Connecting markets: Short sea shipping

Short sea shipping effectively connects industrial regions and markets. Regular scheduled services between major port locations save time and costs, and provide an ecological means of transport. Rhenus has long-standing expertise in short sea shipping with a wide network of locations.

Rhenus services for sea-river transports

One of the core services of the Rhenus Group is ship transport. With more than a century of expertise, we provide sea-river navigation with coastal vessels within European waters as well as on rivers such as the Rhine, Danube, Seine and many of the connecting canals. We provide door-to-door service for your shipments by utilising all available means of transport. Whether it is general, liquid, bulk, breakbulk or oversized project cargo – we transport any type of goods.

Our options for your short sea shipments

Full charter

For shipments that fill a whole vessel, we can provide you with full charter of a ship. For this offer, we use our own fleet of coastal vessels and barges as well as third-party vessels. We always find the right short sea solution for your shipment to suit your requirements in terms of type of goods, size, weight and method of transshipment. We offer chartering for single voyages as well as time charter for longer periods or project time frames.

Part cargo shipments

For part loads, we consolidate shipments from our clients in one vessel and ship them to your chosen destination.

Door-to-door services

Especially for the UK market, we offer a door-to-door service in order to avoid excessive handling and prevent damages. The shipments are collected and shipped via scheduled service by barge or coastal vessel. At the British port of call, we then organise the final delivery to our customers.

Regular shipments to the UK

With a special focus on the British Isles, we provide sea-river transports from Duisburg and other inland waterway terminals to destinations in the UK and Ireland. These include just-in-time services for production facilities and automotive shipments for new vehicles as well as general cargo. The Rhenus Group operates scheduled short sea services from different seaport locations along the German coast.

Shipping agency

Rhenus provides shipping agency services at major European ports through our own offices as well as reliable partners. For our customers, we handle your shipments and cargo at the port and coordinate all activities.

Any questions?

Our experts are always there for you. If you wish, we will also call you back – keeping things convenient and straightforward.

Benefits of Rhenus short sea services

Your reliable partner for the steel and aluminium and paper and forest industries as well as for bulk cargo, e.g. grain, gypsum, sand and gravel
Specialist for Saimaa trade (Finland) and sea-river transports to the UK and Ireland
We operate across the North and Baltic Seas, the Bay of Biscay and the Mediterranean

Reliability through experience and expertise

Your reliable partner and expert with more than 100 years’ experience
Short sea transports with own vessels (deadweight all told (DWAT) from 1,200 up to 4,000 tonnes) to guarantee quality transport and delivery of your goods
Box tonnage assures perfect loading and discharging quality

Punctual deliveries to your desired destination

Door-to-door services avoid extra handling, prevent damages and deliver the goods directly to you, fast and reliably
Just-in-time deliveries ensure the timely arrival of the desired goods or material for your production

Our Ocean Freight Solutions

You can see a huge containership in a port

FCL Shipping – Full Container Load Logistics

Economically, FCL ocean freight is the recommended way of transportation if the volume from one origin to one destination reaches a sufficient capacity utilisation.

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You can see a lot of stacked containers at a port from above

LCL – Less-Than-Container Load Transport

The consolidation of multiple shipments from different customers in one container helps you to share the transportation costs in comparison to full container loads (FCL).

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You can see a containership from above on the ocean

Buyer’s and Seller’s Consolidation

By combining LCL shipments with the same Seller or Buyer in one dedicated container (FCL), we reduce your costs while giving you increased overall transparency and control over your transport chain.

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