Inttra, the world's ocean shipping electronic marketplace, on Wednesday announced that it has acquired Avantida, the European market leader in empty container management for ocean carriers.

Avantida is headquartered in Belgium and currently conducts business in seven European countries.

Enhanced coordination of land and ocean container movements generates efficiencies and reduces costs, and Inttra's entry into landside container logistics will provide additional value for existing and new customers.
Avantida's core business - digitized, automated container reuse and repositioning - addresses a major challenge for ocean carriers, transport companies, terminals, depots, and other stakeholders.

Industry experts estimate that empty container positioning costs the ocean shipping industry up to $20 billion a year, approximately 40 percent of handling costs.
 
"Avantida, an industry leader in digitized container logistics, has products and customer bases that are highly complementary to those of Inttra. Acquiring Avantida advances our strategy of extending our reach into the intermodal value chain, enabling Inttra to better serve our customers," remarked Inttra's CEO, John Fay.

"With cutting-edge, cloud-based technology and a unique business model, Avantida enhances efficiency and delivers substantial value to carriers, shippers, and other landside transport companies," he stated.

"I am very pleased to welcome Avantida's team to the Inttra family and I am confident that they will continue to execute on their mission supplemented by Inttra's resources," he noted.

Avantida's CEO Luc De Clerck said: "We are excited to join forces with Inttra. Together we can leverage technology innovation to digitize and transform a multi-billion dollar market that is central to global trade."

Inttra's global network will enable us to accelerate product adoption in Europe and around the world. Our combined offering will further benefit numerous stakeholders within and beyond ocean shipping and container logistics, including reducing CO2 emissions and congestion at ports and surrounding communities," stated De Clerck.

Avantida will operate as an Inttra-owned company and customers should continue to use the same sales and service contacts, he added.-TradeArabia News Service