INTTRA, the ocean shipping electronic marketplace, has acquired Avantida, the European firm focused on empty container management for ocean carriers. Avantida is headquartered in Belgium and currently conducts business in seven European countries.
“Enhanced coordination of land and ocean container movements generates efficiencies and reduces costs, and INTTRA’s entry into landside container logistics will provide additional value for existing and new customers,” INTTRA explained in a release.
Avantida’s core business – digitised, automated container reuse and repositioning – addresses a challenge for ocean carriers, transport companies, terminals, depots, and other stakeholders.
Industry experts estimate that empty container positioning costs the ocean shipping industry up to $20bn a year, approximately 40% of handling costs.
“Acquiring Avantida advances our strategy of extending our reach into the intermodal value chain,” said INTTRA’s CEO, John Fay.
For his part, Luc De Clerck, Avantida’s CEO commented: “Together we can leverage technology innovation to digitize and transform a multi-billion dollar market that is central to global trade.
INTTRA’s global network will enable us to accelerate product adoption in Europe and around the world.”
No price for the acquisition was disclosed.
