ROYAL ARCTIC LINE ENTERS PARTNERSHIP WITH DHL GLOBAL FORWARDING IN ICELAND AND FOR THE NORTH ATLANTIC

The operator of sea cargo transportation to and from Greenland, Royal Arctic Line, has entered a strategic collaboration partnership with DHL Global Forwarding, and will make use of the freight forwarding specialist of Deutsche Post DHL Group as their appointed sales and handling agent in Iceland. Royal Arctic Line has implemented a new rotation for their Atlantic service with added capacity and more ports of call. To be able to capitalize on this expansion, Royal Arctic Line therefore wishes to establish a presence in the Iceland market through the set-up with DHL as their appointed partner. DHL Global Forwarding was appointed for its extensive logistics expertise and complementary geographic presence.

“The appointment of DHL Global Forwarding as the Royal Arctic Line agent in Iceland is an important part of our mission to make it easy to do business with Greenland”, said Verner Hammeken, CEO of Royal Arctic Line and continued: “The global reach of the DHL organization will help enable trade to and from Greenland. The Iceland market is very interesting to Royal Arctic Line given the proximity to Greenland and of course also because of the size of the Iceland market in its’ own right”.

Commenting on the Iceland partnership with Royal Arctic Line, DHL Global Forwarding CEO Nordics and Baltics, Ulf Nilsson, said: “We are thrilled to be able to support Royal Arctic Line with their important objective to increase trade between Greenland, Iceland, and the Nordic countries. Furthermore, the important role of Iceland as global transshipment hub for the North Atlantic is an exciting opportunity for the Greenland market to be served in a manner which is even more agile and reliable”.

The latest available figures from 2018 had the total Iceland merchandise trade valued at USD 13.25 billion with key export trading partners being the Netherlands, UK, and Spain. In terms of imports, Norway, China, and Germany took the top 3 trading partner spots. Deputy CEO of Royal Arctic Line, Aviâja L. Lennert, said: “We have passed Iceland on our journey to Greenland for the past 240 years. Our new rotation will take us via Reykjavik to and from Greenland on a weekly basis and we are looking forward to be able to offer our service to the Iceland market. With our weekly calls to Reykjavik, we also see great opportunities in direct connection to the North American markets that will further strengthen our mission of making it easy to do business with Greenland.”

DHL Global Forwarding provides a wide variety of logistics services on a global basis. “The services offered by DHL complement the sea cargo transportation capabilities of Royal Arctic Line and when combined, customers in Iceland will be able to enjoy unparalleled end-to-end supply chain solutions”, said Torben Pagh, Managing Director of DHL Global Forwarding (Denmark). During the course of development of the partnership, an important factor is also the integration of Royal Arctic Line into the state-of-the-art IT system of DHL.

The partnership between Royal Arctic Line and DHL comes into effect as of September 28, 2020. The first service offered will be full container loads between Denmark and Iceland and LCL acceptance will follow thereafter; which will link Greenland and Iceland to the world through our global LCL network. DHL Global Forwarding adds to its constantly expanding LCL network, which currently comprises 45,000 point pair combinations and annual consolidated groupage shipments of close to two million cubic meters.

To make a booking, please contact the DHL RAL Iceland Competence Center via email to Lineragency.is@dhl.com or call +4536905200.