CEPI Seminar highlights new EU transport policy
Jaap Simonse, IFPTA Vice-President Europe
PPI TS19 Conference Co-Chairman
Published: November 30, 2010
Good morning America!
Last Wednesday, on behalf of the IFPTA, I acted as a session chairman at the Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI) Transport Seminar on Sustainability. The seminar, held in Brussels, was part of the CEPI annual conference and get together.
CEPI has members from about 20 European countries and works to increase the visibility of the paper industry on emerging issues, making expert and constructive contributions to the industry in quite a few activities. The group has a number of committees on issues affecting the industry, including Forest, Environment, Competitiveness, Recycling, and Production.
The European paper industry has a world market share of about 27%. Some of the European paper industry key figures: 780 companies; 1,150 mills; 120 million mts of paper; 23 million mts of pulp; 250 million mts of raw and finished forest products transported within Europe each year.
The seminar was a very good experience. Graeme Rodden, who covered the seminar for the IFPTA Journal, acted as chairman for the first part of the morning on EU transport policy. Speakers were Nicolette van der Jagt, Secretary General of the European Shippers Council (over 100,000 members in Europe) and Pawel Stelmaszczyk of the European commission. My duty was to moderate the second part, looking at some specific business cases, with Frank Verhoeven with Vos Logistics, and Riny Strik, Regional Director Business Logistics with SCA.
Of course, it was all about sustainability. The European commission will introduce strict guidelines in terms of CO2 reduction in the near future. SCA and Vos are well ahead of the rest of the European pack. The European Shippers Council understands the need but states that they can not accept higher logistics costs. All presentations have been placed on the CEPI website (www.cepi.org).
I must say I learned a lot. When I heard about the future ruling of the EU, I was really surprised regarding the speed in which things are about to change. This ruling means changes not only for intra-European transport but in due course also sea transportation to and from other continents. Buyers will really need to request a better focus from shippers on sustainability as well.
The attendance was of high quality, although due to the many parallel session, the audience was sparse at times. Still, I believe that the seminar was received well and the issues raised were part of an important conversation taking place all over the industry. Many of the topics matched the conversations at the IFPTA 2nd South American Regional Seminar in São Paulo.
Our cooperation with CEPI next year at PPI Transport Symposium 19 should produce a very interesting and memorable session.
