News
28.01.09 - Direct shipping line links Lübeck and the US
The Port of Lübeck now has a direct liner shipping link with the US Port of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania. The first outbound ship to use the new link, TransWood, launched the service at the end of January.
The Swedish shipping company Transatlantic offers a departure every 2-3 weeks from the Nordland Terminal operated by the Lübecker Hafen-Gesellschaft (LHG). Cargo destined for the U.S port, located some 150 kilometres south of New York on the Delaware River, consists mainly of paper. The outbound journey takes about 11 days and the return trip is via Canada, Great Britain and other ports in northern Europe.
Three modern RoRo ships are being used on the service - TransWood, TransPine and TransFighter. They are all 178.6 metres long and equipped with access ramps and lifts for the loading of paper rolls and other timber products.
The ships can also carry RoRo cargo as well as conventional breakbulk cargo such as steel, machinery and also project loads.
Up to 17,000 tons of paper can be stowed on each trip to the US. Most of it currently comes from the Swedish-Finnish paper company StoraEnso.
The cargo reaches Lübeck on existing Transatlantic liner shipping services from the paper-producing regions of north and East Finland. It is loaded onto ocean-going ships by the LHG after interim storage at the Nordland Terminal.
The Lübeck firm of European Cargo Logistics GmbH (ECL), an LHG subsidiary, is responsible for the forwarding. Lübeck shipping broker Manfred Schröder is the dispatching agent and customs formalities are handled by ECL and Schröder.
The Port of Philadelphia turns over about 40 million tons of cargo a year and is thus somewhat larger than the Port of Lübeck, which has an annual handling figure of around 32 million tons.
