Bringing the global edge to the Nordics

Businesses looking for seamless global cargo movements are delighted with the Joint Venture (JV) between the world’s number one LCL consolidator, ECU Worldwide and Nordicon, the leading ocean freight consolidator in the Nordic region with close to 40% market share in the neutral LCL segment and extensive rail freight capabilities.

The announcement of the JV created quite a stir in the middle of 2021, for the strengthened synergies it would create for businesses looking for a greater foothold into the Nordic region, as well as businesses in the Nordic region looking to expand globally. In fact after the JV, four new direct services have been started from the USA to the Nordic countries, while a number of trade lanes to and from South and East Africa and Mauritius have been re-routed.

At present, for imports Nordicon offers around 75 weekly services, which originate largely from Asia and China to ports in each of the Nordic countries: Gothenburg, Oslo, Hensinki, Copenhagen, and Aarhus. While for exports, Gothenburg is the main gateway and offers 18 weekly services, with around 5-8 services from Oslo and Helsinki.

Diverse offerings – shared gains

A few months into the partnership, the mutual benefits are already visible. Nordicon, which is the market leader in the Nordic region for freight consolidation, stands to significantly gain from ECU Worldwide’s strong global network and the good relations with various stakeholders as a result of long-standing associations. While for ECU Worldwide, this JV has strengthened its presence across the four Nordic countries: Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Denmark.

This move has given customers a huge advantage by enabling seamless global cargo movements backed by enhanced connectivity in the Nordic region, from trusted market leaders.

Rail freight is another area that could benefit from the collaboration. Nordicon has built extensive rail presence in Europe over the past six years, and could leverage ECU Worldwide’s extensive network in the continent to strengthen their reach. As one of the initiators to establish Railgate Europe, a neutral rail transport network between China and Europe, Nordicon constantly collaborates to develop new, improved traffic solutions between these regions.

This specialisation, along with ECU Worldwide’s NVOCC and international air freight services creates a truly win-win situation for customers seeking to optimize their global and domestic business supply chains.

Digitally stronger together

With digitalization being the order of the day, it is important that customers benefit on the digital front more than anything else.

Nordicon’s latest IT solutions and a nifty customer service platform, My Nordicon, and ECU360, ECU Worldwide’s state-of-the-art digital logistics platform, which offers a plethora of convenient features and solutions, are helping customers make the most of technology and enhance efficiencies.

It is this digital first approach that paves the way for much closer integration and broadens the scope for greater IT developments with EDI/API solutions and more, in future.

People – strong

From the perspective of human capital, customers can be assured of the best minds in the industry driving the business forward. With leading experts and logistics veterans at Nordicon and ECU Worldwide, the combined talent pool enables better innovation and solutions, and a sharper approach to customer-centricity.

“We are looking forward to not only strengthening our network, and procuring better ocean rates and contracts, but also looking forward to creating unmatched synergies on the talent and technological front with ECU Worldwide. And the tremendously positive response from our customers is proof of the value they see in this collaboration”, says Linus Ahlm, Managing Director, Nordicon.

Conclusion

With the capacity to build synergies in ocean and rail freight, digital innovation and human capital, and various other facets, the JV between ECU Worldwide and Nordicon is certainly driving huge benefits for customers and setting the stage for increased opportunities and possibilities in the coming months and years.