Kuehne & Nagel ends inland terminal deal

Logistics giant Kuehne & Nagel (KN) has ended its contract with Associated British Ports (ABP) to operate an intermodal facility at ABP's Hams Hall terminal in the UK after just three years.

KN took over around half of the ABP facility in 2007 and announced it would invest £2.5m as part of a "multi-year contract" with the port operator, with RTG cranes introduced to replace a reachstacker operation. KN initially ran three daily block train services to the terminal, two from Southampton and one from Felixstowe, running six days a week.

However, responding to a question as KN delivered its annual results on 1 March 2010, Diederick de Vroet, KN senior VP for seafreight, told Cargo Systems that the contract had ended due to lack of demand. "The terminal was set up at a time when there was congestion in sea ports and that situation has clearly changed due to decline in volumes," he explained.

Despite KN pulling out, ABP has reported that the Hams Hall terminal last year had its most successful year to date with 15 new weekly train services added. MSC introduced a second from Felixstowe from March, while Norfolk Line started a bi-weekly service from Hams Hall to Novara via the Channel Tunnel last June. In August DB Schenker began a daily service to Mossend in Scotland. It also began a three weekly service to Novara in Italy in November enabling Channel Tunnel cargo to transfer for onward movement to Scotland.

· KN saw 4.6% volume decline in seafreight volumes in 2009, compared with a 12% overall market decline in seafreight. The firm's Ebitda margin in seafreight increased from 4.6% in 2008 to 5% last year, while the operational result decreased by 17.9%.