Germany’s HGK Shipping, one of Europe’s top inland shipping names and compatriot Salzgitter, the country’s second-largest steelmaker, have penned a long-term charter deal for three dry cargo ships. The deal also involves a newbuild vessel designed to meet the requirements of the Salzgitter Group and cope with the western German canal region.
The development follows a memorandum of understanding between HGK and two subsidiaries of Salzgitter – Salzgitter Flachstahl and DEUMU-Deutsche Erz- und Metall-Union to promote and develop low-emission logistics chains for inland waterways.
Salzgitter Flachstahl will coordinate and manage the operations of the three chartered vessels from HGK Shipping’s existing fleet within Salzgitter. The units will be used for alternating services between the Salzgitter business sites and its customers in the Netherlands and Belgium, transporting raw and input materials for steel manufacturing.
The fleet that will be used is due to be replaced by new shipping space in the medium term. Duisburg-based HGK will order the first newbuild very soon, for entry into service most likely in July 2025.
Florian Bleikamp, head of chartering Canal/Rhine at HGK Dry Shipping said: “We’re resolutely continuing to pursue the goal of achieving climate neutrality in conjunction with the Salzgitter Group. Shifting more traffic to inland waterways as well as developing and using modern shipping space are important steps along this journey.”
Salzgitter companies operating within the group are linked to the inland waterway system at numerous business sites, with vessels already carrying more than 1m tonnes of its steel along Europe’s waterways every year and the company said that this share could be further enhanced “if the right conditions are put in place”.
Fabian Gerdes, head of customer logistics at Salzgitter Flachstahl, added: “Inland waterway shipping is a very important element in our logistics strategy. It is ideally suitable for closed-loop traffic on long routes because the vessels can be used in such a flexible way. At the same time, we believe that there’s free capacity and growth potential on European waterways. However, this is being inhibited by an increasing shortage of shipping space and the obsolescence of fleets along the western German canals. We’re therefore delighted that we can continue expanding our partnership with HGK Shipping here and together invest in modern shipping space and safeguard transport capacity in the long term.”
