Containerships switches to DCT Gdansk

The Finnish shipping company Containerships is to switch its Polish calls to the new DCT Gdansk deepwater container terminal with effect from 31 January 2008. Initially, two weekly services are involved, one linking Gdansk with St Petersburg and Sweden/Finland and Teesport.

The rotation of one service is DCT Gdansk - Södertälje - St Petersburg - Helsinki - Aarhus - DCT Gdansk while the other is DCT Gdansk - Teesport - DCT Gdansk.

Announcing the news, DCT Gdansk's General Manager Fred Kamperman explained that Containerships had been watching DCT's development and operations closely for some time before reaching this outcome:

"Containerships' managers recognised the potential of DCT Gdansk even before it was completed but theirs is a very slick and demanding operation. They needed to see that DCT Gdansk could deliver the levels of service they require in order to maintain schedule integrity.

"Now, with some months' experience handling customers such as the feeder operators Team Lines and IMCL, we have been able to prove ourselves and Containerships felt confident about making the switch.

"Having Containerships' vessels calling regularly at DCT Gdansk will give us the opportunity to further demonstrate our impressive capabilities and help raise our profile. We are absolutely delighted with this news."

Containerships is a door-to-door short sea carrier providing regular services linking key industrial and retail customers in Finland, Russia, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, the Baltic States and Western Europe via ports in the Baltic, North Sea and UK areas. It is a Finland based joint venture between Finnish Container Finance Ltd Oy and The Icelandic transportation company Eimskip.

The Containerships Group has its headquarters in Helsinki and operates 11 vessels in the Baltic Sea region with frequent sailing schedules serving major ports in Finland (Helsinki), Russia (St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad), Scandinavia (Aarhus, Denmark), the Baltic States (Klaipeda, Liepaja), Poland (Gdansk) and western Europe (including. Hamburg, Bremerhaven, Rotterdam, Teesport and Tilbury.

Now fully operational, DCT Gdansk comprises a 36 hectare container terminal capable of handling 500,000TEU per annum and a roll-on roll-off (ro-ro) berth adding an extra 160,000 freight units of capacity. The terminal's 650m long quay is served by three post-Panamax ship-to-shore cranes and five rubber-tyred gantry cranes, and offers 16.5m water depth alongside. With tried-and-tested road and rail connections linking the facility to major inland distribution centres throughout Poland and its neighbouring countries, DCT Gdansk offers a new dimension in container port operations.

A second phase of development will be brought online according to demand, ultimately increasing the terminal's capacity to one million TEU per annum.

Planning is also well advanced for a major logistics park to be constructed close to the DCT Gdansk facility.

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Note to editors:

For more information about DCT Gdansk please visit www.dctgdansk.com.