OOCL Makes Direct Call in Poland

Starting 4th Febuary 2000, OOCL’s Scan-Baltic (SBX) Service will be e
xtended to cover Gdansk in Poland providing direct, fast and reliable
service to and from this fast growing economy. The first vessel callin
g will be the OOCL, Neva.
The new service will offer two calls per week at Gdansk, and fast and
efficient connections with OOCL’s global network for both import and
export cargoes are offered in North Continental of UK ports.
The new port rotation for the SBX service will be Hamburg, Rotterdam,
Thamesport, Bremerhaven, Hamburg, Gdansk, St Petersburg, Kotka, Mantyl
uto, Gdansk, Hamburg.
Transit times to and from Poland will be shortened as a result of the
direct call at Gdansk. Courtenay Allan, Transatlantic Trade Director c
omments, “Transit times between Poland and both the USA and Canada wi
ll be excellent and we look forward to developing trade links between
North America and Poland with this direct call. For example, New York
or Montreal to Gdansk will be 12 days, whilst Gdansk to Montreal will
be only 10 days and Gdansk to NewYork 13 days.
While optimising connections to OOCL’s services covering Canada, the
USA and Asia, it will also open up new opportunities for intra-Europea
n trade. Neil Stringer, General manager Intra-European Trade, says, “
Right now, cargo transport between Poland and its key trading partners
in Western Europe is mainly by road. With the introduction of the dir
ect call at Gdansk, we are offering a fast and cost efficient way for
cargo delivery. Importers and exporters in Poland, including manufactu
red goods, chemicals, machinery and equipment, will benefit from the e
nhanced SBX Service. In addition, we are excited by this new opportuni
ty to develop intra-European trade between Poland and their European t
rading partners.”
The service operates with two modern 600-TEU ice-class vessels, the OO
CL Nevskiy and OOCL Neva. OOCL has opearated its own tonnage in the Ba
ltic since the SBX Service was launched in April 1998, thus allowing t
hem to have greater control of quality and reliability.
Customers in Poland will also be able to access a host of e-commerce s
ervices via OOCL’s Internet Web site, including rate enquiries, sched
ule information, bookings, bill of lading printing and container track
ing.
OOCL is represented in Poland by Inter Marine Ltd., a well-established
agency offering a full range of services. OOCL is a global container
transportation company operating from more than 150 offices in over 50
countries. Linking Asia, Europe, North Americal, the Mediterranean, t
he Indian sub-continent, the Middle East and Australia/New Zealand, th
e company offers intermodal and value added transportation services to
all major trading economies of the world.