We remain open for business and are here to support your shipments between Europe, the UK and the East Caribbean.

With Geest Line’s market in the Eastern Caribbean, we are a vital link between Europe and the UK and we will endeavour to operate our ships on this trade route accordance with our published schedule.

We understand the dependency the population of the Eastern Caribbean has on shipping and trade for food, pharmaceuticals and other vitally important products.

Our vessels will continue to sail with the intention of keeping to our schedules.

With social distancing recommended our office staff has been split into two groups.  We have a team working from our office and a team set up in their homes with online resources. We remain contactable on email and on mobile phones but are required to avoid face to face meetings for the time being.

We will continue to take advice from the relevant authorities to ensure that we always act in a responsible and professional manner, keeping the health of our staff and crew as well as your cargo at the heart of everything we do.

We wish you strength and courage in your efforts to combat the extraordinary events in which we are living today.

<See original published announcement here>

Geest Line remains an important link between Northern Europe, the UK and the Caribbean in terms of the supply of foodstuffs and essential items.  Accordingly, we consider it vitally important that we do all we can to ensure the continuity of our trade
during these difficult times.

In order to enhance our business continuity processes, considering the current pandemic, we have asked that many members of staff work from home to minimise the risk of spreading any infection across all staff within our office. This is in line with UK Government advice. As a result, you may experience some delay in contacting individuals within our organisation. We would ask that where possible you communicate in the short term through e-mail.

We will continue to maintain our emergency contacts.  It would appear likely that as the pandemic spreads we may see disruption to other supporting functions such as transport, ports etc.  Please be assured that we are working with our suppliers and partners to minimise any interruption to our service.

Please remain safe and we look forward to working with you.

<See original published announcement here>

Geest Line will implement an Interim IMO2020 surcharge as of voyage GL19049 applicable for all trades. If you do have any questions or queries please contact your Geest Head Office or your local agent.

Please see full statement here.

Low Sulphur IMO 2020 Emission Regulation

As you may be aware new fuel regulations for Global Shipping stipulate that fuel utilised should have no more than 0.5% sulphur content reducing from the current 3.5%. The date for this new regulation will be 01/01/2020. The current regulation of 0.1% low sulphur will remain in the emission control areas of Europe at the current prevailing ECA rate.

To comply with the new regulations, we have started to flush all ships tanks with the new low sulphur fuel, which will be completed by the end of November 2019.

A new BAF rate will be applicable from voyage GL19049 for both Vlissingen (ETS 05/12), and Portsmouth (ETS 08/12). We are however unable to advise what our BAF rates will be for the above vessel due to lack of clarity within the market, fluctuating rates and limited supply. The current rate is circa USD 150 per ton higher than current bunkers.

We hope to be able to advise in the coming weeks the rates for above vessel and will announce as soon as we possibly can.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or queries.

More information can be found on the IMO website and in the IMO 2020 PDF leaflet

Geest Line UK Operations Return to Portsmouth

 

 

 

 

 

We are pleased to announce that as of 6th December 2019 Geest Line will recommence UK Operations at Portsmouth.

Please read the full announcement for further information.

After nearly two years of service at Dover we are pleased to announce a return to Portsmouth after successfully negotiating a five year deal. We would like to thank the Port of Dover for their support since January 2018 enabling us to maintain and grow our business during this period.

For further information please see the official press release here.

Geest Line were recently featured in a Sainsbury’s online commercial (more…)

New Schedule Success

After another difficult winter season crossing the Atlantic Geest Line’s new schedule for 2019 has proved to be a great success. (more…)

PORT ISSUES DOMINICA

We regret to advise, and until further notice, Geest Line will be calling Roseau Dominica monthly for delivery and discharge of cargoes. Geest Line will continue to call fortnightly for container repatriation (port congestion issues) but only one vessel per month will be used for import cargoes to Dominica.

This decision has been made due to service issues at the port. On Monday the 15th October Geest Line was instructed to vacate the berth by DASPA even though vessel had not completed operations/discharge. This has not only added huge expense to Geest Line but most importantly delayed our customer’s cargoes that will remain on board for over a month. The current situation is no longer acceptable but will be reviewed once the port congestion issues are resolved.

This Dominican Port change will take effect as per attached sailing schedule from voyage:

Vessel:       Luzon Strait
Voyage:     GL18046

Geest Line’s Commercial General Manager, Jeremy Bristow, was recently interviewed by Lloyd’s Loading List for an article on container haulage.

“While one-off and external factors such as the disruption at Felixstowe, road network congestion, rail availability and high cargo volumes have aggravated the situation, the underlying cause is the chronically poor health of the trucking sector generally.”

You can read the full article on the Lloyd’s Loading List website.