Peel Ports Group has reinstated a weekly container service between the Port of Greenock and Rotterdam, aimed at Scottish exporters including independent whisky businesses.
The weekly call by the group’s BG Freight Line service resumed on 19 September, giving exporters a regular connection to Rotterdam and its network of global shipping routes. The 1,002 TEU vessels MV BG Emerald and MV BG Jade will alternate on the route.
Peel Ports believes the certainty of the service could be particularly valuable to independent distillers, bottlers and their supply chains, at a time when many are under considerable financial and trading pressure.
The company operates bonded warehousing at Greenock, where whisky businesses can store bottled stock without immediately paying UK excise duty, subject to HMRC approval and the necessary operating and compliance framework being put in place. Duty can remain suspended until a sale has been secured and the product is ready to leave for its destination market.
Jamie Strain, the new Clydeport port director at Peel Ports Group, said: “Independent whisky businesses are operating in an incredibly challenging market and anything we can do to take cost, delay and uncertainty out of exporting can make a real difference.”
He said: “This service gives exporters something very simple but critical, which is certainty. There will be a vessel at Greenock every week to take their goods, in full or part containers, to Rotterdam and from there they can connect with markets around the world.”
He added that whisky businesses could “bring bottled stock into our bonded warehouse, hold it there without tying up cash unnecessarily in duty and then move quickly when they have a customer for it, potentially cutting fulfilment from days to hours”.
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Strain said the service could also reduce the need to move containers by road to other UK ports before export. “BG Freight have been able to price this service very competitively meaning connections to Rotterdam for onward global shipping are available to Greenock customers at the same rate as sailing from the east coast,” he said.
The Port of Greenock handles around 100,000 TEU a year. Peel Ports has invested £25 million in two new 72-metre ship-to-shore cranes at the terminal as part of its programme to increase capacity and support Scottish international trade.
