Flanders, the northern region of Belgium, has announced Gateway²Britain, an innovative digital application that will bring visibility and transparency for trading with Flanders into one place. It is being delivered by a partnership between Port of Antwerp-Bruges, VLAIO, Flanders Investment & Trade and Deloitte. Their aim is to make trade between Flanders and Britain as frictionless as possible.

Traders are likely to be able to validate an initial version of Gateway²Britain by the end of this year. The application will allow traders to fill out just one dataset online, which is then automatically shared with all the relevant supply chain & logistics partners.

The UK is a significant trading partner for Flanders. Full-year trade figures for 2022 revealed that the total value of exports from the UK to Flanders amounted to 33.77 billion EUR. Imports into the UK from Flanders totaled 27.95 billion EUR, making the UK Flanders’ 4th highest export market. Flanders is in 16th position as a world goods exporter.

Research carried out among more thana thousand UK traders for Flanders Investment & Trade in May 20231 found that nearly 74% of UK companies agree2 that they had been forced to consider alternative markets due to the bureaucracy involved in trading with the EU post Brexit. Almost half of the respondents (48%) said they would trade more if the process was simplified and just over two in five (42%) had seen trade decrease with the EU since Brexit. The research was carried out for Flanders Investment & Trade by Censuswide.

Flanders is already a popular route into the EU for British companies due to its proximity to both the UK and Europe’s major business centres. A market of 400 million consumers is within 6 hours of the region, or 60% of Europe’s purchasing power. The world-leading seaports of Antwerp-Bruges, Ghent and Ostend are all in Flanders and the region has three international airports and sophisticated transport hubs, and over 650 European distribution centers. ​

Around 90% of British goods that are imported into Flanders are further processed and re-exported afterwards. Gateway²Britain will make Flanders an even more attractive route into the EU. No other EU country has yet been able to introduce a similar, comprehensive data-driven system to ease the friction created by Brexit.

The concept behind the new application will be further explained at Multimodal.

British companies who need help with trading with Flanders should contact Flanders Investment & Trade.

Minister-President of the Government of Flanders Jan Jambon currently visiting the UK commented: “Britain is an important trading partner for Flanders. We know from our research that British companies have been looking at alternative markets due to the bureaucracy involved post Brexit. Gateway²Britain signals the end of that bureaucracy. It makes life simple again, whilst meeting all the demands of the new rules.” ​ ​

Dirk Verlee, Trade and Investment Counsellor at Flanders Investment & Trade, based at the Belgian Embassy in London, explained the significance of Gateway²Britain for consumers; “Flanders is a key route in and out of the EU for British traders. This means that if Gateway²Britain solves the challenges of Brexit in Flanders, supply issues that have affected the UK should also be solved.”
Annick De Ridder, Vice-Mayor of the City of Antwerp and President of the board of directors of Port of Antwerp-Bruges: “Port of Antwerp-Bruges has a long tradition of facilitating the supply chain and is fully committed to digitalization. The building blocks are in place to make our world port the ideal candidate to realize the vision behind Gateway2Britain. And that for the widest possible range of stakeholders. As a major export port to the UK, we also see this as an important opportunity for our own competitiveness, Flemish logistics and, by extension, a reinforcement of the economic engine we are for Flanders.”

Ocean Network Express announced that “ONE INNOVATION”, the company’s first ever 24,000-TEU class Megamax, was successfully delivered at Kure Shipyard of Japan Marine United Corporation in June 2023.

The vessel, ONE INNOVATION, with a capacity up to 24,136 TEU, will help bring economies of scale and significantly lower carbon emissions through a state-of-the-art hull design that aims to maximize cargo intake and minimize fuel consumption. The vessel is equipped with a bow windshield, an energy saving device, and an exhaust gas cleaning system to meet the emission regulations of IMO. She is also the first of the six new Megamax vessels to joining ONE’s core fleet.

She will be deployed on the Asia to Europe service, under THE Alliance.

ONE is always committed to operational excellence, business sustainability and environmental protection. Through the introduction of ONE INNOVATION together with other five upcoming sister Megamax vessels. ONE targets to offer more competitive and best-in-class services to our customers with decreased environmental impact.

“ONE INNOVATION is the largest vessel in our fleet, and we are proud to have it as our flagship. This newly built vessel will help us pave the way for the sustainable development of global logistics and respond to customer requests with the world’s No. 1 quality of service,” Said Yu Kurimoto, Managing Director of ONE, during the commemorative party. “Last year, we announced our ‘Green Vision’, which aims to achieve net-zero by 2050. We are actively working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from our fleet, and we are confident that this vessel will contribute to this effort and bring innovation to global logistics.”

Port Rotation

Ningbo – Xiamen – Kaohsiung – Yantian – Singapore – Rotterdam – Hamburg – Antwerp – Southampton – Algeciras – Singapore – Yantian – Hong Kong – Kaohsiung – Ningbo

The Saudi Ports Authority has struck a strategic partnership agreement with Saudi Post to boost its best-in-class solutions and optimize service delivery in line with the objectives of the National Transport and Logistics Strategy.

The deal was signed by Dr. Majid Al Malik, Mawani’s VP for Shared Services and Digital Transformation, and Mr. Rakan Al-Daifallah, government sales general manager.

The collaboration between the public sector entities is set to deploy the latest technologies and modern capabilities in developing a high-performance and cost-efficient logistics sector in the Kingdom in support of national efforts that seek to enhance Saudi Arabia’s ranking in the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index.

A key step towards bolstering digital government services, the partnership will see the nation’s trusted logistics provider manage Mawani’s postal needs through its Express Mail Service, a customized solution for the Kingdom’s government and non-government sectors that offers a reliable and low-cost distribution channel both locally and internationally.