27 April 2011

The Wavecrest Weekly - No 2

Hope you all had a Good Easter break and are looking forward to the forthcoming Royal nuptials.

Although we have had two short weeks we have still been kept busy.

The Greenpeace vessel Esperanza made a brief call at Londonderry in Northern Ireland over the Easter period to land her helicopter, complete a partial crew change and to take on deck stores. Once again we co-ordinated the port agency arrangements on their behalf.

We received a call from a client during the week who had an urgent shipment arrive at Birmingham Airport from the USA asking if we could assist with Customs clearance. We arranged clearance of the consignment and delivery to Nottingham the next day.

Apart from dealing with Customs clearances for sea freight shipments at major ports such as Felixstowe and Southampton Wavecrest can also clear air freight shipments. Not only at Heathrow but also at regional airports such as Birmingham and Manchester.

Later this week we are expecting an air freight shipment to arrive in London from Hong Kong. It is a Mercedes limousine which we will Customs clear and then forward to the owner's holiday villa in Spain.

Tomorrow we will be packing another export container at our Gravesend warehouse for shipment to Durban, South Africa. It will be loaded with two cars, a motorbike and some personal effects.

If you are planning a move back to South Africa and are thinking of shipping your car, motorbike or personal effects, please contact us for a competitive quotation on Tel: 01474 331146.

More news next week.

21 April 2011

Easter Opening

Our office and warehouse will be closed on Good Friday 22nd April and Easter Monday 25th April.

We will be open for business as usual on 26th, 27th and 28th April.

Our office and warehouse will be closed on Friday 29th April for the Royal Wedding and on Monday 2nd May for the May Bank Holiday.

We will be open for business as usual from 3rd May onwards.

In case of emergency, please contact us by phone on 07711 090768.

The Wavecrest Weekly - No 1

This is the first of what will hopefully become a weekly blog post about the latest activities here at Wavecrest.

It will also be somewhere to pass on any shipping and international trade news items as well as general tips and other things I stumble across along the way which may be useful or interesting.

The run up to the Easter holidays has been quite busy so far.

Last week we were asked to arrange the urgent shipment of a BMW car from the UK to New Zealand  on the roll on roll off service from Southampton.

Our client (based in New Zealand) had purchased the car from a dealer in Swindon and needed it to arrive in Auckland in time to participate in the Targa Rally.

On the subject of shipping between the UK and New Zealand, we are expecting several shipments of vintage cars to arrive at Tilbury next month. These include two 1957 VW Kombis coming in for restoration and a 1947 MG. The MG is being imported temporarily while the owner makes a tour of the UK and Europe.

We have quoted for several used truck shipments from the UK to Africa in particular Ghana and Namibia. We have regular roll on roll off sailings from Tilbury to Tema and Takoradi and a monthly sailing from Sheerness to Namibia (please see http://www.shippingtonamibia.co.uk/ for latest sailing information).

The Greenpeace vessel Esperanza which we recently co-ordinated in Scotland is currently still in UK waters and we have again been asked to assist with crew changes etc at her next two ports of call.

The recent events in Japan continue to affect the shipping industry. The significant drop in the volume of export container shipments from Japan has put downward pressure on freight rates from the Far East to Europe.

Whilst this is good news for importers in the UK it is not sustainable in the long term. The shipping lines have to be able to make a decent return on their capital if they are to invest in new ships and equipment for the future.

We have heard reports of ships being detained and containers arriving from Japan being checked for radiation following the leaks at the Fukushima plant.

More next week.

6 April 2011

Greenpeace Vessel Esperanza Back in Scotland

Greenpeace Ship Esperanza off Gravesend
The "Esperanza" passing Gravesend on a visit to London last year

This week we have been looking after the Greenpeace motor yacht "Esperanza" during a call to the Scottish port of Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis. The "Esperanza" has been operating in the North Atlantic for the last few months and has called in for a partial crew change and to take on stores.

We have been privileged to work with Greenpeace for many years now and look forward to welcoming the new "Rainbow Warrior" on a courtesy visit to London in the coming months.

The new "Rainbow Warrior" will be Greenpeace's first purpose built vessel but will be the third to hold that name.

The first "Rainbow Warrior" was sunk by French intelligence agents in Auckland on 10th July 1985 to prevent her interfering with nuclear tests in the Pacific. You can read more about it here.