The Teesside service will initially consist of four round trip sailings per week, three from Zeebrugge and one from Rotterdam and will start on 18 March 2023. This expansion is driven by customer demand to have direct and reliable access for freight units to the North East of England, thereby bringing cargo closer to its final destination and avoiding road mileage and unnecessary CO2 emissions.
A long-term agreement with PD Ports, the owners of Teesport, enables CLdN to offer its
customers a robust and stable service. Located close to the mouth of the river Tees, Teesport is the UK’s fifth largest port with a complementary onsite intermodal rail terminal enabling direct access to the UK’s national rail network, including two train departures to Scotland per day.
The expansion of CLdN’s Purfleet (London) service will consist of an additional three round trip sailings per week from Zeebrugge. The additional sailings will provide 30% more capacity and increase the frequency to three departures in both directions on peak days. Since 1991 the Purfleet service has been a core route in CLdN’s network and today’s capacity expansion is a further signal of CLdN’s commitment to continuously improve the service for its customers.
Following the expansion, customers will be able to place their cargo in one terminal hub in Zeebrugge and choose to ship to any one of CLdN’s terminals on the East coast of England: Purfleet, Killingholme (Humberside) and Teesport. The new Tees service will be priced in such a way as to assist customers in developing new cargo flows.
CLdN has invested heavily in recent years to grow its fleet with larger and more efficient RoRo vessels. CLdN’s extensive and modern fleet is ideally positioned to respond to the increased demand for unaccompanied freight across the North Sea and to do so with lower CO2 emissions than any of its competitors.
Florent Maes, CEO of CLdN, commented: “We are very pleased to start a new service to the North East of England and also significantly expand our Purfleet service. Thanks to CLdN’s continuous investment in terminal infrastructure and an efficient RoRo fleet, we have the capability to respond rapidly to customer demand. We are excited about today’s announcement and we see this expansion as the next step in the on-going structural growth of the CLdN network.”