Ellerman City Liners has launched a new short-sea shipping service connecting the Baltics with the UK and the Benelux region, marking the first-of-its-kind route for the company in the region. The weekly “BALTEX” service will operate on a fixed rotation, calling at Riga, Latvia; Gdynia, Poland; Teesport and Tilbury in the UK; Rotterdam, the Netherlands; and Oslo, Norway.
The weekly service offers a capacity of 1,160 TEU per leg and provides fast transhipment connections to Spain and Portugal via Tilbury, on the River Thames. Being a short distance downstream from London, that gives access to the large market in South East England. Tilbury is also one of the UK’s major short-sea and deep-sea hubs. The British container shipping company, part of the GB Global group of businesses, plans to launch the service on 28 January.
Adds to portfolio
The BALTEX becomes the latest addition to Ellerman City Liners’ portfolio of short-sea services across Northern Europe, with six other lines already running. The new service expands Ellerman City Liners’ presence in the Baltics and strengthens its position in the Rotterdam-Oslo corridor. Further service developments are expected in line with the common integration of Viasea services into Ellerman Network, following its acquisition in November.
GB Global is a worldwide group of more than 100 businesses operating across logistics, supply chain management, education, technology and sustainability. They cover sectors as diverse as freight and distribution through Uniserve and Metro Shipping, to customs compliance and supply chain education and sustainability consultancy. Ellerman City Liners has a significant history in commercial shipping. Today, it provides a range of multimodal solutions with a key focus on shortsea services between the United Kingdom and Continental Europe. They also have in place an agreement with MSC for transatlantic trade, now in its third year.
More sustainable link
The launch comes amid growing demand for reliable short-sea container capacity in the Baltic region, said the company statement. They claim it offers shippers up to fifty per cent lower CO2 emissions compared to road transport alternatives. That list well with the company’s overland intermodal business.
“The BALTEX marks Ellerman’s first dedicated Baltic service, and we’re proud to give customers a fast, reliable and more sustainable link between the Baltics, the UK, Benelux and Iberia – supported by our teams across Europe,” said Peter Andrews, Commercial Director at Ellerman City Liners.