EMEA News
Dutch Operator Blames Route Shutdown on 2015 ECA Rules
Dutch ship operator Transfennica Logistics says that the tighter Emission Control Areas (ECA) rules coming into effect next month have led them to shut down its route between Bilbao, Portsmouth, and Zeebrugge through the Iberian Peninsula.
The service will end by the end of the year.
Upcoming sulfur regulations are expected to drive as much as half of trailer volumes back to land-based modes of transport, the company said, meaning that the route would no longer be profitable.
"This decision on the Iberian strategy has no impact on other Transfennica routes nor on the activities of Transfennica Logistics which will continue its intermodal activity to and from Spain & Portugal," the company said.
Transfennica's "Motorways of the Sea" Ro-Ro service was first established in 2007, and quickly saw steady increase in volumes, said the company.
Regulations which will limit sulfur content in marine fuel used in ECAs to 0.10 percent by weight are slated to come into effect January of next year.
European ECAs will cover the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the English Channel, and are expected to substantially raise fuel costs.
Some shipowners have also said that deliberate non-compliance with ECAs would save money.
