea market.'
'We have studied closely the special needs of short sea operators and together with Samskip we have developed a product that will ensure the fast and efficient processing of short sea containers through the Port of Zeebrugge,' Kho said.
