Friday, January 27, 2012


Disruption due to Belgian port closures

Inchcape Shipping Services (ISS), the world’s leading maritime services provider, advises that a nationwide strike in Belgium on 30 January 2012 will close all ports in the country, with knock-on effects likely during the whole week.

ISS anticipates that dockers, pilots, tugboats and locks operator will be involved, and that roadblocks with strike pickets will occupy all access roads to the ports. The company has been unofficially informed that terminals will close from 06:00hrs on 30/01/2012 to 06:00hrs on 31/01/2012.

Patrick Van Huffelen, General Manager, ISS Port Services, said: “We advise shipowners and operators not to attempt to deliver any cargoes to Belgian ports on Monday, and we are warning that further disruption to schedules may continue into the week. Our offices will be running with a skeleton staff on Monday, however we will continue to offer advice and support to our clients on port congestion, the welfare of crews should they become stranded in port, and other related issues.”

Notes to editor

Inchcape Shipping Services is the world's leading maritime services provider. With over 260 proprietary offices in 63 countries, and a workforce of over 3,500, the company’s diverse global customer base now includes owners and charterers in the oil, cruise, container and bulk commodity sectors as well as naval, government and inter-governmental organisations.

ISS provides landside commercial and humanitarian logistics, transit, offshore support, informational and other associated marine services. The company also provides a growing range of outsourcing services including global crew and marine spares logistics; port hub agency management; and sophisticated Enterprise Resource Planning solutions through its subsidiary ShipNet.

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