Trouble spots require flexible emergency management

Customers of a. hartrodt benefit from alternative air freight or sea/air transports.
14/01/2025

In the outlook for 2025, sea freight experts are poking around in the fog: "If anything is predictable, it's unpredictability," says Jens Roemer, Regional Managing Director for Belgium, France and Switzerland at a. hartrodt in Antwerp. For more than four decades, the experienced freight forwarder has always found a suitable solution for customers, but "planning sensibly has rarely been as difficult as it is today", he says. The shipping industry, for which Jens Roemer's "heart beats", is being disrupted worldwide by trouble spots – wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, natural disasters such as hurricanes or the US port strike at the beginning of October, "whose unresolved wage dispute was provisionally resolved in January ".

Protectionism endangers maritime traffic

As Vice President of the International Freight Forwarders Association Fiata, Jens Roemer heads the working group "sea transport" and is aware of dangers and tensions at an early stage. What worries him most at the moment? "I see protectionism as a major problem," says the global citizen, who worked in Singapore for many years. According to him, globalization cannot be reversed, and therefore he doesn't think a spiral of punitive tariffs is a good idea.

Stricter environmental regulations extend transit times

In 2025, a. hartrodt's sea freight team will have to operate "on sight". Shipping companies are continually planning a detour around South Africa in order to avoid dangers in the Red Sea. According to Jens Roemer, this also avoids overcapacity: "Carriers are deploying more 15,000 to 20,000 TEU ships." In addition, the European Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) will be tightened for shipping from next year, and a CO2 levy for maritime transport also appears possible at the International Maritime Organization (IMO): "The easiest way to comply with stricter environmental regulations is for ships to sail more slowly." All of this could lead to even longer transit times.

Customers of a. hartrodt benefit from flexible emergency management, for example with alternative air freight or sea/air transports. Jens Roemer has observed that customers are learning from the pandemic, with goods being ordered with longer lead times.

Related News

13/02/2024

Red Sea: How a. hartrodt rescues supply chains

After weeks of attacks by Yemeni Huthi rebels on merchant ships in the Red Sea, sea freight customer
Read more