Information

Caribbean Feeder Services holds a positive outlook on the year ahead. Indeed, CFS head Frank Wellnitz believes the fall in volume of containers imported to and exported from the Region has reached bottom. He is looking forward to 2010 with ‘cautious optimism’.

According to Mr Wellnitz, the CFS forecast is based on identical volume carried during 2009.

“The service network and planning, which is presently being budgeted and fine-tuned, will reflect this,” he said. “This means CFS will continue to employ nine vessels.”

Discussing the CFS services, he listed the following:
• Merengue Service linking Kingston with Caucedo and San Juan
• Island Service linking Kingston and Caucedo with Trinidad and Barbados
• Two slings of a Venezuela service ex-Kingston and Caucedo
• Copaco service linking Kingston with Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama and Puerto Rico
• Haiti service from Kingston
• Mexico service from Kingston to Tampico and Veracruz.

Mr Wellnitz said the company’s priorities for the coming year were:
• To go on providing reliable services and port connections to its customers
• To continue to employ the nine vessels of the group
• To cover any additional requirements by short-term charter of vessels available in the market
• To prepare for better years.

“And finally,” added Mr Wellnitz, “to use the somewhat unpredictable future and market trend in container volume and vessel daily rates to the advantage of CFS.”

In planning for the year ahead, CFS will lean heavily on its 10 successful years of business and on the 35 years of Caribbean experience and know-how that Mr Wellnitz brings to the table.

Volumes

Last year CFS saw 20 per cent less overall volume compared with 2008. The first quarter saw volume carried over from 2008 but the second-quarter graph showed a deep valley. This trend continued into the third quarter.

“It was only starting in November that we saw some improvements,” said Mr Wellnitz.

As a feeder operator, CFS links 25 ports in the region on a regular basis. Final destinations are ports in Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Venezuela and Caribbean ports including Port-au-Prince, Caucedo, San Juan, Port of Spain, Barbados, Aruba and Curaçao.

Despite the drastic reduction in volume, CFS was able to go on employing its nine containerships from the Harren & Partnergroup of companies in Bremen, Germany, a partner in CFS.

“The major tool to bring slot capacity in line with reduced requirements was to reduce vessel speed and improve port call combinations, economising mostly on bunker consumption,” said Mr Wellnitz. “This compares favourably with other German KG companies which show up to 50 per cent of idle and unemployed vessels of their fleet. Looking at the statistics of the Journal of Commerce listing those idle vessels, the name Harren & Partner is noticeably missing. CFS feels very good about this.”