New reefer service will deploy 2000-TEU capacity vessels

Only six weeks to go and the slots are falling smoothly into place as Ian Wicks gears up for his new MBG Line reefer service between South/West Africa and Europe. “There are no hiccups as yet but if we encounter any we will let you know,” he told FTW last week, adding: “In shipping, there is no such thing as plain sailing.” Aside from procuring seven appropriate charter vessels to ensure a smoothly operated weekly service, one of the most significant moves has been bringing on board Richard Ward, a 32-year industry veteran, who served as line manager for Wicks’ SA Independent Liner Services (Sails) while at Johnson Stevens. In Cape Town last week, Ward says he was asked to join Bahr Behrend by parent company, the Scottish Denholm Group, as general manager for the UK and will, as such, be intimately involved with the MBG service. “There certainly is a gap in the market for a service of this nature in that we are able to go to a particular sector, fruit, and we are going to make it work – simple as that. “Due to the interest shown in the UK, we expect to grow exports out of the UK to South and West Africa.” As to oft-voiced complaints of a shortage of containers and ship capacity out of South Africa, Ward says: “We are not about to tell people we can carry the world because we can’t. We can tell them exactly what capacity we have.” Wicks says talks with (all) German shipowners have been going well, with four vessels lined up thus far, leaving three to be negotiated. “The charter rate is confidential but we are getting ships at a favourable rate,” he says, the implication being they may well be coming in under the current daily rate of between US$4 000 and US$5 000. The vessels will probably be of around 2 000 TEU capacity, though Wicks says he has been offered three 2 950 TEU vessels at a much lower rate than would normally be applicable. Staff recruitment is under way and offices are being set up in Sandton, the Durban CBD, Rotterdam and London. While concerns remain about high costs and inefficiency at Transnetoperated terminals – General Motors SA a case in point – Wicks says TPT does not feature at all in his plans but rather Capespan subsidiary, FPT, which also acted as service provider to Sails. (Only Cape Town has been lined up thus far.) “FPT is more suited to our type of vessels, besides they are all geared so we do not really have a requirement for gantries.” Wicks says United Container Depot, another Sails service provider, will also be involved in his new enterprise.