‘It’s about adapting to the peaks and troughs'

In the highly volatile Far East market, where volumes – in line with global trends – have been fairly stagnant, service providers are under pressure to retain their share of the available business. For neutral groupage operator CFR Freight, it’s about leveraging the strength of its international partner Shipco Transport which now represents the company in the whole of China – Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xiamen, Hong Kong and Dalian, with booking offices in Qingdao and Ningbo. “At CFR we are flexible enough and have the necessary resources to adapt to the peaks and troughs. We continue to offer direct import services from nine Chinese ports as well as Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Thailand, while all exports to the region are transhipped through Singapore,” says managing director Martin Keck. According to Keck, there’s been no problem with capacity and in view of the economic landscape, he does not foresee a peak season. “In fact the carriers have just reduced rates after a fairly good run over the past 10 months when they were able to stem the downward rates trend,” he told FTW. While realistically he does not see an upturn in the near future, the Far East will continue to be a strong focus for CFR for the year ahead. “And while a number of groupage operators are accepting cargo at any cost – even if it means dealing with cargo owners directly – this is an area where CFR is intractable. “For us neutrality is not an option – it’s a deciding differentiator.” CAPTION Martin Keck … direct import services from nine Chinese ports.