The Dolphin Express Service (DEX) of the Lidl shipping company Tailwind is to be expanded. From October, the shortsea service will call at four additional ports.
Stops in Antwerp (Belgium), Setúbal (Portugal), Cádiz (Spain) and Casablanca (Morocco) will be added to the existing Moerdijk-Barcelona route. The 21-day rotation will operate weekly from the north, with Tailwind returning from Barcelona directly to Moerdijk as before.
Three 1,380 TEU container ships, which are already part of the Tailwind fleet, will be deployed on the DEX. The “Panda 004” and the “Panda 005” are already in operation on the current DEX route. The “Panda 003”, which was last sub-chartered, will return to Tailwind with the start of the extended liner service, as the company announced.
The new route is intended to make the flow of goods within Europe “even more efficient and sustainable”, according to the company. Nico Peters, VP Commercial Management at Tailwind Shipping Lines, explains: “Thanks to the higher loading capacity of modern ships, sea transport offers the advantage of lower CO2 emissions per container transported compared to transport with conventional diesel trucks.” With the expanded Dolphin Express, Tailwind is also opening up its reliable service to other ports in Western Europe and North Africa, both for Lidl and for third-party customers.
Tailwind ordered its own newbuildings for the first time
The port of Moerdijk is also particularly valuable in the DEX network, offering a waterside connection to Duisburg, the world’s largest inland port, through a partnership with WEC Lines, A2B and the Danser Group. The route offers an alternative to CO2-intensive road transportation.
In addition, the port call in Casablanca enables a fast connection from Morocco to China. In Barcelona, the shipping company can organize transhipment to the Panda Express Service to East Asia. Both the Panda Express Service (between China and the Mediterranean region) and the recently expanded Tiger Express Service (between Bangladesh, Malaysia, Vietnam and Sri Lanka) continue to operate according to the usual timetables.
The Lidl shipping company last attracted attention in May when it ordered its own newbuildings for the first time. Five container ships of 8,400 TEU each, which were originally ordered by Peter Döhle, will be sailing for Tailwind in the near future.
