Geest relocates cargo handling to Dover

The company’s move from Portsmouth International Port has been prompted by the need to accommodate revised scheduling times involving the weekend discharge of cargoes.

Captain Peter Dixon, managing director of Geest Line, said: “Our new logistics require a switch of days for handling eastbound arrivals in England from Sunday to Friday.

“This would have been the first scheduling change impacting Portsmouth in our 16 years at the port.

“The port operator has however advised that their teams are regrettably unable to handle our revised schedule so we have had no choice but to, reluctantly, relocate.”

Dover opportunities

Mr Dixon added the company is, however, looking forward to the Port of Dover’s development, due to open in spring 2019.

The Port of Southampton, where the company was based before Portsmouth, was deemed not to have sufficient cargo-handling space.

Geest Line’s 32 employees at its are unaffected by the change of port.

The move comes as Geest Line replaces its fleet of four charter vessels with five larger and newer ships, increasing capacity by over 40%.

From this month, two port calls in Colombia have been added for fruit loading while a new stop at Flushing in The Netherlands will help with northern European freight and imports and exports, said Geest Line.