The sea route as a reliable transport option for chemical goods

Companies in the chemical industry have been using ocean freight (also called "less than container load," or LCL for short) for years. Demand has increased considerably in these economically turbulent times. High ocean freight rates, lack of empty containers, ad hoc cancelled sailings, unpunctual port calls, fragile global supply chains, production bottlenecks and fluctuations in demand are reinforcing the trend.

Economical and sustainable

The big advantage of the consolidated container: customers can also ship smaller consignments cost-effectively and thus maintain a continuous flow of goods. For ocean freight consolidation, the ocean freight team consolidates various LCL sublots and loads them into a full container (FCL for short). The resulting optimized utilization of the container creates the basis for economical transport costs and sustainable shipments.

"The decisive factor for the chemical industry, whose shipments may also contain hazardous goods, is always safety," says Samuel Haller, Country Management Air & Sea Switzerland. "Dachser brings its global dangerous goods expertise to the consolidated container sector and maps all LCL-compatible IMO classes in its own network and in its partner network," he adds. A central dangerous goods management system and more than 250 of the company's own regional dangerous goods officers worldwide monitor compliance with special regulations for dangerous goods transports. In addition, many employees are trained each year to meet the special requirements of chemical logistics. The special industry experience is bundled in the DACHSER Chem Logistics team.

Reliable offer

Dachser offers 70 weekly LCL direct transports to and from Germany and Switzerland respectively. "With a focus on the main global routes, we are also continuously expanding our dangerous goods capacities, naturally serving the large markets in the eastern and western hemispheres, such as China, India, and the USA," Haller explains. In 2021, Dachser was able to ship around 19,700 cbm of dangerous goods as LCL with customers in the chemical industry. In addition to the usual port-to-port transports, Dachser also maintains various direct transports to the hinterland or other European cities in the import business. Once a week, for example, LCL groupage containers travel directly from port locations such as Hong Kong, Shanghai, or Ningbo to inland Switzerland in addition to Hamburg. Direct shipments minimize the risk of freight damage and provide additional safety because there is no need for de-consolidation at the transit terminal.

Dachser offers customers with sustainable volume commitments, even for low volumes, transport contracts at attractive conditions with terms of several months and transports with premium shipping companies. This reliable calculation basis is appreciated by Swiss companies.