The Port of Liverpool (Mersey) has recently taken delivery of a new harbour crane which is due to begin operating at the Port of Liverpool later this month. This makes Liverpool an increasingly viable option for freight forwarding in and out of the UK via the port or down the Manchester Ship Canal.

The installation of the additional lifting machinery marks the start of a planned expansion at the port over 2011, demonstrating a commitment to investment and growth in the port. This is great news to freight forwarders looking to use the Port of Liverpool and the Manchester Ship Canal for freight forwarding services in the future. The use of the port for the import and export of ocean container freight is becoming an increasingly viable option. Liverpool is ranked as one of Britain’s major container ports and handles around 700,000 containers each year.

For more information on the above developments and the potential the Port of Liverpool will start to offer importers and exporters over the coming years please contact freight forwarder Mercator Cargo Systems today on 02392 75 65 75 to speak to an experience members of our team.

The growth potential of Vietnam was highlighted earlier this week when the second of two major container terminals was opened within two weeks of the last.

The Cai Mep International Terminal (CMIT) handled its first vessel earlier this week, when the CMA CGM Columba arrived at the port. With a capacity of 11,500 containers, the Columba is also the largest ever vessel to call in Vietnam.

The terminal has a capacity of 1.1 million containers. It is located 50km south-east of Ho Chi Minh City and it is the first to offer shipping lines direct access to the newly dredged 14 metre draught Cai Mep Terminal Channel.

To discuss the possibilities the opening of this new container terminal brings to world trade possibilities and the implications of its opening on your shipping requirements, please contact Mercator Cargo Systems today on 02392 75 65 75.

Mercator Cargo is an established freight forwarder in the UK. Celebrating its 20th year in business in 2011 it is a long standing member of the British International Freight Association.  

With extensive experience in all aspects of freight transport, customs clearance and international shipping, the companies dedicated team of freight forwarders are able to find you the most reliable and cost effective international sea, road, air and rail freight forwarding services for your cargo.

People of the UK town of Dover have overwhelmingly voted against plans to privatise Europe’s busiest ferry port. Over 25% Dover’s community, or 5,357 people, turned out to vote and 97.8% of these voters were against privatising the port and keeping it as The People’s Port.

Recommendations to privatise the port come from a requirement to fund a new terminal estimated at £400 million, necessary to meet expected growth over the coming years. This is funding the port suggests it is unable to fund itself.

As well as the local community, the People’s Port has the backing of major banks, users of the port, the town’s MP and Dame Vera Lynn, who sang the iconic WW2 anthem White Cliffs of Dover.

The result will put pressure on the government to opt for the People’s Port. Even if the People’s Port proved successful, they are likely to still review the current plans for building a new terminal and keep sufficient land available to develop the capacity necessary in the future.

Should you have any questions regarding a shipment which will shortly be passing through the Port of Dover (UK), please contact Mercator Cargo today to discuss your shipment on 02392 75 65 75.

Mercator Cargo is an established freight forwarder in the UK. Celebrating its 20th year in business in 2011 it is a long standing member of the British International Freight Association. 

With extensive experience in all aspects of freight transport, customs clearance and international shipping, the companies dedicated team of freight forwarders are able to find you the most reliable and cost effective international sea, road, air and rail freight forwarding services for your cargo.

The MarcoPoloLine Group was established to benefit the needs and requirements of small to medium sized freight forwarders.

In less than 5 years we now have
220 offices in 82 countries worldwide.

We invite you to visit us on Stand D9, so as to introduce you to The MarcoPoloLine Group, and answer any questions you may have.

Please make an appointment here: https://www.marcopololine.com/onetoone. Your password is guest2011

 

Request a Quote for Shipping to or from Brazil

Mercator Cargo will be at the Intermodal Exhibition from the 5th to the 7th April 2011 in Brazil. The Latin American market is currently the fastest growing economy in the world. The conference is held in São Paulo, the business capital of South America.

This is Mercator Cargo System’s first exhibition and we will be exhibiting on the Marco Polo Line stand D9.

Marco Polo Line is a network of small to medium sized independent freight forwarders under one global banner, who offer a real alternative to the giant forwarders, offering specialist local knowledge and a comprehensive service in almost every corner of the world.

Mercator Cargo will be the only UK agent on the Marco Polo Line stand (D9), along with partner agents from the Middle East, Far East, Europe, Africa, North America and India.

Look out for Paul Goehlert, Managing Director of Mercator Cargo Systems in his Union Jack waistcoat!

Mercator Cargo is an established freight forwarder in the UK. Celebrating its 20th year in business in 2011 it is a long standing member of the British International Freight Association.

With extensive experience in all aspects of freight transport, customs clearance and international shipping, the companies dedicated team of freight forwarders are able to find you the most reliable and cost effective international sea, road, air and rail freight forwarding services for your cargo.

Request a quote online today or contact us on 02392 75 65 75.

 

Request a Quote for Shipping to or from South America

A bell from a picturesque miniature Chinese Temple in Portsmouth’s Victoria Park has been recently returned to China by Mercator Cargo Systems. The traditional style temple built commemorates the Far East commission of HMS Orlando (1899-1902).

The bell was taken from China during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900.   The bell was captured at the North-West Fort of Taku, which guarded the mouth of the river to Beijing.

After it’s capture the bell was hung in Portsmouth by the crew of HMS Orlando in honour of their fallen shipmates, lost during the campaign.

In a letter to the Evening News in 1993 it was suggested that it was an inappropriate artefact for a Naval Memorial and that it should be returned to the temple which it came from.

On the 13th June 2005, The News reported that a Chinese delegation had arrived in Portsmouth to take possession of the bell.  A replica bell was donated by the Chinese authorities and placed in the memorial in 2007.

Mercator Cargo Systems, a freight forwarding company in Portsmouth was instructed to arrange for the safe shipment of the antique bell from the UK to China by the Chinese delegation.

Mercator Cargo is an established freight forwarder in the UK. Founded over twenty years ago, it is a long standing member of the British International Freight Association. The company offers reliable and cost effective international sea, road, air and rail freight forwarding services to and from the UK.

The companies dedicated team of freight forwarders have extensive experience in all aspects of freight transport, customs clearance and international shipping. The (company’s website) showcases its range of freight forwarding services.

 

Request a Quote for Shipping to China/h3>

Published in Portsmouth News Mon Feb 09

See the full article here.

A 2,600-year-old work of art is to be brought back to life with the aid of a Portsmouth firm. Iraq, devastated by war, is gradually beginning to rebuild its industries, and one of its core traditional crafts is making some of the world’s finest rugs and carpets.

Now, thanks to a delivery of finest sheep’s wool to Baghdad from across the border in eastern Turkey by Portsmouth shipping specialist Mercator Cargo Systems, work is under way on reviving this ancient craft.

The Iraqi labourers have begun a project to produce replicas of the Pazyryk Rug, the world’s oldest surviving carpet, believed to have been made in Mesopotamia in around 600BC and now preserved in a museum in St Petersburg.

Previously, the factory had been reduced to making tacky designs from poor quality fibre mixed with nylon, many of which ended up in Saddam Hussein’s tasteless palaces.

But a top-grade Kurdish sheep’s wool has now been sourced capable of doing justice to the millennia-old Pazyryk, and with its history of carpet expertise Mercator Cargo was chosen to deliver the raw materials – and may get the chance to deliver the finished articles to the West.

Paul Goehlert, managing director of Mercator, based at St George’s Square, Portsmouth, said: ‘The Pazyryk was found in Siberia. It was frozen and they actually managed to work out, don’t ask me how, that it was made in Mesopotamia. And when they gave the Baghdad factory a project, they thought they’d do a copy of it.

‘All the skills were there, all the workers were there, the loops were there, but they just had rubbish wool, so the products they were making weren’t very clever.’

The operation is headquartered in the Kadhimiya district of the capital, and employs around 750 staff.

It is run by 60-year-old English businessman Richard Ringrose, under contract from the US Department of Defence.

He has worked with Mercator for many years, and although Mr Goehlert said the project would have got off the ground even without Mercator’s help, it was especially gratifying to be involved – for sentimental reasons.

‘I started, aged 10 or 11, running around the City of London as a messenger boy during the holidays. One of the warehouses I went to one day was full of all these Oriental rugs, and I’ve just been gobsmacked by them ever since,’ Mr Goehlert said.

‘Every business has their own particular language. Ours is carpets. We’re probably about the only shipping company in the UK where you could say “40,000 sq ft of Tientsin full cut”, and I’d actually know what that would look like as a cargo.’

 

Request a Quote for Shipping Carpets or Rugs