The Swedish paper and timber products manufacturer Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA) and its transport and logistics unit SCA Transforest have been operating a regular scheduled liner service called Container Express since March 1 2010, linking northern Sweden and the Port of Hamburg.
The vessel Flintercape, with a carrying capacity of 809 TEU, sails from the ports of Sundsvall and Holmsund (Umeå) in northern Sweden to Hamburg every 10 days. The 1Aclass ice-strengthened FLINTERCAPE is 465 ft long and 71 ft wide. The vessel had not been in service since it was delivered to the Dutch Flinter Group. With a deadweight tonnage of 9,500 tons, the Flintercape has a draught of 24.5 ft. The maximum service speed is more than 18 knots.
On the southbound route, the containerized sawn timber and paper transports of SCA Transforest have now reached a sufficient volume to allow the company to run its own scheduled liner service. In Hamburg, the new feeder service is handled and cleared at the HHLA Container Terminal Altenwerder (CTA). Thanks to its favorable geographical location and its infrastructure, the Port of Hamburg acts as a hub for shipments of SCA Transforest between Scandinavia and overseas destinations. For the return leg from Hamburg to northern Sweden, the service loads feedstocks for chemicals, various industrial products as well as empty containers.
Sea-borne container traffic with Sweden amounted to more than 250,000 TEU in the year 2009. This makes Sweden the fourth-most important trading partner in the maritime containerized cargo segment for the Port of Hamburg. About a dozen shipping companies offer 40 departures a week from Hamburg to ports in Sweden. This means that Hamburg has the most densely structured network of feeder services to Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea Region in northern Europe. The Container Express is already the third new feeder service to be launched at the Port of Hamburg in the year 2010.
(www.hafen-hamburg.de)
