MSC’s direct line from APM Terminals Gothenburg to the USA – a service that's here to stay

It's now been a year since MSC opened the unique and long-awaited route between Gothenburg and the USA. APM Terminals Gothenburg spoke to Fredrik Magaji, Commercial Director at MSC Sweden AB, about their own and their customers' experience of the first year and how they handled a turbulent market with fluctuating freight prices.

Tell us about MSC Sweden!
At MSC, we believe in a strong local presence, where we have everything from the commercial and operational departments to in-house logistical planning. This means that we can work together to create the best possible conditions for our customers, which is very important, especially when launching a new product.

On 1st April 2022, MSC stopped off at APM Terminals Gothenburg for the first time, to then travel on to the USA. How was the service received?
From the beginning, there was a huge and wide-ranging interest in the line. The timing of the launch could not have been better. The pandemic had reached its final stages, but the logistics situation was still very turbulent. Being able to offer a unique, direct service from Gothenburg to the USA gave our customers a real sense of security, especially customers with transit-time-sensitive cargoes, as every transhipment is at risk. Customer satisfaction is high and the huge interest in the product in the Swedish market is continuing. This is a service that's here to stay. 

How do you view your collaboration with APM Terminals Gothenburg?
We have the whole of Sweden as a catchment area, so we're putting a lot of effort into getting the goods to Gothenburg in a sustainable way via the railways. We really value APM Terminals’ support in this process greatly. We also know that we can rely on APM Terminals when we need extra flexibility. I feel that we've worked together to create good customer benefits and a stable service, despite major disruptions in the global logistics network.

How would you describe the demand for Swedish products?
We're seeing strong demand in the US market. We serve all kinds of customers and goods flows, such as beverage logistics, automotive, steel and forestry products, to name a few. With this product’s high delivery precision, we're giving greater competitiveness to Swedish exports to North America.

How does the economic situation affect demand?
During the pandemic, freight prices were cranked up massively on every shipping route, not least the transatlantic, as demand from the USA was so huge. During the normalisation process, US companies’ inventories became full up, demand fell, and freight prices fell to normal levels. With inflation, demand slowed further, but going forward we can see the U.S. economy turning upwards and purchasing power is expected to follow suit.  

How have you handled the freight price development?
This year, commercial pressure on us has been very high and we've placed a lot of emphasis on observing good compliance with the market. We have our own trade manager who monitors price developments on a daily basis to ensure that we're in the right position and that we maintain a close dialogue with our customers. Now the situation is starting to return to something similar to normality, where we can start procuring longer contracts.

What do you think the future will bring?
The direct line is an attraction, and we think we have a good chance of generating even more volume over time. During the pandemic, forestry products in particular found new routes through break bulk transport, and we lost a lot of cargo then. We now have the opportunity to convert the cargo back into containers via Gothenburg.