German shortsea operator Oldenburg-Portugiesische Dampfschiffs-Rhederei (OPDR) is to switch UK calls for three services from Felixstowe to Tilbury. The switch is the latest in a series of port moves in southeast England as Felixstowe, Tilbury, Thamesport and newly opened London Gateway battle for cargo in a flat market.

Prior to this, Tilbury had lost CMA CGM shortsea arm MacAndrews to Thamesport which, in turn, has seen a number of customers move elsewhere. London Gateway’s first service, the SAECS consortium, had moved there at Tilbury’s expense. Hamburg based OPDR is expected to bring around 30,000 containers and 200 calls per annum in new traffic to Tilbury from services between northern Europe and southern Europe, including the Canary Islands.