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09.12.2013

Tilbury's London Container Terminal Wins OPDR Service

New agreement for over 200 calls each year

London Container Terminal in Tilbury announces today (21 November) an agreement with short-sea shipping and logistics specialists Oldenburg-Portugiesische Dampfschiffs-Rhederei (OPDR) to handle over 200 calls per annum for OPDR services on their routes between the Iberian Peninsula including the Canary Islands, North Africa and the UK.

OPDR will call at LCT from week 49 starting with their two calls with direct connections from/to Canary Islands, Andalusia, Portugal and Bilbao, followed closely by a second service for the Canaries, Morocco, South of Spain and Portugal and vice versa, resulting in four calls per week to the London port.

The recently launched Bilbao service which sees four vessels, each with a capacity of 700 TEU, on a weekly service connecting Bilbao with Tilbury within two transit days, will be the first call at Tilbury.


Chief Executive Officer of OPDR, Till Ole Barrelet, said: “We are delighted to work with London Container Terminal, a dedicated short sea terminal that understands our business concept. It is essential for OPDR to be close to the clients and have a reliable terminal with an excellent hinterland infrastructure with fast and reliable road and train connections into the main catchment areas. We consider London Container Terminal a strong partner that will support us in further enhancing our logistic services to and from the UK.”

Commenting on the announcement, Perry Glading, Chief Operating Officer of Forth Ports (owners of London Container Terminal) said: “We are thrilled to welcome OPDR to London Container Terminal. This is a real success for us, not only does LCT have the perfect shipping location for OPDR’s short-sea services, we have the experience, expertise and equipment to deliver an excellent service. We have a strong commercial network within the port and this is a great opportunity for us to grow the key markets that OPDR serve, such as Iberia / Portugal and the Canary Islands. This agreement also complements our Portcentric objectives at the Port of Tilbury. We have invested significantly in LCT, and we will continue to upgrade the site and equipment as we work to integrate container handling across both the deep sea and short sea operations. This will further secure Tilbury as a key shipping and distribution location with unrivalled access to London and the South East of England.”

LCT handles in excess of half a million containers per year, and is the only UK port truly servicing both deep sea and short sea customers.

Media enquiries:

London Container Terminal / Forth Ports:
Debbie Johnston, Spreng & Co, +44 141 548 5191 / +44 7532 183811 / [email protected]

OPDR:
Sonja Objartel, Corporate Communications, 040 / 36 15 8 – 122 / [email protected]

Notes to editors:

About OPDR

  • The Oldenburg-Portugiesische Dampfschiffs-Rhederei (OPDR) has offered transport solutions within Europe as well as to and from Africa for over 130 years.
  • As a Logistics Company OPDR today offers tailor-made integrated supply chain solutions. A state-of-the-art vessel and container fleet as well as a strong network in more than 20 European, North and West African countries ensure high standards of reliability and quality.
  • OPDR is headquartered in Hamburg and employs over 300 staff on shore as well as at sea.
  • The company is part of the Bernhard Schulte Group www.opdr.com

About London Container Terminal

  • Forth Ports acquired fully Tilbury Container Terminal in January 2012, having bought out then joint owners DP World and Associated British Ports. Now rebranded as London Container Terminal, it is the UK’s third largest container port. The deep-sea terminal is located on the Thames and is a key shipping and distribution location with unrivalled access to London and the South East. It is a busy terminal, handling around 320,000 containers last year, an increase of 2.4% from 2010, and has a strong trading position with the North/South reefer trades primarily South America and South Africa and has strong links with a number of other deep sea trades. The Port of Tilbury also runs a successful short sea business which handled around 130,000 containers in 2011, up 7.6% from 2010. The short sea business provides regular links to Continental Europe and to other UK coastal feeder locations.
  • The upgrading of the existing facilities at the Port of Tilbury and LCT are part of a larger project involving significant investment to ensure customers receive the best service possible www.londoncontainerterminal.co.uk


About Forth Ports

  • Forth Ports Limited owns and operates eight commercial ports in the UK – Tilbury on the Thames, Dundee on the Firth of Tay and six on the Firth of Forth – Leith, Grangemouth, Rosyth, Methil, Burntisland and Kirkcaldy. It also has a business, Nordic, which operates out of Chatham in Kent and Tilbury, which is engaged in port activities and recycling.www.forthports.co.uk

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