A softening of buying rates post-Chinese New Year has enabled the logistics company to reduce the rates for its Express China rail freight service, which is the only direct weekly fixed-day intermodal service between China and UK. Furthermore, as a result of new rail services being launched in China, the company is also recommencing its FCL service, which has proven popular in the past.
Tony Cole, Davies Turner’s Head of Ocean commenyed: “Our weekly LCL volumes on the overland rail freight service have increased from just two High Cube 40-foot consol containers per week when we started the service in 2018, to six or seven 40-foot HC consols per week now. The new rate of US$300 per 500 kilogrammes / 1 CBM will become applicable from mid-March and delivers a reduction of US$70 per 500 kilogrammes / 1 CBM on LCL shipments compared to the current rate.
“The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on airfreight capacity and the well-documented, ongoing problems in the deep sea/ocean freight market have seen more and more shippers, traders and co-loading freight forwarders taking advantage of the cost and time savings, as well as the greater reliability of the intermodal overland option.” Realising they need only factor in slightly longer lead times for delivery by rail, customers have reportedly been taking this option to benefit from the significant cost saving.
Davies Turner launched its own direct weekly fixed-day rail consol import service from China to the UK in November 2018 and has seen it go from strength to strength, with bookings increasing continually.
Cole concludes: “With a transit time of around 24 days from China to Dartford, our direct weekly Express China Rail service for consol and FCL traffic continues to offer a reliable and much faster service versus the all-ocean alternative from ports on China’s North Eastern and Eastern coasts.”