Trading Places
P&O Ferrymasters considers the challenges of increased trade with Romania and Bulgaria and how it could help the Middle East
The January 1 2007 accession of Romania and Bulgaria into the newly enlarged EU signals greater opportunities for trade into previously untapped regions – including the Middle East, according to Mark Mulder, the new commercial director for P&O Ferrymasters.
Both countries are strategic gateways into Turkey, a country that Ferrymasters has already established a trading partnership. From there, Mulder believes, business will bring greater affluence and influence to the Middle East, one of the world’s most troubled regions.
Mulder argues that too much emphasis has been placed upon employment and immigration issues from the two new entrants, both of which have seen their own share of political turmoil during the last century. Their ability to trade and, like Poland, provide well qualified and skilled workforces, has brought a level of stability to the Balkans.
Striking images of tanks on the streets have been replaced with growing international co-operation between Sofia, Bucharest and the wider EU. For example, trade has already dramatically grown with the Federal Statistical Office in Germany reporting goods to the value of €3 billion being exported to Romania during the first half of 2006, an increase in 21 per cent on the previous year, while imports from Romania into Germany rose 25 per cent to €1.9 billion during the same period. Equally, there was a 10 per cent increase in exports to Bulgaria, but imports were up a massive 36 per cent as the new country flexed its commercial muscle ahead of accession.
“The position in Romania and Bulgaria is the same as it was in Poland and the Czech Republic 10 years ago. These are now mature markets offering good wages that are attracting their migrating workers back home. As countries developing trading partnerships, their levels of affluence increase as do the standards of living reflected in the wage bills.”
“We will see greater trading with the Ukraine and more business in Turkey and into the Middle East in the next 10 years. Prosperity is one of the cornerstones of stability and we could even see this troubled region trade itself out of conflict,” says Mulder
P&O Ferrymasters is one of Europe’s leading freight management and intermodal companies and has ambitious growth plans over the next two years.
With the recent opening of an office in Hungary and intermodal services now into Greece and Turkey, Mulder is looking for further strategic expansion in the region to improve the commercial presence and ensure that Ferrymasters continues to meet its customer’s changing requirements.
He believes that the new €400 million bridge across the Danube will bring the two countries, divided by more than just water, together as neighbours and trading partners. The road and rail bridge scheduled for opening in 2009/10, a gleaming symbol of European co-operation as the bulk of the money came through Europe, is just a beginning as extensive work needs to be completed on other infrastructure issues that will facilitate greater business co-operation says Mulder.
“Progress can be slow, but with greater liberalisation of railways across Europe, for example, we will see the loosening of state controls to allow more intermodal activity will be good news in reducing congestion, and indeed the carbon footprint that inevitably flows from expanding global supply chains,” he adds.
“We want to move away from the customer cost models to one of service because customers recognise that here is more to logistics than price. Customers are more open to alternative suggestions to optimise their supply chains which in turn reduces costs,” he adds.
Mulder says the issues facing all businesses are about providing excellent service at competitive prices which is why having presence in all of Europe’s regions is crucial to developing ‘home grown’ services that cross borders in the spirit of co-operation rather than cross swords over disputed territory.
Both countries are strategic gateways into Turkey, a country that Ferrymasters has already established a trading partnership. From there, Mulder believes, business will bring greater affluence and influence to the Middle East, one of the world’s most troubled regions.
Mulder argues that too much emphasis has been placed upon employment and immigration issues from the two new entrants, both of which have seen their own share of political turmoil during the last century. Their ability to trade and, like Poland, provide well qualified and skilled workforces, has brought a level of stability to the Balkans.
Striking images of tanks on the streets have been replaced with growing international co-operation between Sofia, Bucharest and the wider EU. For example, trade has already dramatically grown with the Federal Statistical Office in Germany reporting goods to the value of €3 billion being exported to Romania during the first half of 2006, an increase in 21 per cent on the previous year, while imports from Romania into Germany rose 25 per cent to €1.9 billion during the same period. Equally, there was a 10 per cent increase in exports to Bulgaria, but imports were up a massive 36 per cent as the new country flexed its commercial muscle ahead of accession.
“The position in Romania and Bulgaria is the same as it was in Poland and the Czech Republic 10 years ago. These are now mature markets offering good wages that are attracting their migrating workers back home. As countries developing trading partnerships, their levels of affluence increase as do the standards of living reflected in the wage bills.”
“We will see greater trading with the Ukraine and more business in Turkey and into the Middle East in the next 10 years. Prosperity is one of the cornerstones of stability and we could even see this troubled region trade itself out of conflict,” says Mulder
P&O Ferrymasters is one of Europe’s leading freight management and intermodal companies and has ambitious growth plans over the next two years.
With the recent opening of an office in Hungary and intermodal services now into Greece and Turkey, Mulder is looking for further strategic expansion in the region to improve the commercial presence and ensure that Ferrymasters continues to meet its customer’s changing requirements.
He believes that the new €400 million bridge across the Danube will bring the two countries, divided by more than just water, together as neighbours and trading partners. The road and rail bridge scheduled for opening in 2009/10, a gleaming symbol of European co-operation as the bulk of the money came through Europe, is just a beginning as extensive work needs to be completed on other infrastructure issues that will facilitate greater business co-operation says Mulder.
“Progress can be slow, but with greater liberalisation of railways across Europe, for example, we will see the loosening of state controls to allow more intermodal activity will be good news in reducing congestion, and indeed the carbon footprint that inevitably flows from expanding global supply chains,” he adds.
“We want to move away from the customer cost models to one of service because customers recognise that here is more to logistics than price. Customers are more open to alternative suggestions to optimise their supply chains which in turn reduces costs,” he adds.
Mulder says the issues facing all businesses are about providing excellent service at competitive prices which is why having presence in all of Europe’s regions is crucial to developing ‘home grown’ services that cross borders in the spirit of co-operation rather than cross swords over disputed territory.