The Port of Tarragona will offer a new regular ro-ro short sea shipping service with Turkey

A new weekly service with the port of Izmir (Alsancak) will be operated by EKOL Logístics, the shipping company DFDS, the Euroports terminal and the Ship Agent Arola.

The new route offers an opportunity to grow in diversification and intermodality

The president of Port Tarragona, Josep M Cruset, and the president of EKOL Logistics, Ahmet Musul, held a press conference in Tinglado 1 on the Moll de Costa to present the new ro-ro trade route with the port of Izmir (Turkey). This new weekly service will have the capacity to move about 210 ro-ro transport units (RTUs), including trucks and semi-trailers, as well as the possibility of carrying containers, heavy machinery or special cargos. The press conference coincided with the maiden trip of this new route: the vessel "Super-Fast Baleares" docked in Tarragona last night at 10 pm and is scheduled to sail tonight at 11 pm.

The route begins operations with an import cargo of some 150 trucks to transport goods for a major multinational textile company. The operation when the vessel sails from Turkey on Sunday and arrives in Tarragona two and a half days later on Tuesday night. This means the trucks will reach the logistics facilities on the Spanish mainland early on Wednesday and the products will be processed and distributed that same day or the day after.

EKOL Logistics is leading this new route with the participation of the shipping company DFDS, the Arola Group and the Euroports terminal. According to EKOL Logistics’ president, Ahmet Musul, "the new operation means that Tarragona will be the Iberian port with the fastest connection to Turkey, under 3 days, and because it is a ro-ro connection it offers extremely competitive and agile port-to-door times".

This new service, emphasises Ahmet Musul, "offers complete services and has the ability to reach any point on the Iberian Peninsula swiftly and agilely, even at weekends, competing with road services and, since we are an OAE, we can dispatch goods efficiently".

EKOL Logistics' global logistics service links Tarragona and Izmir in 60 hours and can deliver within 96 hours in Spain. It can pick up at any point in Spain up to Wednesday afternoon and deliver to any point in Turkey on Monday. In the opposite direction, it can pick up from anywhere in Turkey up to Saturday afternoon and deliver to any point in Spain the following Wednesday.

EKOL Logístics offers this same service in 144 hours to Portugal. It picks up at any point in Portugal up to Tuesday afternoon and delivers to any point in Turkey the following Monday. In the opposite direction, it picks up at any point in Turkey up to Saturday afternoon and delivers the goods to any point in Portugal on Friday.

An opportunity for the future

Ahmet Musul considers that "Tarragona has the potential to become a key logistics hub for EKOL Logistics, like Trieste in Italy or Sète in France", referring to two ports where the company has been working for many years and from where it connects to destinations in Central and Northern Europe. The company offers intermodal services from Sète via the VIIA rail service of the French train company SCNF Logistics) to Benelux and from Triestre to Germany, Hungary and others central and Eastern Europe countries.

EKOL Logistics is a company with a long experience in intermodal transport. This service is a competitive advantage and a clear and decisive commitment to promote intermodality in advance of the entry into operation of the Mediterranean Corridor. A railway logistics infrastructure that together with the Spanish ports -and in this case Tarragona- is designed to be an excellent alternative for the shipment of goods to and from Europe and the rest of the world. A potential that will be even greater with the adaptation of the rail network for the P400s (train wagons for transporting semi-trailers), to achieve full operability and competitiveness of this type of door-to-door intermodal services, replacing multimodal land transport and thus reducing the carbon footprint.

Ahmet Musul expressed "the need for the Mediterranean Corridor to enter into service as soon as possible to take advantage of the enormous potential of the Port of Tarragona to introduce general cargo into the heart of Europe by rail, without forgetting a good Iberian rail infrastructure to transport the P400s".

The president of the Port of Tarragona, Josep M Cruset, declared that "the route and the possibilities it opens up represent a major improvement in general cargo traffic and a step forward for the Port and the territory". Cruset affirmed that he and the technical managers of the Port Authority are "convinced that this new route will benefit the Port's traffic diversification plans, the promotion of intermodality and, at the same time, the enhancement of the investments being made by the Port of Tarragona: the construction of the new Logistics Activities Zone (ZAL) and the Guadalajara Intermodal Terminal".

For the president of the Port of Tarragona "the arrival of this new traffic strengthens relations and trade routes with Turkey, a very interesting market for the Port and for the territory". Cruset believes that "this is a great opportunity as it opens the door to other companies interested in exporting to Turkey".

In this respect, the president of EKOL Logistics highlighted "the opportunities offered by the collaboration between his company and the Port Tarragona, as this short sea shipping route could bring about a significant increase in traffic through the Port Tarragona in the medium term, thanks to a highly sustainable logistics service that improves all aspects of trade between Spain and Turkey with a faster, more efficient service and a greater reduction in the carbon footprint".

Ekol Logistics, a company present in 13 countries

Ekol Logistics is an integrated logistics company founded in 1990. It has more than 7,500 employees and offers international cargo services, warehousing, domestic distribution, foreign trade, customs and supply chain management services in 13 countries. It is one of Europe's leading logistics providers, with indoor distribution centres totalling 1,000,000 square metres in Turkey, Germany, Italy, Greece, France, Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Spain, Poland, the Czech Republic, Sweden and Slovenia. It runs 52 trains per week and has 7,500 vehicles for intermodal transport.

The company stands out for its innovative approach to the design and implementation of the logistics chain at the service of industry. It uses intermodal transport services provided by ro-ro vessels and significant investments in ports to achieve higher quality, faster and more efficient services for its customers. The ro-ro vessels used by Ekol Logistics on its intermodal transport routes connect the ports of Trieste (Italy) and Sète (France), among others and to name those closest to the Port of Tarragona.

Ekol Logistics owns a 65 percent stake in Europa Multipurpose Terminals (EMT), the port operator it uses for its ro-ro and unit train services in Trieste, Italy. The acquisition is an asset for the region's modern ro-ro terminal that the company built in Yalova, Turkey. The Port of Trieste is strategically located with rail access to the whole of Europe and can operate with two ro-ro vessels simultaneously. In 2017, it operated with 140,000 ro-ro vessels and 100,000 rail journeys.

The efficient design of EKOL's Logistics Ro-Ro services between Spain and Turkey  significantly reduces costs for manufacturers and shippers, and also cuts carbon dioxide emissions by 10,800 tons and reduces diesel consumption by 7,32 million liters per year.

DFDS

The shipping company responsible for the new route is DFDS, which stands for Det Forenede Dampskibs-Selskab, a Danish international transport and logistics company. It is the most active shipping company of its kind in Northern Europe and one of the most active in Europe. It was founded in 1866 by the merger of the three largest Danish shipping companies at that time.

DFDS also owns the Lithuanian shipping company LISCO. In 2005, DFDS acquired Lys-Line Rederi AS and Lys-Line AS and bought 66% of the trailer transport company Halléns in Belgium. It also owns the container shipping company Norfolk Line Containers.

The roll-on/roll-off vessel "Super-Fast Baleares" is charged with linking the ports of Tarragona and Izmir (Turkey). Last week, the "SF Baleares" undertook a successful trial at the Port Tarragona, together with the rest of the companies involved, in order to set up the operations for this first trip of the Izmir-Tarragona route. The arrival in Tarragona of the maiden voyage on this route took place on February 9 at 22.00h and the return will be today Wednesday at 23.00h, marking the weekly rotation of the new route.

This test is an example of the regularity of the route -the vessel will dock at Tarragona every week (on Tuesdays)- and the punctuality of the service (it is guaranteed to meet schedules). These are two of the essential characteristics for offering a quality short sea shipping service.

The "SF Baleares" was built by Navantia Puerto Real for Trasmediterránea. It is 209 metres long and 26.5 metres wide with a hold capacity of 3,400 linear metres. It can reach a speed of up to 26 knots.

Euroports

The company Euroports is the logistic operator that will manage the terminal in which the loads and discharges of vehicles will take place. The company will also carry out customs and transport services to the different inland destinations where the goods will be transferred.

Pablo García, Managing Director of Euroports in the Mediterranean considers that “this new route Izmir-Tarragona has the potential to become one of the most important traffics of the Port of Tarragona”. For that purpose, Euroports inaugurates in Tarragona a new terminal specialized in rolling traffic, with a dedicated area of more than 30,000 square meters, which we believe will become a location of reference in the Mediterranean.

Garcia also referred to the new service to Turkey as “another step in the Euroports Group's commitment to Tarragona as the engine of our strategy in southern Europe.  The Management of the terminals of Italy, Turkey and southern France have been centralized in Tarragona, with the goal of increasing traffic between terminals and strengthening the relationship with our customers by becoming their reference to cover their logistical needs in any location of the Mediterranean arc. The incorporation of the new Ro-Ro facility in Tarragona fits perfectly with this vision, opening up a range of synergies and new logistical possibilities for our customers."

Euroports is today one of the largest port infrastructure companies in Europe, with more than 60 million tons handled per year in bulk, conventional, rolling, liquid and container products. The group operates 32 port terminals in Europe and China, including 5 specialized terminals in rolling traffic, besides Tarragona, Venice (Italy), Antwerp (Belgium), Rostock (Germany) and Rauma ( Finland).