September 15 - Due to the implementation of the European sulphur emission control area (ECA), Arkon Shipping and Best Logistics have established a new shuttle service for heavy lift and general cargo: Baltic Cargo Shuttle (BCS).
The new service will focus on a feeder system between the Antwerp-Hamburg range and the Baltic Sea.
The first sailing is scheduled for the end of September 2014. Vessels operating on the service are modern tween deckers with a tandem heavy lift capacity of 400 tonnes, and a carrying capacity of 8,000 tonnes.
Two such vessels will operate on the service twice a week, calling at ports within the Antwerp-Hamburg range, east coast of the UK and Scotland, Bergen, Oslo, south of Sweden and Finland, and the upper and lower Baltic - all of which fall under the European sulphur emission control area (ECA).
Arkon Shipping and Best Logistics explained that the service will target those ports where heavy lift shore cranes are not available.
Due to the environmental specifications and strict regulations by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) the sulphur ECA has been implemented in the English Channel, North Sea and the Baltic, which is set to become stricter from January 1, 2015.
