P&O NEDLLOYD (P&ON) has announced a change to its European agency arrangement for the North Continent of Europe. This comes after the recent mid-term review of the SAECS (Southern Africa Europe Container Service) consortium agreement.
The current arrangement, which sees CGM Sud representing P&ON in the Southern Africa trade, will be discontinued towards the end of July, when all agency functions will be transferred to the company's own offices in Germany, France, Benelux, Switzerland and Eastern Europe.
This means that in future P&ON's North Europe/ Southern Africa trade will be handled by its own offices, in line with the remainder of its world-wide services.
Following the previously announced realignment of parties within SAECS, which saw the creation of the SAFDAL joint venture between Safmarine and Deutsche Afrika-Linien (DAL), P&ON will cease to represent SCL and DAL in the Netherlands, Switzerland and France. This will take effect from the sailing of the Heemskerck (voyage 577) from Durban on July 28) and the arrival of the SA Helderberg (voyage 081) in Cape Town on August 19.
All requests for quotations should be directed to P&ON offices with immediate effect. Export bookings and import documentation should be sent to P&ON with effect from the voyages mentioned above.
Realignment of consortium partners sees the marketing of SAECS within two camps: Safmarine and CMBT lines with DAL on the one hand and P&ON with Ellerman Harrison Container Line on the other.
What it means to customers, says director of marketing and business development Richard Burmeister, is that through our global connections and volumes we have been able to set up extensive value-added services for shippers moving cargo into and out of the North West Continent.
Examples, he said, were dedicated daily train services between Rotterdam and the hinterland of Germany, barge services to all depots along the Rhine, modern warehousing facilities in Benelux and Germany, and assistance with distribution throughout the NWC.
