Samskip targets airfreight project cargo

Multimodal shipping firm Samskip has expanded its airfreight portfolio by adding project cargo to its offering.

The company, which launched a dedicated airfreight forwarding division last year, will bring together its Bremen-based project cargo business and air cargo team in Schiphol to target the market.

The initiative aims to create a “one-stop shop” for project cargo including co-ordinated chartering of aircraft and ships.

Samskip will also be able to co-ordinate with its shortsea, rail, trucking and inland barge network.

“We are extending our ability to overcome exceptional transport challenges by bringing together proven expertise in air and ocean logistics,” said Jens Siedentopf, head of breakbulk projects, Samskip.

The use of Samskip as an airfreight service provider for overweight/oversized cargoes could be a “no brainer” for its existing project cargo customers, Siedentopf added.

“Based on extensive knowledge, we offer services ranging from logistics management to individual transport planning from origin to destination,” he said.

“We’ve also made a speciality of combining tailor-made transport services to secure attractive freight rates. We have the experience, the engineering and the risk assessment, the chartering solutions and the equipment to support our ambitions.”

Samskip airfreight manager Hans Blauw said that the company had already carried out some multimodal project shipments that involved the use of air cargo.

Blauw said a job for an oil major which involved sending some cargoes by sea and chartering a plane to carry urgently needed equipment by air “to get rigs operational after a storm” showed what can be done.

Another, for a mining company, saw equipment shipped by sea and plane on a door-door basis, with trucking managed by Samskip at both ends.

“We offered full project cargo logistics services that deal with the customer’s need to get their asset working and earning again, backed up by out of gauge loads moving by sea,” said Blauw.

Other areas where Samskip’s airfreight skillsets have been making an impact include logistics management for China’s mobile phone industry, he added.

Multimodal shipping group adds dedicated airfreight forwarding division