Cross-Trade FCL: 30 × 40'HC from Valencia and Haifa to Sihanoukville and Lagos
Valencia / Haifa → Sihanoukville / Lagos
A Latvian agricultural commodities trader ships animal feed and fertilizers from Valencia and Haifa to Sihanoukville in Cambodia and Apapa, Lagos in Nigeria, and Unicore controls every one of those containers from Riga without the cargo ever entering Latvia. In July and August 2026 that meant four FCL bookings with Maersk: 10 and then 9 × 40'HC of animal feed Valencia → Sihanoukville, 6 × 40'HC of fertilizers Haifa → Sihanoukville and 5 × 40'HC of animal feed Haifa → Apapa. Year to date the same customer has moved 47 containers across nine cross-trade sea shipments on four lanes.
Shipment Facts
The Challenge
The trader buys in Spain and Israel and sells in Cambodia and Nigeria, so nothing it ships has a reason to pass through Riga, yet it still wants one forwarder in Latvia to hold the whole movement. Each lane has its own load port, export formalities, line contract and destination agent, and the bill of lading has to be issued for the trader with the consignee at destination rather than for the supplier who hands the boxes over at the terminal. Volumes come in blocks of five to ten 40'HC per booking, which means securing both equipment and space with the line for the same sailing. Add two destination regions with very different port practices, and with several local forwarders in the chain no single party can answer for a shipment end to end.
How Unicore Handled It
- Booked each lot as FCL with Maersk out of the load port: 10 × 40'HC in July and 9 × 40'HC in August of animal feed Valencia → Sihanoukville, 6 × 40'HC of fertilizers Haifa → Sihanoukville, and 5 × 40'HC of animal feed Haifa → Apapa, Lagos.
- Arranged terminal handling and export formalities at the load ports in Valencia and Haifa through local agents, with Unicore in Riga remaining the contracting forwarder toward the line.
- Had the bill of lading issued in the trader's name with its buyer as consignee at the destination port, so the document set follows the sale rather than the purchase.
- Tracked the containers through the voyage and kept the destination agents in Sihanoukville and Apapa briefed on arrival and release.
- On one Cambodia shipment a destination handling issue arose before release; Unicore resolved it with the local agent and the containers went out to the consignee.
The Result
- Four FCL bookings, 30 × 40'HC, moved from Spain and Israel to Cambodia and Nigeria in July–August 2026 without a single container routed via Latvia.
- 47 containers across nine cross-trade sea shipments for this customer in 2026 to date, on four lanes: Haifa → Apapa, Haifa → Dar es Salaam, Haifa → Sihanoukville and Valencia → Sihanoukville.
- One contracting forwarder in Riga answerable for booking, documents, tracking and destination release on every lane.
Based on a real Unicore shipment. Customer identity and commercial terms are withheld for confidentiality.