From mid-October the former Dolphin Express Service (DEX) of Tailwind Shipping Lines will operate as an intra-European short-sea service with additional port calls. Lidl's container shipping line thus expands the route between the Dutch Moerdijk and Barcelona, Spain to include calls in the Belgian port of Antwerp, Portuguese Setúbal, Cádiz, Spain, and Casablanca in Morocco.
The 21-day cycle is to operate weekly from the north, and on the return voyage from Barcelona it will be directly called at Moerdijk.
Tailwind fleet with three container ships
Going forward,
three container ships that already belong to the Tailwind fleet with a capacity of 1,380 TEU will be deployed on the route. Thus Panda 004 and Panda 005 are currently deployed on the existing DEX route. Panda 003, according to its own statements, had meanwhile been sub-chartered and now returns to Tailwind with the start of the expanded liner service.
The container shipping company will adopt the new route in order to manage the flow of goods within Europe more efficiently and more sustainably in the future,
it is said. Nico Peters, Vice President Commercial Management at Tailwind Shipping Lines:
“Thanks to the higher loading capacity of modern ships, sea transport achieves lower CO2 emissions per transported container than road transport using conventional diesel trucks.”
With the expanded Dolphin Express, the service will also be extended to additional ports in Western Europe and North Africa.
Moerdijk offers connectivity to the hinterland
At the same time, there is connectivity to the hinterland via the Dutch Moerdijk. From there, in cooperation with WEC Lines, A2B and
the Danser Group, a barge connection to Duisburg exists as an alternative to road transport.
Additionally, the port call in Casablanca enables a rapid link from Morocco toward China, it is said. A transshipment onto the Panda Express Service heading for the Far East can be carried out in Barcelona.
Both the Panda Express Service between China and the Mediterranean, as well as the recently expanded Tiger Express Service between Bangladesh, Malaysia, Vietnam and Sri Lanka, continue to operate on their usual schedule, according to the container
