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Complexity. We prefer to call it ‘a challenge’. You might need a fast and efficient connection route to get your goods in and out. So many questions to answer. Deepsea, shortsea, feeder, barge, road, rail, pipeline … or a combination of all? No worries. We will find the ideal solution, tailored to your specific needs.
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Hoyer to set up dedicated equipment pool Hamburg logistics company Hoyer is
developing a seventh business unit to be launched under the name Netlog on 1 January 2016. Netlog will manage the group-wide equipment pool to achieve further efficiencies.
Netlog will co-ordinate this activity and provide the other business units with the ideal equipment, enabling the latter to focus entirely on their respective transport business. Pooling volumes offers decisive benefits, Hoyer reckons, especially when buying equipment and in reducing vacancy rates. In future, Netlog will also push forward the renting of tank containers and IBCs.
“The system with our business units has proved its worth in the past”, said Ortwin Nast, CEO at Hoyer. “Because equipment is one of our most important assets, we have taken a strategic decision to set up a new business unit for it. This will enable us to develop our processes further and to push forward innovations.”
In July Hoyer brought in Heiko Rumfeld to oversee this task, initially in charge of project management before taking up the position of director business unit Netlog on 1 January 2016. A graduate engineer, Rumfeld was previously managing director of the Duisport agency, where his main responsibility was to expand the port in the container traffic area. He also previously worked at deepsea liner company Hapag Lloyd, where among other things he was senior director responsible for European region sales and customer service.
“Hoyer is one of the world’s market leaders in bulk logistics, and has a considerable tank container fleet of over 34,000 units at its disposal,” said Rumfeld. “I am glad to be there at the start in the development of Netlog, and to be able to contribute my experience to it.”
Recently Hoyer, together with the Baden-Württemberg Landesbank and UniCredit Bank AG, successfully placed a promissory note for a total of €85 million.
Due to the high demand, the original total issue of €50 million was increased. The issue, which was placed with more than 50 banks and savings
banks, was oversubscribed several times. Many international commercial banks were involved in the transaction, in addition to domestic investors, mainly private banks, regional banks and savings banks.
The promissory note was issued in tranches with terms of five and seven years. The individual tranches each carry a variable and a fixed interest rate on a pro rata basis. Due to the high demand for the transaction, it was possible to close the order book early. The interest was fixed at the lower end of the marketing range.
Gerd Peters, chief financial officer of Hoyer Group, said: “Hoyer will use the financial resources from this very successful transaction to finance loans amounting to €47.5 million due in 2015. The remaining balance is available to the company to finance the ambitious investment programme in 2015 and 2016. The promissory note, which was provided by a wide, stable group of investors, strengthens our long-term external financing at very attractive financing conditions.”
www.bulk-distributor.com 25 YEARS SERVING YOUR INDUSTRY
Heiko Rumfeld - glad to be at the start of Netlog
Netlog will manage Hoyer’s group-wide equipment pool enabling the other business units to focus on transport
Duel fuel for XPO The first XPO Logistics LNG-powered trucks
in the UK are now being refuelled at BOC’s new LNG refuelling station in Teesport, Middlesbrough.
Opened recently by BOC, the station is designed to serve the gas supplier’s fleet of 11 dual fuel vehicles transporting industrial gases from its Middlesbrough plant to customers in the surrounding region.
This station is also available to third parties by arrangement.
XPO Logistics is trialling dual fuel technology as part of its commitment to develop sustainable logistics. XPO has invested in 10 dual fuel (LNG and diesel-powered) trucks, and is one of the first third parties to sign up to access the Teesport station to refuel.
The station incorporates the latest ‘zero loss’ refuelling technology developed by BOC, which is part of The Linde Group. This uses cryogenic cooling to ‘temperature-condition’ the fuel just prior to dispensing.
Dual fuel allows natural gas to be used in conjunction with diesel, reducing the total consumption of diesel and cutting CO2 emissions. LNG typically accounts for up to 60 percent of total fuel consumption for a dual-fuel vehicle.
Diesel produces around 2.6kg of CO2 for every litre burned, whereas LNG, when used with diesel in a dual fuel vehicle, typically reduces CO2 emissions by 10-14 percent.
Mark Lowe, BOC’s LNG business manager, said: “BOC is extremely pleased to offer XPO Logistics access to this important, environmentally-friendly alternative to diesel at our new LNG refuelling station. BOC has a long-term commitment to play an active part in the transition to low carbon transport and we look forward to continuing to work with XPO Logistics in the future.”
Ian Marguet, general manager, bulk UK and Ireland for XPO Logistics, added: “We are delighted with the support that BOC has provided as we explore the potential of LNG as a clean alternative fuel to diesel within our heavy truck and tanker fleet. XPO Logistics shares BOC’s commitment to environmentally friendly transport practices.”
In Ireland, BOC Gases has become the first company to achieve FTA Ireland’s silver level of accreditation, recognising its high standards of safety and compliance.
The award was announced at FTAI’s council meeting in October.
The membership accreditation scheme - the first of its type in Ireland – has been designed by FTAI with input from members and is recognised by the country’s Road Safety Authority (RSA).
Sally Thornley, FTA’s director of standards, audit and accreditation, said the award is a significant achievement for the FTAI accreditation scheme and its members.
“The scheme was introduced to improve compliance levels and industry image, both within Ireland and abroad,” she commented. “A silver accreditation means that the organisation has not only put in place a broad range of safety-related standards by way of an annual audit, but also that those systems are being implemented through additional vehicle and driver encounters as well as a site implementation audit.
“This important milestone shows that, through this voluntary scheme, industry can recognise good practice and make a positive contribution to improving road safety.”
For BOC Gases, Niall Cotton, head of deliver Ireland, added: “I am delighted that BOC has been awarded this Silver standard following a very comprehensive audit and accreditation process. For BOC and our parent company, the Linde Group, road transport safety is paramount: safety at BOC means 100 percent compliance, 100 percent of the time.”
Vos Logistics has added LNG low-deck trucks to its fleet of international mega-trailers. Until recently, it used LNG trucks only in the Benelux area and in regional distribution.
The Dutch logistics group started driving its first LNG-powered truck in 2010. Henk-Jan van der Molen, commercial director, noted that using LNG trucks in mega-trailer traffic is a win-win for customers in terms of both costs and sustainability, as the move connects the capacity of mega-trailers (100cbm; 3m interior height) with the benefits of LNG.
“Our ambition is to develop LNG as a fuel for international transport. This expansion of our fleet with LNG-powered trucks reflects our sustainability strategy to reduce the environmental impact of our services and we are working closely with our partners to set up an international network of LNG filling stations,” he said.
Ship operators will need to ensure that the verified gross mass of a container is recorded and used in stow planning
Freight transport insurance groups UK P&I Club and TT Club have welcomed the
amendment to the Safety of Life at Sea Convention (SOLAS) from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) on the requirement that containers have a verified gross mass before being loaded onto a ship.
The requirement becomes mandatory on 1 July 2016, after which date it would be a violation of SOLAS to load a packed container onto a ship if the ship and marine terminal operator do not have a verified container gross mass. Operators who fail to comply will be fined or penalised.
According to the new amendment, the shipper is responsible for obtaining the verified gross mass of a packed container and communicating it to the ocean carrier.
UK P&I and TT Club have published a joint advisory briefing for ship operators. This outlines the key issues for ship operating members to consider in advance of the 1 July 2016 enforcement date.
The briefing points out that there are complexities in international trade and logistics supply chains which can make it difficult to identify ‘the shipper’. The different parties involved in any given supply chain will need to determine how verified gross mass of containers will be obtained, and how this information can be provided by the shipper to the ocean carrier in a timely manner.
Ship operators will need to ensure that the verified gross mass is recorded and used in ship stow planning. It is important to consider the impact of this on existing data capture and control processes, in order to ensure that a container cannot be loaded on board a ship without this verified gross mass. This will affect procedures from the point of initial booking of the cargo through to loading, including communications between partner lines and the terminal operator.
SOLAS requires that the verified gross mass should be obtained by using weighing equipment that meets the relevant accuracy standards and requirements in the State in which the packing of the container is completed.
Finally, failure to abide by the SOLAS amendment may result in fines and other penalties, imposed by Competent Authorities or Port State Control in accordance with relevant national legislation.
However, additional costs and charges will be incurred due to the need to re-pack cargo, administration fees for amending documents and container demurrage charges. Such containers are likely to be delayed and may miss their designated ship, resulting in additional commercial or contractual exposures for cargo interests.
The full joint advisory briefing is available at www.ttclub.com
or www.ukpandi.com
XPO Logistics is trialling dual fuel technology as part of its commitment to develop sustainable logistics
Vos Logistics has added LNG low-deck trucks to its mega-trailer fleet
Few other personalities in European logistics are as trenchant in their criticism of the EU’s railfreight market structure as Lord Berkeley.
Chairman of the UK’s Rail Freight Group and a board member of the European Rail Freight association, Berkeley launched a scathing attack in October on the EU’s two rail giants, Germany’s Deutsche Bahn and France’s SNCF.
Having already criticised what he sees as the watering down of the EU’s 4th Railway Package earlier this year, last month he wrote a blog in a personal capacity ahead of the forthcoming trilogues between the EU Commission, Parliament and Council, warning of a dire future for the continent’s rail services.
“They (ie, France and Germany) have conspired to kill much of the governance parts of the 4th Railway Package that would bring competition and growth to the sector,” he wrote. “Instead, they are dragging the whole sector into what could be terminal decline. On the basis of that, if DB and SNCF fail, they will ensure that no other rail company will succeed; the winner will be road transport.”
Berkeley claimed that a senior DB manager admitted at a conference in May that “DB cannot survive without transferring funds from the infrastructure manager to its Railway Undertakings”.
Of France, Berkeley asserted that: “The general rail situation in France has clearly got worse as a result of the reintegration of SNCF and RFF (the state infrastructure manager) into a vertically integrated monolith that does not seem to know what it is doing”.
“France and Germany have led the way to ensuring that the (EU) Transport Council allows these crumbling monopolies to stagger on, with no transparency or regulation on possible unfair subsidies,” he continued. “Where is the competitive single market to which EU institutions and members states have signed up?”
Berkeley said the European Parliament could still put this right in the trilogues by “strengthening the rules on transparency, resisting hidden financial subsidies, and going back to the original role of the infrastructure manager with full and independent responsibilities”.
That is what is needed to attract private investment into the rail sector and allow it to grow, he added.
Abbey goes intermodal The migrant crisis at Calais has prompted Liverpool, UK-
based Abbey Logistics Group to start multimodal movements from Europe to the UK.
The UK-based logistics firm is deploying intermodal bulk silos initially to transport food ingredients. Using the tank type units will negate the possibility of “immigration intrusion”, the group says, as well as providing more flexible transport options compared with truck-trailer combinations.
Dave Coulson, Abbey’s commercial director, stated: “This is a new and exciting venture for Abbey Logistics Group which will provide a secure, environmentally friendly, flexible and cost effective solution for our bulk movements across European borders.”
Abbey worked with customers to ensure maximum security of their loads while crossing European borders and Coulson said the move will form the basis for increased future continental movements.
“We are also confident that this method of distribution will massively reduce the continuing and regular delays incurred in crossing the channel via Calais, which will assist in improving our delivery performance by eradicating these delays,” he added.
October saw the launch of a new rail link for containers and swap bodies between KombiTerminal Burghausen (KTB) and port of Rotterdam.
The service, by chemical logistics company DB Schenker BTT GmbH, a partner of DB Schenker Rail, runs via the port of Köln-Niehl CTS (Container-Terminal GmbH). Additional gateway connections by barge and rail between Cologne and the port of Rotterdam are also available.
DB Schenker says the service enables freight forwarders, shipping lines and logistics operators to link the local industry of the Bavarian chemical triangle with the Rhine-Ruhr region and the port of Rotterdam “quickly and reliably”, by creating a central hub which offers local transport providers fast transport and web-based container planning at the European and global levels.
“With our new connection to international maritime traffic, our KombiTerminal in Burghausen will be even more attractive for regional industry,” said Dr Carsten Hinne, CEO Schenker BTT GmbH. “Especially the connection with the port of Rotterdam will open up a further possibility to be connected to global import and export quickly, reliably and efficiently.”
“The new train connection that we are setting up together with our partners fits in perfectly with our concept of international expansion of intermodal rail connections, thus always providing a better connection between the regions and our international port,” added Wouter van Dijk, director logistics at Rotterdam Port Authority. “The ancillary infrastructure and the additional services of the port of Rotterdam make us an attractive alternative for freight forwarders and shipping companies.”
Strengthening rules on transparency is crucial to attracting private investment and more competition, says Lord Berkeley
Stobart sets up on the ThamesEddie Stobart has announced a new container transport base at DP World London Gateway
port. The logistics firm believes the location will provide Eddie Stobart with a strategic operational base to
support growth in the south of the UK.As well as being on the doorstep of London and the South East, London Gateway will allow Eddie Stobart
to serve destinations across the UK, using road and rail solution to provide shipping lines and cargo owners the opportunity to reduce mileage and costs as well as supporting their overall carbon reduction agendas and increasing supply chain reliability.
Alex Laffey, the company’s CEO, said of the announcement: “We see the potential at DP World London Gateway and the opportunity to offer our customers greater cost efficiencies and environmentally friendly supply chain solutions. As a multimodal transport and warehouse provider, we believe that London Gateway provides a natural strategic fit with the growth plans for our business. We look forward to working in partnership with the DP World team so that we can jointly offer world class transport solutions.”
London Gateway CEO Simon Moore commented: “We are delighted to welcome Eddie Stobart Logistics to DP World London Gateway. It’s great to see a leading brand realise its growth plans here at Britain’s newest port and logistics park, which reduces costs from supply chains by allowing customers to ship closer and save money.
“We welcome Stobart’s commitment to provide competitive prices for deliveries into the UK market. The team are highly professional and I’m confident Eddie Stobart will provide UK cargo owners and shippers the very best in service and deliver real savings across the industry.”
The port and logistics park is located closer to the midlands and the location also enables quicker access to the biggest consumer market in the UK, London. The capital is expected to grow from 8.7 million to 10 million consumers in the next 15 years.
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Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) subsidiary Barcelona Europe South Terminal (BEST) moved 15,000 TEU via
rail in August, breaking its previous record of 13,000 TEU set in March of this year. During August BEST serviced nearly 300 trains, a 25 percent increase on its monthly average.
The terminal is equipped with two rail mounted gantry cranes allowing trains to be loaded in an average of 1.5 hours per train and unloaded in one hour. Each train has 22 wagons with capacity for 72 TEU.
Guillermo Belcastro, general manager of BEST, said it was an important milestone for BEST and the Port of Barcelona. “With the continued hard work and support from the stevedores and the Barcelona Port Community we hope to sustain this trend for growth,” he commented.
Rail traffic at BEST has increased significantly in recent years, increasing from 7.17 percent of local traffic in 2010 to 19 percent currently.
BEST has an eight-track railway facility, the biggest on-dock railway terminal of any port in the Mediterranean. The rail facilities currently serve a large hinterland within a 600km radius of Barcelona. The potential market for rail has expanded in recent years supporting the strategic objective of the Port of Barcelona to become the Mediterranean’s alternative access point for European markets.
Best operates an average of 65 weekly services to and from main destinations; Azuqueca (Madrid), Lisboa, Noain (Pamplona), Selgua, Zaragoza Plaza, Zaragoza TMZ, Villafría (Burgos), Tarragona and France.
At the same time TCB Railway, a rail freight company belonging to stevedore Grup TCB, increased freight container traffic at the Port of Barcelona by 16.6 percent in the first nine months of this year. Between January and September, it handled 109,873 TEU, while during the same period last year the volume was 94,218 TEU.
The company expects to exceed 140,000 TEU by the end of year, which would be a record for TCB Railway, exceeding last year’s figure by approximately 10 percent. The company says its growth stems from offering tailor-made and high quality services, who gain access to Spain’s inland markets thanks to dry ports and intermodal transport. The recovery in imports and exports is one of the factors behind the rise of this mode of transport.
Chinese puzzleChina is a similar size to the USA, with a much larger population and phenomenal growth in freight traffic. So why hasn’t intermodal transport really taken off?
Rail intermodal logistics has gained significance in North America over the
past 10-15 years based on cost and operational efficiency. In China, however, the story has so far been different.
Considering the length of haul and commodity characteristics of China’s manufacturing sector, the country has a persistently low incidence of rail intermodal participation in domestic and international supply chains.
A report* by the World Bank has found that the binding constraints behind the low incidence of intermodal services in China are most likely to be found on the supply, rather than demand, side of the equation.
At the root of the challenge is the regulatory and institutional environment which regulates freight tariffs, and which provides little or no flexibility for China Railway Corporation (CRC) to tailor services to customer needs.
The growth of China’s freight transport activity over at least the past 15 years has been breath-taking. Between 1998 and 2013, total freight ton-kilometres transported grew at an average annual rate of 10.4 percent, faster than the rate of growth of the economy as a whole (9.7 percent). In volume terms, both exports and imports grew at double-digit levels over the same period (15.5 and 15 percent, respectively, per year), generating significant transport demand in the process.
Not surprisingly, estimates show that between 1990 and 2008 the exports sector contributed between 15 and 30 percent to China’s GDP growth. The freight transport sector has been instrumental in enabling China’s trade and investment-led growth model.
Yet when looking at the composition of China’s freight transport demand over the past several years, a clear picture emerges: it has been facilitated primarily by the road and, second, the waterway sectors at the expense of rail. Between 2008 and 2013, the most recent period for which official statistics are available using the same measurement, China’s freight ton-km transported over the road grew at an average annual rate of 16.7 percent, nearly double the rate of growth of the economy and nearly three times the rate of growth of rail freight ton-km, which stood at a comparatively low 5.8 percent.
Road is kingWhile in 2008 the rail sector accounted for 22.8 percent of all freight transport activity, by 2013 this had dropped to 17.4 percent. Conversely, over the same period road’s share of freight increased from 29.8 to 33.2 percent, as did that of the waterways, from 45.6 to 47.3 percent; that is, nearly all market share lost by the rail sector between 2008 and 2013 was gained by the highways (3.4 percentage points) and the waterways (1.7 percentage points).
A longstanding lack of capacity in the rail network to accommodate more freight traffic has been a key determinant of this shift in mode share, says the report.
Partly, this has been due to China spending mega-amounts on new highways to make road haulage faster and cheaper.
But developments in service delivery are also to blame. A recent assessment of China’s freight mobility by the US Department of Transportation noted that “the movement of containers receives low priority on China’s rail network, following military, passenger, energy, and food movements.”
As a result, China’s containerised supply chains today make scant use of rail. According to another study, in 2010 only 1.3 percent of China’s maritime port container throughput was moved to/from ports via rail.
By comparison, 85 percent of all containers handled entered or left ports mounted on truck
chassis on the highways, while the remaining 14 percent used the waterways.
The challenge for China is how to modernise and develop its rail intermodal sector in a way that matches the remarkable performance improvements in the highway and container terminal sectors (and, on the passenger side, by high speed rail). In this respect, the experience of improving intermodal rail services in North America can be a useful parameter, the World Bank report suggests, not least because, for a significant share of China’s containerised exports, the North American network is a continuation of the same supply chain.
China and CRC as its national operator are in the midst of a particularly favourable environment towards reforming the sector. This is due to the fact that massive high-speed rail investments have for the first time freed up freight rail capacity (in many cases on a dedicated basis) and placed CRC in a position to manage freight capacity relative to demand, rather than simply making capacity available in an environment of seemingly constant under-capacity.
In addition, on-going reforms at CRC, and broader economic reforms in China, which have called for the market to play a decisive role in the allocation of resources, are thoroughly consistent with the type of reforms that allowed the North American intermodal sector to modernise.
The World Bank argues that the most fundamental corollary of the North American freight rail modernisation experience, including intermodal, is that there is a mutually reinforcing relationship between pricing and service-level flexibility, market segmentation, and ‘customer centricity’.
Customer serviceIn the view of some industry observers, one of the primary reasons why rail intermodal penetration in China remains strikingly low is that CRC, while technically competent, has not developed fully-fledged customer service and customer responsiveness.
Yet, is this cause or symptom? The report maintains that the true root cause is more likely to be CRC’s regulatory and institutional environment, which regulates freight tariffs and provides little or no flexibility for the rail giant to tailor services to customer needs. In other words, the North American experience has shown that rate and service-level flexibility is a pre-requisite of customer centricity.
China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) Notice No 2928 (2014) offers an opportunity to start introducing flexibility in China’s railway sector. This could include the introduction of manageable, yet meaningful, railway pricing reform.
The second lesson from the North American experience is that door-to-door, port-to-door, and door-to-port intermodal itineraries are delivered by an ecosystem of public and private sector firms and regulators, rather than a single dominant firm. Within this ecosystem, the fact that a supply chain is only as strong as its weakest link ensures that participants have a vested interest in strengthening not only their own performance but that of the chain as a whole.
This yields several useful implications for China, including that CRC need not control the end-to-end intermodal chain in order to be a successful participant in China’s rail intermodal ecosystem.
Instead, CRC could choose to participate in those parts where it has a core business rationale, like, infrastructure, network management, line-haul service, wholesale marketing and sales, and consider whether and to what extent to remain in those parts where the competitive advantage rationale may be weaker (such as retail marketing,
operation of intermodal terminals, and delivery of local drayage services).
Current conditions favour regulatory, operating, and ecosystem improvements in China’s rail intermodal sector, the report concludes. The transformations underway in the country’s economic geography caused by increasing manufacturing inland away from the country’s Eastern seaboard, coupled with road congestion in some urban markets and the cost impact of highway tolls, low service levels in trucking, and environmental degradation from heavy truck emissions, are all good conditions for a surge in rail intermodal demand.
In fact, much of this demand has likely already materialised, but is unable to be fulfilled due to supply-side constraints. The low incidence of containerised rail transport is at odds with the freight modal mix of countries with similar economic geography features, such as the US. And as the development of high speed rail has in effect freed up capacity for freight rail at key
portions of China’s rail network, CRC is increasingly in a position to undertake supply management measures.
However, three key factors are likely to be critical. First is the extent to which the proposed terminal network will provide adequate coverage and sufficient capacity, including connections to international gateways like maritime ports.
Second, these terminals need to be developed in conjunction with complementary logistics services, such as warehouses, container depots, and terminals for other modes. Finally, CRC would need to customise intermodal service delivery to match divergent customer needs based on factors like willingness to pay, commodity type, volumes tendered, supply chain routing, and the like.
*Customer-driven Rail Intermodal Logistics: Unlocking a New Source of Value for China. By Luis C Blancas, Gerald Ollivier, Richard Bullock, The World Bank, Washington DC
China’s freight demand has been met primarily by road transport
Transporting containers receives low priority on China’s rail network compared with passengers and energy
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This year’s ITCO General Meeting, held in Antwerp, Belgium on 19-20 October, focused on major social and industrial trends as well as changing market conditions.
Around 170 participants from 90 companies contributed to the discussions. The general meeting is the central event during which ITCO members, customers and other players in the tank container industry can meet in a professional environment to discuss latest developments and receive updates on the evolution of the organisation itself.
In a sort of helicopter view, participants discussed what global developments – such as terrorism, national crises and bankruptcies, climate change and digitalisation – might imply for the tank container industry. And looking at day-to-day business participants explored how to improve risk management by learning from insurance claims.
A number of new and ongoing ITCO projects have been confirmed
for 2016, including:
Tank Container Promotion: Development of an on-going process and strategy to promote tank container benefits compared with other modes of transport and packaging.
E-Learning: Introduction of an E-Learning Awareness Course to meet the training provisions of IMDG and a tangible action to promote the safe use of tank containers.
Fleet Survey: Publication of the 3rd Annual Tank Container Survey (2016 Edition)
Corporate Responsibility: Publication of an ‘ITCO Corporate Responsibility Code of Practice in the Tank Container Industry’.
Remote Monitoring Equipment: Publication of ‘ITCO Recommended Guidelines for Positioning of Remote Monitoring Equipment on Tank Containers’.
IMO Verification of Gross Mass Regulations: On-going information about VGM Regulations, effective 1 July 2016 and the impact on tank container operators.
Quality Assessment: Co-operating in the development of a Global Quality Assessment System for the Tank Container Industry including operators, lessors and depots.
ITCO ‘Designed for Life’ Project: An ITCO Corporate Responsibility Lighthouse, looking into the life cycle of tank containers.
The next ITCO General Meeting will take place in Dubai in December 2016. With this the following events and dates are scheduled for next year:
24 February 2016. 2nd North America Regional Meeting, Houston
14-16 June 2016. Transport Logistic China, ITCO Village & Conference, Shanghai
October 2016. Regional Meeting, AmsterdamDecember 2016. General Meeting, Dubai
www.itco.be
operators course New Alchemy is to present its Tank Container Operators
Course again.Now in its 29th year the latest course starts on 11 January 2016 in
Southport, Merseyside, UK, and examines dangerous goods regulations, the classification of chemicals, design and construction of tanks and finally operating requirements whereby the previous parts of the course are all brought together.
It will be of interest not only to tank container operators but also to shippers who can gain an insight into the problems and requirements for tank operating as well as general dangerous goods matters.
The course deals with the UN requirements for second-generation portable tanks and T-codes. It also deals with the various transitional periods for the continued use of first-generation IMO style tanks and further changes to T-codes allocated to various products in 2014, 2016 and 2018, eg, to UN 1595.
The MSC Circular published by the IMO explaining in greater detail the interface between IMO tanks and UN tanks will be introduced to trainees.
Onerous changes concerning the security of dangerous goods were introduced into the international regulations in 2005. These provisions affect virtually all tank container operators who will have to develop security plans. These measures, introduced as a result of the events of 11 September 2001 in the USA, will be discussed.
The complex and controversial rules concerning the classification of aquatic pollutants will also be outlined during the course.
The full training course costs €1,560 for non-UK trainees based in the European Union. For UK based trainees and trainees located in non-EU courtiers the fee is £1,110 + 20 percent value added tax. Trainees registering by 27 November 2015 may claim an earlybird 10 percent discount.
Fees become due for payment no later than the day the course starts. Numbers are limited to a maximum of 12 per course, and the course is non-residential.
7 BULKDISTRIBUTORNovember/December 2015 Tank Containers
Making informed decisions when allocating tank containers can be made a whole lot easier when using a system that uses live data from the depot and is able to ‘speak’ to other parties in the supply chain
The allocation of tanks within tank container fleets can be a delicate business –operators need to meet safety and
regulatory requirements while also increasing fleet utilisation and (ultimately) profits.
Currently, most tank allocation is done manually, which can simply mean that operators don’t always have sufficient information to hand to allow them to make the best commercial decisions. Needless to say, manual decision-making also leaves a margin for human error that could result in costly or even dangerous mistakes.
The solution is to increase the visibility of the entire tank container fleet and pair this with information about each tank’s trading history. To do this, tank asset management software can be invaluable. But why?
At the depot“Doing the tank planning in the system means you can have system validation, better control over the allocation of the tank to the order, and thirdly almost auto-allocating tanks, providing the user with an advised tank for each order selected – the ‘best fit’,” explains Jeremy Dunnett, senior consultant for specialist software company RAM Intermodal, which has developed a tank asset management tool that also includes an electronic data interchange (EDI) module.
Using an ‘almost’ automated system to allocate tanks also reduces manpower and associated labour costs, so there are savings in time and cost amongst the benefits.
“The other benefit is reducing mistakes,” says Dunnett. “The worst case example might be that you send a tank without the right approvals to America and it will get rejected at the quay. Hence, there are lots of business reasons to want to remove the possibility of mistakes occurring.”
RAM Intermodal’s tank allocation software uses system validation to help prevent mistakes like this. Warnings flash up when the operator allocates a tank that is inappropriate for the product to be carried. This might be based on classifications or capacity full ratios, for instance.
A company can also present its own business requirements into the system such as ensuring a domestic fleet of tanks does not leave the country. “To operate in certain parts of the world, you need certain certification and grading of the tanks, so we can also control that using the system,” says Dunnett.
Ultimately, the system is about providing the user with a tool that helps improve and optimise the planning process using collated fleet and depot information. But using an automated system cannot totally replace the expertise and experience of human operators. That is why the RAM Intermodal tank planning system allows business rules to be written into the software that circumvent what the computer might see as the most ‘logical’ tank to be allocated in order to make the ‘best’ commercial decision and improve fleet utilisation.
“It might be that the tank has been idle for a long time and is located a little further away than a tank that has just come off hire, for example,” Dunnett explains. “The business rules could be written to say that that idle tank is a better fit because you want to get it moving again. So it’s really based around having visibility of the fleet and setting the planning rules in place to help keep tanks moving.”
This visibility across the whole fleet allows users to spot trends that may be inhibiting fleet utilisation, such as which particular tanks in which areas stay idle for the longest and so on.
Linking the chainRAM Intermodal’s tank asset management tool is able to import depot status reports using EDI. These reports are used to give an up-to-date, live representation of the depot’s current status. “So that means the tank status in RAM is always live and is not so reliant on this off-system manual process,” says Dunnett.
The EDI capability has been developed and enhanced in response to growing demand from the industry for electronic exchange of tank data between players. Larger tank depots are already investing in software solutions that allow them to exchange EDI information, and this is driving demand from smaller depots too. RAM Intermodal
reports that some of its customers are already using its EDI tank planning software, with more customers set to follow.
But there’s an obstacle in the way of uptake of EDI technology across tank container supply chains. “All of our customers are saying the same thing: we need to improve industry-wide EDI compatibility,” Dunnett notes. There is not yet one standardised mode of exchanging tank data between parties, and this is something the International Tank Container Organisation (ITCO) has been working on. Software companies such as RAM Intermodal have their part to play too – solutions that work best and prove to be the most widely implemented will heavily influence the industry-wide standardisation process.
“If the industry was able to solve that issue then that would help the software progress even further,” comments RAM Intermodal’s Nicola Byers.www.ramintermodal.com
Tank asset management software can be invaluable in increasing the visibility of the entire fleet and pairing this with each tank’s trading history
Hazardous helicopter view The use of telematics is not unknown in container logistics.
Its use and scope of application is limited however. This is due to lack of technological maturity, practicality and an unattractive cost/benefit ratio.
A lot of systems are not modular or vendor-independent enough to create value beyond their actual application. Modern telematics and/or M2M technology do not have these limits. This technology can be connected to all types of carriers and containers as required, thereby creating comprehensive optimisation opportunities for container logistics.
Savvy Telematics says its systems can provide a comprehensive overview of shipments, freight and containers – even for hazardous goods.
Transparent process chainGPS and the Russian navigation system GLONASS make it possible to track and trace freight and tank containers on roads, on rails and at sea in real time. Uninterrupted positioning naturally helps transport companies control their processes. In a supply chain that includes the manufacturer, the shipper and the customer, everybody benefits from positioning data.
Current shipping and delivery status become transparent. Knowing the exact delivery date as well as any delays or breakdowns makes it possible to adjust the production process and external material flows in collaboration with manufacturers and shippers exactly as needed. New services and synergies are possible. In addition, containers can be continuously monitored. If any leave the specified location or route, an alarm is set off. Automatic stock control reduces the risk of loss or theft.
Circulation optimisation Locating positions is not everything. Internal sensors in the telematics hardware and standard industrial sensors can record more data: loading status, pressure, temperature, mileage and so on. Together, all of this data provides a comprehensive overview of the transports, the freight and the containers. Based on this and using business intelligence solutions, it is possible on the one hand to analyse container circulation to determine optimisation opportunities and make realistic business trend prognoses.
On the other hand, a large number of data-driven processes, such as freight and quality documentation, temperature-controlled transport management, yard management and classification systems, like first-in, first-out, can be simplified and automated. Maintenance
can be improved by recording mileage and damage through shock detectors.
Hazardous goods transportThis concept can be expanded to include hazardous goods transports. Containers equipped with explosion-proof telematics systems like the Savvy CargoTrac-Ex can be driven to and from tank and chemical storage areas. This means tank container and tank wagon operators also have the opportunity to optimise their yard management, circulation monitoring or fleet management. They can more easily comply with regulations when they store hazardous goods in one place and minimise risks by continuously monitoring container status.
Minimising risksOccasionally, hazardous goods leak out of containers. Connecting containers with the logistics back-end (in other words, matching positioning data with hazardous goods documentation) makes it possible to identify quickly potential risks and organise appropriate countermeasures. This helps avoid wasting valuable time to conduct extensive fire service investigations. In turn, this reduces both the extent of the damage and the costs incurred.
In sum, all stakeholders in container logistics with intelligent high-performance telematics such as the products developed, for example by Savvy Telematic Systems, have an optimisation system at their disposal that can be used predominantly in one area or across the board and can cover all aspects of the transport chain. Synergies, customisation options and vendor independence further increase the benefits, thereby enabling outstanding increases in productivity which is also highly cost effective.www.savvy-telematics.com
Savvy CargoTrac-Ex telematic device - at three notifications per day its expected service life is up to 15 years
Stolt Tank Containers reported third-quarter operating revenue of US$127.9 million, down
from $131.3 million in the second quarter. The decline in revenue was attributable to downward
price adjustments driven by increased competition, along with an increased percentage of intra-regional shipments. Utilisation was 70 percent, compared with 71.3 percent in the second quarter, due to delivery of new tanks in the second and third quarters. Both the number of shipments and the number of tanks in STC’s global fleet were essentially unchanged in the third quarter, compared with the second quarter, as higher cost, older leased units were off-hired.
STC’s third-quarter operating profit fell to $15.6 million from $18.6 million in the previous quarter, due to the decrease in revenue and higher administrative and general expenses, reflecting in part the opening of the new Moerdijk depot.
design ready for launchAmerican firm CSS Alliance says it is ready to launch a new
specialised container which could be of interest to bulk product shippers.
Details seem scarce, but CSS Alliance, a management services firm specialising in manufacturing, works closely with Intermobile, a container designer based in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
CSS Alliance itself was acquired in September by Aperture Health, Inc, which describes itself as “a development stage company engaged in the merger and acquisition of revenue generating companies”.
Intermobile had already designed a bulk product container with top-load gravity feed for loading, and integral hoppers and pneumatic outlet for discharge. The design fits in a 20ft ISO frame with corner castings, effectively turning it into an intermodal unit. Intermobile’s website explains that the system reduces supply chain costs by eliminating the need for costly rail or road hoppers, as well as large-scale transloading infrastructure.
A press release from CSS Alliance said the two firms had “identified a new design called an HQ container. This container is bigger and meets the needs for companies that need to transport more product.”
The statement confirmed the new design has standard high cube (hence ‘HQ’) dimensions: 20ft long x 9.6ft high x 8ft wide. The capacity of the HQ is 20.5 cbm, against 15.5 cbm in the standard 8.6ft version. This equates to a payload up to 34 tonnes against 25 tonnes.
A follow up press release issued on 13 October stated that Aperture and CSS projected 500 containers sold by the end of 2015. Currently the company is on the verge of signing three contracts ready for manufacturing as soon as UCC approval and final testing is given on the HQ container, the statement read.
According to the designer, it has a wide range of applications, from energy use – for example, transporting frac sand or fly ash – to agriculture, where it can be used to move fertiliser, flour, soy, corn and grains.
The projected forecast for the larger devices is to produce over 50,000 units “as quickly as possible”, outsourcing production to US and international manufacturers.
relief Tank component manufacturer Fort Vale is launching a new
range of 80mm flanged relief valves aimed at the intermodal market.
The Hyper Maxi valve is the result of extensive research, development and testing and will offer users unparalleled flow performance predictability. It is approved by Lloyd’s Register and has patents pending on the design of a new integral safety feature.
Historically, valve manufacturers have performed accredited witness flow testing for relief valves at third-party facilities. Testing is a costly process and is usually carried out over the course of a week. The test programme is pre-agreed and allows little scope for development changes while testing is underway, nor the ability to test every valve with a combination of gauze, bursting disc or cowl. Furthermore, there are very few facilities around the world able to test at the required flow rates.
For these reasons, Fort Vale made a significant financial investment in a purpose-built test laboratory at its UK headquarters. The gas flow rig is designed to BSEN4126 and ASME VIII Div.1 and is approved and certified by Lloyd’s Register. Devised to test relief valves with a maximum flow rate of 6.1 Nm3/s at 5.28 Bar, it has allowed the company to assess accurately and quickly any combination of relief valve and ancillary item that may affect flow, within the limitations of the test rig. Fort Vale believes that this is an unrivalled facility that allows it to make a unique contribution to the universal safety of tank containers.
As part of its continual development programme, Fort Vale conducted a detailed analysis of the operation and flow characteristics of its entire range of relief valves. This is believed to be the most comprehensive study ever undertaken on valves and systems for intermodal tanks and has brought about an enhanced practical understanding of valve operating conditions, particularly with regard to de-ration factors for ancillary parts, such as gauzes and burst discs.
When a tank builder is determining a relief valve flow requirement, the calculation is based on a valve fitted with a burst disc and gauze to allow for maximum de-ration, even if no ancillary parts will be fitted eventually. Witness testing has proved that the flow rate of an 80mm Hyper Maxi relief valve, both with and without de-ration factors, meets current regulatory requirements and, at the time of going to press, exceeds all current published comparative flow rates of relief valves by other manufacturers.
The Hyper Maxi series of 80mm relief valves will offer a range of pressure settings from 3 psi up to 204 psi (0.21 Bar to 14.07 Bar) and vacuum settings from 0.5”Hg to 24”Hg (0.02 Bar to 0.81 Bar). There are three body styles; standard, short extended and long extended, each with a slotted flange to facilitate four common drilling patterns.
The valve body and port geometry has been optimised and now incorporates a ‘lift stop’, which is subject to a patent application and which enables the valve’s pressure plate lift to be precisely controlled. This reduces turbulence and improves the valve’s
performance which means that the flow rate of the valve remains accurate and consistent – a fact which has been proved by repeated testing.
Fort Vale reports that, while the new 80mm flanged Hyper Maxi will be phased in to replace the existing 80mm Super Maxi model, the supply of the current range of 65mm bore and 65-80mm tapered bore Super Maxi valves will continue. It is planned to incorporate the ‘lift stop’ safety feature across Fort Vale’s range of relief valves and this process has already started with the 65mm Super Maxi range.
Because of the design changes, some of the components are not interchangeable between the existing 80mm Super Maxi and the new 80mm Hyper Maxi. However, Fort Vale states that it will continue to supply spare parts and world-wide after-market service and support for the Super Maxi indefinitely.
Fort Vale regularly stresses the importance of using only genuine spare parts, ancillaries and consumables, available through its authorised distribution network. “To accept substitute or ‘copy’ components is not merely false economy. This invalidates product warranty and jeopardises the safety and performance characteristics of both the Fort Vale product and the vessel to which it is fitted,” the company comments. “Our test data corroborates that customers will experience significantly reduced flow rates and greater de-rations when non-genuine components, such as springs, or alternative ancillaries, such as gauzes, are used in conjunction with a Fort Vale relief valve.”www.fortvale.com
Fort Vale’s new 80mm Hyper Maxi relief valve
Huge Saudi order for Greenbrier Saudi Railway Company (SAR) has placed an order with
Greenbrier for approximately 1,200 railroad tank cars. Three types of tank car will support industrial mining operations
– led by the national mining company, Ma’aden – at Wa’ad al Shamal Industrial City in the Sirhan-Turaif region of northern Saudi Arabia. The tank cars will facilitate rail transport of molten sulphur and phosphoric acid, products that are used in a range of industrial activities.
Greenbrier will build the tank cars for SAR under US supervision and management at its wholly-owned Wagony Swidnica subsidiary in Swidnica, Poland. Track dimensions in Saudi Arabia are identical to those in the USA, and the cars will be built to US standards on production lines certified by the Association of American Railroads. Delivery of the first tank cars to SAR will begin in the second half of 2016 and will be completed in 2017 and 2018, depending on car type.
Saudi Arabia is a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) which also includes: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. A number of large-scale infrastructure projects are either currently underway or being planned in the region. These projects will require railroad rolling stock, repair and wheel service facilities, and specialised know-how. As a result, the aggregate railcar demand for GCC countries investing in rail is expected to be strong through the next decade.
William A. Furman, chairman and CEO of Greenbrier, said:
“Greenbrier is fully committed to its global manufacturing network. We demonstrated this earlier in 2015 when we announced the reorganisation of our global manufacturing operations to ensure all of our manufacturing activities in North America, South America and Europe operate under common leadership and follow shared best practices developed through decades of experience and work with partners like Bombardier in Mexico and Amsted Rail in Brazil. Our entry into Saudi Arabia’s railcar market is a great honour and a great responsibility as we participate with the Kingdom in one of its premier economic development and engineering projects at Wa’ad al Shamal City.”
Furman added that Greenbrier intends to hire and train Saudi employees who will create a sustained base of operations in the country. “These highly trained and qualified employees will create a vibrant and sustained operation in Saudi Arabia that supports and contributes to the Kingdom’s rail and infrastructure investments,” Furman said.
“We are extraordinarily pleased to work with an enterprise of the calibre of SAR. Through our work, we hope to help SAR meet its objectives, create more employment opportunities for Saudi engineers and technicians and assist the Kingdom with its broader goals of economic growth and diversity. We will open offices in Saudi Arabia, led by an on-site Greenbrier country manager and supported by project managers in Riyadh and at Wa’ad al Shamal City.”
FORT VALE HYPER MAXI - PROVEN, PREDICTABLE PERFORMANCE.
OUR BEST YET80MM HYPER MAXI
NEW
Den Hartogh launch customer for composite
Den Hartogh has announced it will be one of the first users of the Tankwell-designed composite swap body
tank containers. As reported in the September-October issue of Bulk Distributor the
composite tank has a capacity of 31,000 litres and weighs just 2,230kg, 40 percent less than traditional stainless steel tanks.
Jacco van Holten, commercial director at Den Hartogh Logistics, stated: “These newly designed tank containers will transport two tonnes more product on every trip. Freight cost can be reduced by 5-10 percent as a direct result. Together with this significant increase in payload, comes the saving on actual loading and unloading operations. More payload simply means less transport, less CO2 emission, less physical handlings, less congestion, less risk.”
The newly constructed composite fibre tank containers have a 40 percent better thermal insulation compared to stainless steel tank containers. Holten added: “The need for reheating of the product, prior to the customer delivery, is eliminated with the composite tank containers. This results directly in huge savings on heating costs, but there is also a significant indirect effect on improved safety performance and on time delivery to the final customer.”
The tanks have passed all impact tests at the TÜV test institute in Görlitz, Germany, and certification in accordance with ADR/RID/CSC has been obtained.
Den Hartogh will incorporate the new tanks into its fleet starting December 2015.
In a separate move, Den Hartogh has provided a tank container with teaching materials plus a Gardner Denver pump unit worth €50,000 to the Shipping and Transport College, Rotterdam.
The tank was presented at an event on 8 October. With the donation, Den Hartogh says it wants to contribute to vocational training courses at STC. The college offers secondary vocational training to everyone who wants to work in shipping, the process industry or road transport. STC is currently offering secondary vocational driver training to 180 young people, for example, a training course that combines theory and practice.
Each year about 200 graduates leave STC with secondary vocational qualifications. These include drivers (level 2 training course), planners (level 3) and transport and logistics managers (level 4). Graduates in the latter category often find work as managers. STC aims to motivate young people to consider the industry from as early as the third and fourth year of preparatory secondary vocational education. Young people get to go on a short work placement with a transport company, learn how to drive on the simulator and attend guest lectures from the industry.
Den Hartogh has been an approved apprenticeship company for STC pupils for several years now. Each year, 10 to 12 young people receive hands-on training at the logistics service provider to gain practical experience as drivers, logistics and technical staff, and HR interns. Martin Meulenkamp, group HR director at the logistics firm, is the driving force behind the donation.
“Den Hartogh Logistics invests a lot in young people who are getting ready to enter the labour market. This tank container is an active contribution to encourage young people to find a job in the transport and logistics industry,” he said
Peter Koster, head of the road transport and logistics sector of STC, is enthusiastic about the donation. “Gaining practical experience is an important pillar of the STC training courses,” he commented. “Den Hartogh’s donation allows us to prepare our pupils even better for their future work in the field.”
Meulenkamp explained that Den Hartogh wants to encourage young people to enter the field of liquid transport. “This specialised transport involves many different aspects, such as the operation of a pump unit and the connection of hoses to the tank container,” he continued. “If we teach people about liquid transport, they are likely to choose Den Hartogh as their future employer. We are already working hard to find drivers now and the lack of drivers will only increase in the future.”
Arthur van Dijk, chairman of the Dutch Association for Transport and Logistics, argues that an important condition for success in the labour market is that the courses meet the requirements of the business. “That connection is made every day in apprenticeships and work experiences. The transport and logistics sector also offer good job prospects. Den Hartogh’s initiative brings pupils very close to the everyday work in the field, which we applaud,” said van Dijk. www.denhartogh.com
Den Hartogh will incorporate the new tanks into its fleet starting December 2015
silver anniversary Montgomery TankServices has marked its
25th anniversary by making a significant investment in its specialised UK-wide fleet.
The haulage firm has added 16 new vehicles to its fleet in recent months, meaning that it now has over 125 bulk tankers carrying liquid, powder, bulk products and fuel throughout the UK and across Europe.
Included in the fleet is a Feldbinder suction and delivery tanker, which was introduced to enable product to be uplifted from a customer’s silo and redelivered to another delivery point at short notice.
Working from bases at Preston and Heysham, in North West England, as well as Dublin, Ireland, and its Northern Ireland headquarters in Glengormley, Montgomery TankServices transports 10,000 tonnes of products for a wide range of high-profile customers every week.
The company is a division of the Montgomery Transport Group, which itself is celebrating its 45th anniversary.
The group has experienced continued growth since it was established in 1970 as the first company in Ballyvesey Holdings’ transport and logistics stable, which now employs over 2,600 people across road transport operations, vehicle and construction equipment sales, trailer manufacturing, property development and transport support services.
Adding valueDes Hammond, general manager of Montgomery TankServices, said the fleet investment in what is
one of the most modern fleets in the UK was the latest example of the firm’s commitment to adding value.
“The new vehicles have grown our fleet to as large as it has ever been, with the high-end specifications further boosting our capacity to carry hazardous goods, such as flammable and corrosive liquids,” Hammond commented. “This flexibility in terms of the range of products we can carry has helped us enjoy significant and continuous growth in the UK market throughout the past decade in particular.
“With Preston and Heysham as our main operating bases for internal UK services, we transport goods on a daily basis for a number of leading manufacturers and are the sole suppliers into Ireland for a number of blue chip UK companies.”
Looking back on the first 25 years in business, Hammond believes there have been a number of important factors in the firm’s continued growth throughout the UK from its Northern Ireland headquarters.
“We have benefited hugely from the support provided by parent company Ballyvesey Holdings, which is recognised across Europe as one of the leading transport and logistics operations,” he continued.
“This provides us with the flexibility to make ongoing investment while at the same time maintaining the personal relationships with customers and I believe this sets us apart from many of our competitors. With mergers and acquisitions prevalent in the industry in recent years, that personal touch is often lost.
• Handling & storage of empty tank containers• Cleaning of Class 3, 4.1, 6.1, 8, 9 and non-hazardous cargoes• • Cleaning of intermediate bulk containers and road tankers• Repair of tank containers, including structural and shell repairs• Statutory periodic inspection of 2.5 and 5 year • Pre-trip inspection and leak-checks• Steam heating of high viscous products to facilitate discharge• Nitrogen purging and blanketing• • • Tank container leasing• Tracking and coordination services• Tank logistics including transportation and shipping•
Joint Tank Services FZCOPO Box 17512 Jebel Ali Free Zone SouthDubai, United Arab Emirates
JOINT TANK SERVICES FZCORedefining tank cleaning standards...
Member of ITCO
Montgomery TankServices transports 10,000 tonnes of products for a wide range of high-profile customers every week
Montgomery TankServices’ Feldbinder suction and delivery tanker leaves the group’s Northern Ireland headquarters on its way to another evacuation
A Montgomery tanker pictured at the Stena Line terminal in Belfast, carry liquid, powder, bulk products and fuel throughout the UK and across Europe
“For us, service is key. While the scale and scope of the company and its operations have steadily expanded, the business principle which is at the core of everything we do has not changed since day one.
“That principle is a fundamental commitment to delivering a timely service and value for money to every customer – and we have the accreditations in quality management, health and safety management and environmental management to endorse this commitment.
Quality managementThe company has an integrated quality management system covering transport of bulk liquids, fuel oils and powders in road tankers and tank containers, bulk storage and distribution, vehicle servicing and maintenance and tanker washing. In addition the company is SQAS Accredited and also a member of the Dairy
Transport Assurance Scheme.“Ultimately, this is a solutions-based industry,”
Hammond argues. “Companies want their valuable products delivered safely and it is up to us to provide the solutions. In bulk tank services a company is only as good as its last load – there’s no margin for error which is why we will continue making further investments to ensure the best service possible is provided.”
The Montgomery Transport Group, also headquartered in Glengormley, has depots in Dublin, Preston, Leeds and throughout the UK. It operates a large fleet of modern distribution and articulated vehicles offering unit loads, bulk tanker and distribution services.
The group also recently introduced a bespoke computer operating system as well as 24/7 vehicle tracking and on-board cameras to improve driver control and enhance road safety.
11 BULKDISTRIBUTORNovember/December 2015
When Schmidt Group was looking to reduce truck weight for its dry-bulk fleet it found the answer in Mouvex screw compressors
It has been more than two decades now since new European Union (EU) directives began regulating the amount of
emissions that on-road diesel-powered trucks can emit into the atmosphere.
The first, Euro 1, came into being in 1992, and the EU has now progressed to Euro 6, which governs all trucks that have been manufactured for on-road use in European countries since the beginning of 2014. That said, most of the trucks that currently traverse Europe’s roads are of the Euro 4 or Euro 5 variety, whose regulations came into effect in 2005 and 2008, respectively.
Specifically, these EU directives, no matter their stage, put limits on the amount of carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), hydrocarbons (HC) and particulate matter (PM) that can be expelled into the atmosphere through the exhaust of diesel-powered trucks. Over the years, these limits have become stricter as EU members have looked for ways to lower the amount of impurities that find their way into the continent’s air.
For example, in Euro 1 the CO, HC, NOx and PM thresholds were 4.5, 1.1, 8.0 and 0.612 grams per kilowatt hour (g/kWh), respectively. By comparison, the specifics of the Euro 6 regulation place the amount of CO emissions at 1.5 g/kWh, HC at 0.13 g/kWh, NOx at 0.40 g/kWh and PM at 0.01 g/kWh.
These constantly changing emission thresholds have caused truck fleet owners to re-examine how their vehicles are outfitted. In addition to new engine models that are designed to reduce emissions, an ancillary consequence regards the actual weight of the vehicle and its payload, which is also governed by EU regulation.
Tipping the scales“Euro 6 is a regulation for limiting exhaust in Europe, and we are really taking care of pollution,” explained Sascha Pachnicke, product manager for Dienstleistung Warenwirtschaft Spedition (DWS) GmbH, Heppenheim, Germany, a distributor of compressor equipment for use on dry-bulk trucks, trailers and silo containers since 2006.
“Through these regulations to control exhaust there is less space on the truck left because the exhaust system on a Euro 6 truck is much bigger and heavier than on the Euro 5, for example. The Euro 6 regulation was created to have cleaner air coming out of the exhaust, yet you are only allowed to carry 40 tons. If the truck is heavier, you have to reduce some of the weight.”
That has created a balancing act for the trucking fleets that transport dry bulk materials and products across the continent.
Specifically, most truck chassis that are outfitted with transport tanks have a maximum weight limit of 14 tons. Meanwhile, most customers request from their shippers the ability to handle a minimum payload of 25 tons. Much more than the upper limit of either threshold and you are bumping up against the 40-ton regulatory ceiling.
The trick, then, is to use a truck and trailer that is as light as possible, allowing it not only to carry at least 25 tons, but often more. This is a benefit for both the end user, who gets more product shipped at one time, and the shipper, who realizes an economic benefit from being able to ship larger payloads.
One bulk logistics company that has been threading the needle of the EU directives regarding diesel emissions since the dawn of the Euro 1 era is Schmidt Group. Founded in 1948 in Heilbronn, Germany, where its corporate headquarters remain, Schmidt Group offers transport services via road tankers and silo containers, which are contracted to ship all types of dry bulk goods, including, but not limited to, plastic pellets, cement, lime, starch, powder, sugar and animal food.
Schmidt has grown to comprise a fleet featuring 800 trucks, 150 of which are used to transport hazardous chemicals, 5,000 intermodal containers, 28 subsidiary locations situated throughout Europe and eight regional dispatch centres. In total, Schmidt Group annually delivers 4.6 million tonnes of dry bulk products.
A member of the Schmidt group family for nearly half its existence or, to be exact, 30 years, Michael Hoyer is the company’s fleet manager and has responsibility for the entire fleet of rolling stock, including ensuring that all vehicles meet the tenets of the various EU diesel-emission directives.
“There was a significant change when the Euro 5 emission systems came, but then by 2014 the new Euro 6 had arrived, which means that the same truck has a weight increase of 200-300 kg,” said Hoyer. “Therefore, Schmidt was looking for a technical solution to having the same payload while not reducing the benefits of the application or the size of the system. The main point was to find out how the minimum payload of 25 tons could be realized without exceeding the overall weight.”
Making weightOne area that Hoyer and Schmidt Group targeted for potential weight reduction was the truck-mounted compressors that were being used to load and unload the tanks and silo containers. The
compressors Schmidt was using were rather complicated to install and maintain, and required a mounting frame and bracket, and special shaft, which added to the overall weight of the system.
As luck would have it, a trip to a trade fair in 2013 led to the discovery of the perfect compressor solution.
“We were attending a trade fair and DWS presented us with the new MH6 technology from Mouvex and Hydrocar,” recalled Hoyer. “A standard compressor has a weight of around 300kg, but the MH6 has a total weight of 80-100 kg, which delivers the required weight savings.”
Specifically, the ‘MH6’ is the MH6 Series Screw Compressor, which Auxerre, France-based Mouvex developed in conjunction with
Components
Successful weight loss
Responding to stricter diesel-emissions standards and weight requirements of the new Euro 6 regulation Schmidt Group has fitted its dry-bulk fleet with MH6 Series Screw Compressors (inset) from Mouvex and Hydrocar
This article was Philippe Voilly, market & product manager DM for Mouvex. Mouvex is part of PSG, a Dover company, based in Oak-brook Terrace, IL, USA
Bologna, Italy-based power take-off (PTO) manufacturer Hydrocar in 2010. The MH6 is the world’s first all-in-one screw compressor/PTO unit, and was developed as a weight-saving answer to the new Euro 6 regulations. DWS has been the official distributor for Mouvex equipment in southwest Germany since 2009 and was one of the first companies to put an MH6 compressor in the field.
In addition to the upwards of 70 percent weight reduction offered by the MH6, other operational benefits include the absence of free-turning drive parts, which increase operator safety; no need for additional installation space; no need for separate oil changes since the system is integrated into the truck’s gearbox; no need for mounting brackets and frames, or cardan shafts; quieter operation; and compatibility with a wide array of truck configurations, from 4x2 short wheelbase to larger 6x2 and 6x4 designs. Flow rates range from 325-600 cbm/hr, and the MH6 can handle solids up to 15mm in diameter and 60mm in length.
Schmidt tested an MH6 compressor on one of its vehicles throughout 2013 and the results spoke for themselves. “At the end of the year, the MH6 showed in the day-to-day testing that what was promised was reached,” said Hoyer. “The conclusion was that during the one year of testing we were very well supported by Mouvex and DWS, and had real communication with our drivers and fleet management on how the MH6 works, and at the end of the day, it was a good relationship. We came to the conclusion that this was the way to move forward, with the MH6.”
The reduced weight of the MH6 is also holds ancillary benefits for Schmidt fleet drivers. “With the weight benefit, it was possible for
Schmidt to increase the size and comfort of the cabin to give more benefits to the driver to feel more comfortable, safer for long-distance driving with no risks in using the MH6,” said Hoyer. “It was a target of ours to support the employees and motivate them for the global benefit of the organization and our customers.”
The most successful weight-loss programmes are those that target specific areas to trim, then identify the best ways to reach those weight reduction goals without adversely affecting the whole organism. In that way, the MH6 Series Screw Compressor was the perfect weight loss solution for a dry-bulk haulier like Schmidt Group.
“Due to the weight reduction you can put more load on the truck so you can gain more money through transporting or unloading; that’s an extra 200kg on one truck, which can also be used for more luxury in the cabin for the driver,” said Pachnicke.
From his perspective, Hoyer is looking forward to the day when every Schmidt Group truck is fitted with an MH6 compressor, and has even offered to help Mouvex and Hydrocar field test the next-generation compressor, the MH10, which is currently in development.
“Schmidt is always looking for the newest technical solution for all of its equipment and because of the capabilities of the MH6 we are proud to work with the Mouvex and DWS organisations,” Hoyer said. “The target is clearly to work with Mouvex in the future, to standardise Schmidt Group on these compressors.”
1 Michael Hoyer, left, fleet manager for Schmidt Group, and André Saam, dry bulk fleet manager, have optimised the weight and driver comfort in the dry bulk fleet by switching to MH6
2 Schmidt’s truck fleet carries such diverse dry bulk products as plastic pellets, sugar, powder, cement, starch and animal food to end-users all across Europe
3 Schmidt’s Ludwigshafen facility features 60 storage silos, the contents of which the company’s 800-strong fleet of dry-bulk trucks and trailers transport to customers all over Europe
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13 BULKDISTRIBUTORNovember/December 2015
Hoover acquires Tech Oil Products Hoover Container Solutions has bought Tech Oil Products, Inc.
Founded in 1980 and headquartered in New Iberia, Louisiana, Tech Oil makes waste processing and handling equipment for the oil & gas and marine sectors.
The company designs, manufactures, sells and rents a line of waste compacting, processing and recycling products, as well as offshore cargo equipment. Best known for its Enviro-Pak, SafeSub, Windchiller and Top Offshore Basket brands, the full product line includes over 60 products known for “reliable and safe operation”.
Recycle the Gulf - a partnership between producers and operators, Tech Oil and the Arc of Acadiana - was launched in 2001 with the goal of reducing and recycling the volume of wasted generated offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. The programme provides a valuable service, Hoover says, and has made Tech Oil a trusted pillar of the Gulf Community and a responsible warden for the environment.
“The acquisition of Tech-Oil will firmly establish Hoover as a premier supplier of waste processing and handling equipment, offshore recycling equipment, chemical, cargo and waste management tanks, baskets, containers and related accessories and services,” said a Hoover statement. “Together its will continue to provide a diverse product range and robust services to customers across the region and in the global energy market.”
Hoover’s CEO, Donald Young, commented: “Hoover is always working to introduce innovative products and services to the market and expand operations to best meet our customer needs. The combined Hoover-Tech Oil offering is one of the largest and most diverse in the Gulf of Mexico region and makes Hoover one of the only worldwide companies to offer a full range of cargo carrying units including chemical, cargo and waste management products to the global energy market. This acquisition follows our partnership with First Reserve last January and supports our growth plan.”
“The partnership of Hoover and Tech Oil will allow us to provide a more complete product and service offering to our customers Worldwide.” said John Zimmer, president of Tech Oil Products. “We are excited to work with the Hoover because both teams share a similar commitment to high quality products and superior customer service.”
Recently, private equity firm First Reserve agreed to invest an undisclosed sum in Hoover Container Solutions.
Young said the time that he expects the injection to bolster Hoover’s financial position and allow the firm to accelerate growth as well as continue to introduce innovative products and services.
Hoover’s Australian subsidiary has moved to a larger facility in Perth, Western Australia (WA) to accommodate its expansion in the region.
The new distribution and service centre allows Hoover to provide expanded services in the state while handling all IBCs, ISO tanks and offshore equipment destined for oil and gas platforms, mining sites, islands and supply bases north of Perth.
The site sits on more than an acre in the Marine Support Complex in Henderson, WA, a suburb of Perth. It includes a washing facility by the Department of Agriculture and is completely funded for approval by the Environmental Protection Agency. The facility will have the capability to launder to National Australian Standard - Class Six (NAS 6).
The complex hosts two large wash bays and workshop with in-ground sump pits and underground storage tanks. A concrete hard stand has numerous ground tanks that capture all rain water that will later be used for the rinsing of tanks.
“Our new location allows us to clean tanks efficiently and safely in Western Australia, which helps us to serve our customers better,” said Paul Lewis, president and COO of Hoover. “We are eager to expand into Western Australia, and this new location is a reflection of that desire.”
The new Mouvex® B200 Flow Control Oil-Free Screw Compressor boasts
a robust and rugged design that has been enhanced with special protectants
for chemical compatibility while optimized flow rates reduce discharge times.
• Easy “Plug and Play” installation
• Corrosion resistant for chemical compatibility
• Unique PTO-mounted system
• 3-year warranty
For more information, please go to: psgpumps.com/bd1115m
oasts
tants
imes.
Flow Control
Check and
Relief Valve
Where In
novation Flows
Hoover says the acquisition of Tech-Oil will diversify its energy market product range even further
Protecting workers and company assets from ignitions caused by static electricity can’t be
left to chance. In facilities where flammable and combustible products are processed, there’s a very high probability that static electricity is generated by the movement of gases, liquids, solids and people.
The risks of a fire or explosion caused by a discharge of static electricity in an EX/HAZLOC area are too significant to ignore. To emphasise its significance static electricity is identified in North American and European legislation as a potential source of ignition in potentially flammable and combustible atmospheres.
For 15 years Newson Gale’s Bond-Rites have enabled specifiers to move up the safety curve from basic clamps and cables to achieve enhanced levels of safety by providing workers with a visual means of verifying a solid electrical connection to equipment for the duration of the process.
Employing the well-recognised safety principles of Green for ‘Safe to Go’, Bond-Rites use a pulsing green LED to indicate when the equipment (eg, barrel) has a resistance of 10 ohms or less to the site’s verified ground network. All Bond-Rites continuously monitor the connection to the equipment until the grounding clamp is removed. The ‘Safe to Go’ concept is easy for workers to engage with enabling them to take responsibility for their own safety and that of their colleagues, the company says.
The Bond-Rite Clamp and Remote indicator stations can be mounted in any location that is classified as an EX/HAZLOC atmosphere. www.newson-gale.com
handling for chemicalsThe recently-launched 5 litre co-extruded
jerrycan from RPC Promens Industrial Rushden has been selected for a range of specialist cleaning and maintenance chemicals from leading manufacturer Selden Research.
The blow moulded HDPE container incorporates a nylon barrier material that prevents the migration of solvents and delivers a permanent barrier performance with no breakdown in effectiveness due to abrasion from the contents. It is complemented by a 38mm tamper-evident cap from RPC Promens Consumer Halstead, which features a PET faced EPE liner to ensure complete barrier protection.
The robust construction of the jerrycan provides effective product protection with good chemical and stress crack-resistant performance. Equally important, the lightweight design allows ease of handling and pouring for the end-user, while the co-extrusion manufacturing process means that the handle is divorced from the container, leading to almost complete evacuation of the container with minimum residues, the company says.
Selden Research develops and manufactures cleaning and hygiene chemicals for both the professional and industrial sectors. The company regularly makes bespoke formulae for clients and has a reputation for developing products with the highest levels of performance. This makes the selection of the right pack particularly important.
“We wanted a container that was functional, reliable and easy to use and which would help to reflect the quality of the products it contains,” said David Woodhead of Selden Research. “We are very pleased with the performance of the RPC jerrycan.”
RPC Promens says the container is proving a modern and cost-effective alternative to more traditional pack formats such as tin for solvent-based products. Other benefits of the jerrycan are no corrosion and a high resistance to denting, while its large decoration area allows for high profile branding and the inclusion of detailed product information. Tactile danger warnings can also be incorporated for individual products.
The pack has recently attained UN approval for free-standing packaging for group II products with up to 1.2 specific gravity (SG).
IBC – tailor made
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doorsIt may still be 18 months away, but exhibitor registration is now open for
Interpack 2017. The flagship trade fair for the packaging sector and related processing industries will
take place in Düsseldorf on 4-10 May 2017.The last Interpack in May 2014 attracted some 175,000 experts, 84 percent of whom
reported being involved in decision-making processes in their respective companies. The overall verdict of the surveyed visitors was excellent, with 97 percent of them saying they would recommend the trade fair. Of the exhibitors, 83 percent stated that they had acquired new customers.
Following its premiere in 2014, the sideshow ‘Components for processing and packaging’ for suppliers to the packaging industry will also take place with an overhauled concept in a central location. ‘Components’ is targeted at exhibiting companies that supply drive, control and sensor equipment, products for industrial image processing, handling equipment, industrial software and communication, and complete automation systems for packaging machines.
Also eligible to take part are manufacturers and suppliers of machine parts, sub-assemblies, accessories and peripheral equipment as well as those of components and auxiliary materials for packaging means. There are no longer any constraints on company stand design, unlike in 2014 when only a selection of system stands was available. www.interpack.com
Greif, Inc announced in October that David Fischer will step down as president and
CEO and as also a board director of the company effective 31 October 2015.
Pete Watson succeeds him as president and CEO, and Fischer will remain with the company through December 31, 2015 to assist with the transition process.
Michael Gasser, chairman of the Greif board, thanked Fischer for his “dedication and many significant achievements over the past 11 years at Greif”.
This included the design and implementation of the company’s transformation initiative aimed at lowering its cost structure and improving performance.
Fischer added: “I am very proud of the Greif team and all that we have accomplished during my tenure with the company. With the transformation initiative now taking hold and with the team in place, I am bullish on the outlook for achieving the goals we have set forth for 2017. I look forward to working with Pete and the
executive team over the next couple of months to ensure continuity in the implementation of the transformation.”
As for Watson he said he was looking forward to leading Greif and its associates around the world to execute the transformation process. “These efforts are expected to provide immediate benefits and position us for more profitable growth,” he stated.
Watson has served as chief operating officer of the company since January 2014. From September 2012 until December 2013, he was vice president and group president of paper packaging & services, global sourcing and supply chain and business system. Since he joined the company in 1999, Watson has served in a variety of positions. His prior experience includes various roles with Union Camp Corporation, prior to its acquisition by International Paper.
Watson is a graduate of Springfield College in Massachusetts, with a Bachelor of Science in Education and a Master of Science in Education Administration.
Change at the top for Greif
Schütz has granted a license to Turkish manufacturer Deren Ambalaj to produce its IBCs in Turkey.The German industrial packaging giant said the move expands its global IBC production network into the Middle-East/Asia and South-East Europe
regions.Deren is a family-managed company founded in 1987, and has a long and successful tradition of producing packaging for the chemicals and food
industries. The company’s headquarters in Istanbul are located at the heart of one of the country’s key industrial regions with good infrastructure connections that secure regional and national supplies.
As part of the Schütz Ticket Service the new partnership will also expand its global collection network for the recycling of empty IBCs.
Roelof Veld, of NNZ bv, was elected as president of the European Flexible
Intermediate Bulk Container Association (EFIBCA) at its annual general meeting held on 29 September in Barcelona, Spain.
As business unit manager, industry at NNZ, a Dutch company specialising in agricultural and industrial packaging solutions, Veld draws on 18 years of experience in the FIBC sector from which the association has already profited during his eight-year tenure on EFIBCA’s executive council.
Veld succeeds Oliver Grüters, of Boxon GmbH, who reached the maximum two consecutive terms as EFIBCA president and will continue to serve on the EFIBCA council. “Roelof has been making an impact in the council for years, and I am very pleased that we have elected such an experienced and competent candidate,” commented Grüters, under whose leadership the association’s membership grew by nearly 30 percent.
Following the AGM and elections, guests joined the new president and members for a tour of Barcelona and networking dinner at a rustic Catalonian venue. The 60 delegates from Europe,
Near and Far East as well as Africa capitalised on the opportunity for further exchange and discussion on current business aspects affecting the FIBC community at EFIBCA’s fifth Open Meeting held the next day. On the agenda were presentations on markets, corporate social responsibility, sustainability, quality and safety.
Nandita Lal, Platts Polymer division, gave an overview of the FIBC raw materials supply chain. Lal reported a record high in polypropylene and polyethylene costs this year, impacting on the costs of manufacturing and rippling throughout the supply chain. Coupled with well reported force majeure declarations this is driving costs and concerns over supply uncertainty with end users and potentially volatile market trends. Lal described the development as the ‘perfect storm’ as the raw materials market culminated in the price shocks seen earlier this year.
At the other end of the spectrum, a presentation on Plastic Waste Recycling in Practice, by Markus Dambeck, of RIGK, generated interest as he reported on the process of, and opportunities for, recycling FIBCs.
A view from…EFIBCA welcomed in a new president, reflected on market conditions over the past year and looked forward to a seemingly optimistic future for flexible packaging at its annual open meeting in Barcelona this September
Other topics included the complex quality and safety regulations governing FIBCs, and how to leverage quality programmes like EFIBCA-Q and declarations of compliance. Social Compliance in the Supply Chain was treated in an interactive session with Norma Snell, of Noble Achievers. She outlined the foundations and key elements of corporate social responsibility, discussing due diligence in the supply chain, social compliance programmes and the opportunities they offer.
“We were very pleased about the questions and discussions the speeches provoked both during the conference and afterwards at the closing cocktail reception,” remarked EFIBCA secretary general Dr Isabell Schmidt. “That speaks for the quality of the presentations and made the open
meeting such a successful forum for information exchange.”
“Our aim was to get a good mix of speakers to inform delegates about developments in the market and regulations, but also to hear about practical applications from experts in the field,” explained conference organiser Allison Bouchat, of EFIBCA.
EFIBCA open meetings are held every one and a half years. Anyone with an interest in the FIBC industry is welcome, not just association members. The next event open to the public will be a dinner reception on 3 May 2017 in Düsseldorf, Germany, the evening before packaging trade fair Interpack. www.efibca.com
Roelof Veld is Business Unit Manager, Industry at NNZ bv. and newly elected president of EFIBCA
Safe in hazardous areasMaterial Master’s bulk bag discharging system simplifies discharging, maximises
production efficiency, and enhances plant safety, MTS claims. The unit is designed to discharge bulk bags of material in a hazardous location. It features a pneumatic
chain hoist with motorised trolley and the Spider-Lift bag lifting frame. A heavy-duty ‘breaker bar’ Flo-Master bag massaging system provides positive material flow, while the
Seal-Master bag spout access chamber allows optimal access to the bag discharge spout. A Flo-Lock slide gate provides for partial bag discharge and the Sure-Seal pneumatic bag spout
clamping system results in dust-tight discharge, the company claims. A loss-in-weight scale system with summing box allows precise batching of material.www.materialtransfer.com
Latest statistics demonstrate that the market for FIBCs is as competitive and globalised as ever with a continuing shift to manufacturing in emerging market
countries. During 2014, roughly 220,000 tonnes of FIBCs were purchased in Europe with 165,000 tonnes
being supplied from outside the EU (see Table and Figs 1&2). This represented a 10 percent growth by sales and volume – exceeding even the more optimistic expectations for the plastics and flexible packaging sectors.
India displaced Turkey as the leading supplier to Europe with a sales growth rate of almost 18 percent, however, the accolade for fastest growth went to Bangladesh which saw its supplies into the EU increase by more than 33 percent, surpassing China to take third place.
Growth in the flexible packaging market is expected to reach US$231 billion by 2018 with the bulk market constituting nearly 26 percent of this. This growth in flexible packaging is expected to increase faster compared with rigid packaging due to the benefits in weight, load capacity and recyclability that FIBCs in particular carry.
the informal contacts around the official meeting as most important. Getting to know your colleagues better in this business is very much needed, as we all face the same challenges.
What about the discussions on whether the code of conduct should be enforced?Who can be against the present code of conduct I wonder? What is the reason why some members do not want to sign it? I really don’t know and I really don’t understand. If EFIBCA wants to make a difference and become a kind of institute for first class FIBC producers and distributors, it is clear people should only be a member if they sign the code of conduct. But forcing them all to sign is not the right way, as this is something you need to do voluntarily. EFIBCA should find out in detail with each and every member the reasons for not signing.
And the priority of corporate social responsibility? Nebig is very much aware of its responsibility. But we also have to keep in mind that we cannot always put the social agreements we have achieved in Western Europe straight away into force in countries in the Far East. This will take several years. It is a step by step process, and we can only support and encourage them to go this way.
What of the importance of recycling FIBCs? Do you feel enough is being done? Of course recycling FIBCs is a hot issue, and only very small steps have been taken. Using bags a second or third time is in direct conflict with all kinds of rules on food-safety, etc, for example. We need also to convince end users in this industry that working with FIBCs also makes you responsible for how to recycle them. But in the end it all comes down to the costs.
Raw materials shortages and market volatility seems to be predicted to continue. Is this a concern to Nebig? It is, definitely. Luckily we co-operate with partners who have not let us down so far, but for everybody in the chain this issue is a major concern. It now comes to 100 percent reliability, and we take advantage of that. We can show our clients that we keep our contracts, in good times and in bad times.
How does Nebig differentiate itself?You know it is hard to differentiate yourselves from others. Most EFIBCA members are decent and reliable companies who do their job well. We do the same. But we try to be different by having a direct and intense contact with our clients. They should feel at home with us.
We try not just to sell bags. We take their worries away and help them in getting their materials in time in the best packaging to their clients. It should not be a client-salesman relationship; it is a partnership, a co-operation between the two. So far we have been successful with this attitude and we intend to continue and improve every time even further.
With many reports pointing towards flexible bulk packaging taking market share from more traditional methods, how do you plan to maximise on this growth potential? Definitely, FIBCs will gain market share. And we’ll go with that flow. We and our partners are prepared to be able to produce sufficient quantities. On the other hand, we are also cautious people. We do not intend to grow too fast. We prefer to grow step by step, slowly but steadily.
How much innovation is happening in the FIBC industry and how do you innovate?We think there is not enough innovation. In fact the FIBCs of today are the same as those of 25 years ago; maybe just lighter to use less raw material. Real innovation, such as Starlinger’s idea to make FIBC’s from PET is not really getting a foot on the ground. It’s an industry like an oil tanker, it goes forward, but to change direction takes a while.
www.nebig.com
Could you tell us about your background and Nebig?After my studies at the IVA (Institute for Sales and Management in the Automotive branch) I started working at the company LJ Heijmeijer BV, which was selling jute bags and woven polypropylene bags. Four years later, in 1989 I switched over to LC Packaging, were I got into the FIBC business.
I had a great time there, learned a lot, but in 2000 I was asked by the formal owner of Nebig BV if I were interested in taking over his company. This was a once in a life-time chance and I decided to take it. Nebig BV at that time was only supplying small PP bags and jute bags, and turnover did not reach even €2 million.
From that moment onwards we have focused on slow but steady growth year after year, by starting to distribute FIBCs, container liners, paper bags, jute bags and woven PP bags as well. So far this has been very successful. We might not be the biggest in The Netherlands right now, but we are definitively an important player.
With the EFIBCA annual meeting having taken place this month in Barcelona do you feel Nebig as a company gained value from the discussions and information shared? Oh yes, definitively. But I still consider
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Building materials have their own specific characteristics, such as high product temperatures or different volumes
and weights - they may show an unusual flow behaviour and may be dimensionally unstable.
As a partner to this industry, Beumer Group says it can enable material manufacturers to fill bags without any product loss with its fillpacR filling machine. The series fills reliably, carefully and sustainably while meeting the required throughput, says Beumer.
It is equipped with a weighing unit, which communicates permanently with the filler neck via dedicated software. The automatic bag weight control determines the exact filling weight. This way the system always achieves accurate degrees of filling. Thus the packaging line works more efficiently as it is no longer necessary to remove under or overweight bags from the material flow. In addition, the quantity indicated on the bag always corresponds to the real volume.
Air filling machines Depending on the requirements and on the material characteristics such as bulk density, flow behaviour or grain distribution, Beumer offers both air and turbine filling machines from the construction series. The air filling machines are suitable for bagging pourable and coarse-grained products with particle sizes up to 10mm.
The systems use a blower to fluidise the materials in a pressure chamber. The products can then be filled into bags gently and precisely. Depending on the throughput, the user may opt for a rotary or an inline filling machine.
The air rotary filling machines have four to twelve filling modules which are arranged in a circular pattern. Depending on the number of filling spouts, the systems reach a maximum capacity of 1,200 to 3,600 bags an hour for 25kg bags.
The air inline filling machines are generally equipped with one to four filling modules. Depending on the number of filling spouts positioned next to each other, the system achieves a capacity reaching between 300 and 1,200 25kg bags an hour. Regardless of whether the system is arranged in a circular pattern or in a line, capacity and utilisation can be improved by installing an optional automatic bag placer. The filling process is carried out either automatically or at the push of a button. Two configurations are
available for removing the bag at the end of the filling process: either manually or automatically with vertical bag discharge on a belt conveyor.
Turbine filling The turbine process is appropriate for companies which predominantly fill free flowing and fine-grained materials, such as cement or gypsum. The turbine filling machines use motor-driven impellers. They can be arranged either horizontally or vertically, ensuring a particularly high filling pressure and thus a very good compaction of fine-grained materials to be bagged. The result is filled bags which are compact and dimensionally stable so that the user is no longer required to vent them.
With up to 20 filling modules, the Beumer fillpacR, for example, can fill up to 300 tons of fine-grain materials an hour into diverse bag types. The HDPE bag placer enables dependable filling of HDPE bags. The filling impeller is characterised by its speed and the maximum material throughput. The bag weight adjustment, which automatically adjusts the weight of the next bag, always ensures precise results.
Opening and closing of the vertically mounted filling spout is carried out outside of the dirty area - this way the three-position cylinder which regulates the coarse and fine flow is protected from dust. The cylinder for bag discharging is also located in the dust-free zone above the filling spout. This solution minimises wear and tear on both cylinders and, therefore, ensures longer service life.
Beumer Group also offers the turbine filling machines with inline design. The filling modules are placed next to each other for ready access, which makes them easy to maintain. The inline filling machines are best suited for production environments with low throughput rates.
Individual customisationThe Beumer construction series is equipped with an ergonomic control terminal. The improved human-machine Interface concept allows operators to work in a simple and intuitive way. Almost all built-in components of the fillpacR are freely available commercially. This reduces delivery times for spare parts and lowers capital costs for the user. Furthermore, the intralogistics supplier has designed the
system in a way that individual customer requirements or special operational requests can be implemented flexibly and cost-effectively.
Photos: BEUMER Group GmbH & Co.
Beumer has added the rotating filling machine, fillpacR, to its product portfolio and equipped it with extensive features
India is emerging as a global manufacturing hub for flexitanks, writes PN Suresh (vice president - marketing) for Rishi FIBC Solutions
The history of flexitanks as an alternative to tankers and ISO tank containers to move liquid bulk cargo in
containerised ocean freight transport started as early as the 1970s when British shippers started experimenting with liquid movements in rubberised bladders from Europe to South Africa.
These heavy duty rubber flexitanks were very expensive, costing above US$4,000 per unit but were reusable. The increasing demand for such flexitanks led to the idea of cheaper flexitanks made from thermo-plastic materials (PVC) during the 1990s but were still costing above $1,500 a unit. Many chemical exporters found it viable to use these PVC flexitanks to transport non-hazardous chemicals but were reluctant to take the task of fitting and filling these tanks into containers and subsequently flexitank manufacturers were forced to offer these services along with the flexitanks themselves and fitting accessories.
Chemical exporters found it more economical considering the more tare weight they were able to load per container compared with conventional export in metal drums. Disposal of flexitanks was more convenient than disposal of metal drums due to high profile environmental issues chemicals companies were facing at the time.
During late 2001, new generation multi-layer polyethylene flexitanks emerged as a cost effective solution compared with previous flexitanks in the market and now flexitank transport has truly become a one-way, disposable market. Today there are more than 40 manufacturers of flexitanks worldwide. However, the quality of many flexitank brands is questionable. One of the key players involved in the manufacturing of quality flexitanks from India is Rishi FIBC Solution (P) Ltd, which started producing its prime quality Fluid Brand Flexitanks in 2012.
Geographically the flexitank market is mainly concentrated in India, China and Malaysia as these are emerging markets followed closely by the rest of the Asia-Pacific region. Europe is also seeing a surge in the demand for flexitanks mostly in the UK and Germany. Canada and the US dominate the demand side in the North American region. The use of flexitanks for transporting bulk liquid cargo has grown rapidly over the past decade, and this has been projected to continue at perhaps 15 percent a year, reaching 1 million tanks in 2016. The market for flexitanks is driven by their merits of being environmentally-friendly, taking the least amount of time and effort in filling and discharging, and are compatible with a large number of fluids to be transported. Moreover, flexitanks overcome many of the problems associated with ISO tank containers, IBCs or drums. Furthermore, since they are used once, they vastly reduce the risk of cross-contamination.
China has been traditionally the global supplier of cost-effective flexitanks. However, with the Chinese economy slowing down and increasing labour costs, China can no longer retain this position in the future. With a competitive edge in labour arbitrage and technologically intensive manufacturing units, India has the potential
to become the global manufacturing hub for flexitanks and allied products. Manufacturing in India will continue to remain healthy due to strong domestic demand and the manufacturing sector contribution to GDP is only 16 percent compared with 34 percent in China.
Rishi FIBC is the first company making large investments in flexitank manufacturing in India as a part of its forward looking strategy. The company is putting in considerable investment in developing standard norms for its products, like those in advanced nations, to compete globally. It is the first company in Asia fully complying with the BSI PAS 1008-2014 guidelines in manufacturing and performance for flexitanks.
The company manufactures the Fluid Brand flexitanks at its plant in Mysore, taking advantage of high-tech technology developments in India. With improved quality control and large scale production, Rishi FIBC can reduce manufacturing costs and still maintain quality. These new generation flexitanks can accept a variety of non-hazardous liquids such as chemicals, latex, wine, lubricants, additives, edible oils and many more.
With strong back up from experienced professionals and highly qualified technicians in its core team, Rishi FIBC can offer special design products that can specifically address the challenges faced by many bulk liquid exporters.
Some of the products already developed:
Flexitanks for multiple cargoThe flexitank has now entered a new era with a new configuration. This innovative configuration now fits two to three smaller flexitanks in a 40ft ocean container. With standard and barrier films, these newly configured flexitanks are independently welded and suitable for food-grade, chemical and pharmaceutical products and offer an optimal amount of oxygen permeation. They can be transported via rail or road for smaller quantities to ship with multiple commodities loaded on the same trailer.
The newly configured units are self-restraining with a non-slip mat that does not allow for movement and is elevated off the floor with vents for air circulation. Prior to the new configuration, flexitanks covered the whole floor of the containers. The new design allows for refrigeration and temperature control for shipment of liquids that need to remain cold. Some containers can reach more than 54 degsC while travelling thousands of miles. Wine generally needs to be stored between 13-15 degsC and any temperature fluctuations can reduce the aroma, colour and flavour.
Flexitanks for bitumenThere has been a huge demand for high temperature resistant tanks to load bitumen 60/70 from Iran and the Gulf region. However bitumen can be loaded only at above 100 degsC centigrade which
made it impossible to export in standard flexitanks which have a temperature upper limit of 60-70 degsC. In order to overcome this issue Rishi FIBC is now developing high heat resistant fluid bitumen tanks that can survive even at 120 degsC. These flexitanks were made with a special design carrying 2 layer 0.150 high heat resistant PE + 2 layer 0.115 high heat resistant PE + 1 layer tabular high strong PP. Rishi will soon launch this tank in the Middle East for bitumen exporters.
Challenges in flexitank logisticsGenerally, products carried include wine and other foodstuffs, traditionally supplemented by latex and dispersions. The latter, together with newer products such as base oils, edible oils and chemicals, can cause problems if a failure occurs in the supply chain.
Flexitank manufacturers, trade organisations and regulators have been cognisant of these risks and have responded with publications aimed at improving safety and reliability. The Container Owners Association (COA) created a group to work on flexitank standards with the aim of developing common standards and guidelines in their use which manufacturers, operators and container companies can follow.
The COA flexitank division put together a Code of Practice that covered both manufacturing and operational issues. On the manufacturing side, this has been developed, with the British Standards Institute (BSI), into a new Publicly Available Specification (PAS), which was published in June 2014. Rishi FIBC is among the few flexitank manufacturing companies fully complying with the recommendations by PAS 1008-2014. The BSI PAS 1008 specification for performance and testing of single-use flexitanks provides for testing materials, performance and labelling of the components. It is applicable to single-layer and multilayer flexitanks that carry a commodity with a maximum mass of 24,000 kg and volume of 24,000 litres.
The PAS is a significant step forward in the reduction of risk associated with the carriage of bulk liquid cargoes in standard containers. However, it is not legally enforceable and may be viewed as simply a standalone guideline as to how a well specified and manufactured flexitank should be supplied. The effect of the PAS will only reach its potential as shippers and/or carriers consistently require certification against the specification and monitor compliance. Safety standards may only demonstrably improve with cargo management differentiation in favour of accredited flexitanks. As it is written, the PAS needs to be accompanied by documentation concerning the safe operation and risk prevention aspect of the supply chain.www.rishifibc.com
YOUR PACKAGING PARTNER!Big bags-sling bags-dunnage bags-small bags
Authorities in Tunisia are working to diversify the country’s industrial sector
by focusing on value-added agro-industrial products, such as olive oil, which is currently enjoying an export boom.
According to a report by the Oxford Business Group, olive oil export revenues were up eight-fold year-on-year (y-o-y) in the first half of 2015, reaching TD1.3 billion (€591.3 million), according to Noureddine Agrebi, director-general of food industry at the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining.
In volume terms, olive oil exports grew slightly less, by a multiple of 7.7, reaching 214,000 tonnes over the period. This comes after a five-fold increase in production last year, when Tunisia ranked as the world’s second-largest olive oil producer for the first time, displacing Italy and trailing Spain.
Continued growth in the olive oil industry is expected to pay both social and economic dividends, with more than 1 million people directly or indirectly employed, according to figures from the EU.
Olive oil also represents a key revenue generating commodity, accounting for more than 10 percent of total export revenues. Around 70 percent of the olive oil produced annually is sold abroad, with the country’s 80 million olive trees covering a third of its arable land. Bulk olive oil exports from Tunisia are often carried in flexitanks.
While recent harvest figures bode well for the future of the industry, some of the recent growth is the result of exceptional circumstances. Tunisia’s record olive crop comes as traditional producers in
Spain and Italy have seen poor harvests and international prices have surged – to a 10-year high of US$4,500 a tonne in August, up 40 percent y-o-y.
The Puglia region in southern Italy has been plagued by disease that attacks olive trees in the past year and which has damaged a significant proportion of the region’s output.
At the same time, the EU, which buys 60-70 percent of Tunisia’s olive oil, nearly doubled the country’s annual export quota through to the end of 2017. Purchases from Russia have also been on the rise, due in part to EU trade sanctions.
According to Abdellatif Ghedira, head of the National Oil Office, the olive crop next harvest season – which begins in November – is expected to be less robust. Speaking to media in August, Ghedira explained that olive trees are unable to produce two consecutive years of strong crops and rainfall has been sporadic in recent months, predicting a harvest of around 160,000 tonnes.
However, there are encouraging signs that food exports are growing in general. Food exports surged by 129 percent y-o-y to TD2.3 billion in the first six months of the year, and Tunisia’s balance of trade in foodstuffs registered a surplus of TD314 million over the same period, compared to a deficit of TD656 million last year, Agrebi said. Exports of dates and pasta jumped 25 percent and 20 percent y-o-y, respectively, in the first half of 2015, according to Agrebi.
To capitalise on growing demand, Tunisia is working to move up the value chain from raw agricultural exports to semi-processed and
processed products. In the case of olive oil, the country is looking to increase the proportion of bottled and branded exports, as opposed to purely bulk sales.
According to the Tunisian International Olive Council, only 14.3 percent of Tunisian olive oil exports are bottled or packaged. Some 75 percent of Tunisian olive oil exported to Spain and Italy is sold in bulk, where it is blended with domestic oil, and bottled and marketed as a local product for a higher price. Olive oil producers in the country are working to cultivate a comparable global reputation for Tunisian olive oil.
“The Tunisian product is not known; we are trying to overcome this,” Abdel Salam Al Wadi, chairman of the Tunisian Olive Oil Association, told media in August. “But we still need to create a
profile for Tunisian olive oil.”Another opportunity for value-added products of
Tunisian origin is harissa, the traditional North African hot chilli paste. Made from ingredients such as olive oil, garlic and chilli pepper, harissa comes in a range of varieties and is becoming a popular fixture in overseas restaurants.
Faced with foreign manufacturers marketing lesser pastes under the name of harissa, last year government officials and Tunisian manufacturers like SICAM, the top local producer of harissa, launched a product certification process, Food Quality Label Tunisia, though more active marketing and branding will likely be needed to raise the overall profile of Tunisian agricultural products.
Tunisia is looking to increase the proportion of bottled and branded exports as opposed to purely bulk sales
Munich-based logistics company Robert Kukla is seeking to expand
its activities in Scandinavia with flexitank transport a key component.
On 1 October it founded a subsidiary in Sweden, called Smartchain Logistics Nordics AB. The company is managed by Jeroen Hempelmann and Wolf Beck. While Hempelmann will work directly from the company’s offices in Stockholm, Beck will be based in Munich. Beck has substantial expertise and has already been working with Kukla for 25 years.
Smartchain Logistics Nordics will primarily focus on the logistics of liquid foodstuffs, such as wine and juices, as well as chemicals. These can be transported either packaged in tautliners or containers, or as bulk goods in road tankers or flexitanks. The Robert Kukla Group has gathered together a number of exclusive flexitank suppliers to provide added value to customers.
Kukla has already been active within the Scandinavian market for a number of decades, its remit including the organisation of wine shipments worldwide in flexitanks. “By setting up our new subsidiary in Stockholm, we are seeking to expand our involvement in Scandinavia,” asserts said Kukla managing director Knut Sander.
In addition to logistics services for liquid goods, Smartchain Logistics Nordics, in its capacity as a local partner, will also focus on the handling of short sea containers with destinations in Scandinavia. As recently as July, Kukla presented a service called ‘Port Munich’ for reliable and attractively priced container transport from southern Germany to destinations in Great Britain, Ireland and Scandinavia.
The door to door transport services include positioning of empty equipment in Munich though usage of incoming continental full loads from Hamburg and Rotterdam by rail. The company has a container depot in Munich and can also offer positioning by truck.
Rail transport services run from Munich to Rotterdam four times a week, and Munich to Luebeck via Hamburg five times a week.
Owned equipment includes tank containers, 40ft pallet-wide high cube (PWHC) dry containers and 45ft PWHC reefers and 45ft super high cube boxes.
The parent group Robert Kukla GmbH Internationale Spedition is headquartered in Munich. It specialises in multimodal, tanker and HGV transport and has extensive experience in warehouse logistics. The company was founded in 1941, operates worldwide by way of a dense network of efficient cooperation partners and employs around 110 members of staff.
THE ASSET-BASED F O R W A R D E R USA | The Netherlands | Brazil | Chinaw w w . s h i p U W L . c o m
OCEAN FREIGHT
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Wolf Beck with a flexitank sample
Jeroen Hempelmann will manage the Swedish company directly from Stockholm
The Global and Chinese Flexitank Industry, 2010-2020 is new market research report on the current global
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summarises key statistics and the overall status of flexitank manufacturers.
The report initially provides a basic overview of the industry that covers definition, applications and manufacturing technology post which the report explores into the international and Chinese players in the market.
In this part, the report presents the company profile, product
specifications, capacity, production value and 2010-2015 market shares for each company. The report depicts the global and Chinese markets including capacity, production, production value, cost and profit, supply and demand and Chinese import-export.
The total market is further divided by company, by country, and by application or type for the competitive landscape analysis. The report also estimates 2015-2020 market trends in the flexitank industry. Analysis of upstream raw materials, downstream demand, and current market dynamics is also carried out. www.reportsnreports.com
Gordon Tutt explains how having the right software systems can help shippers to deal with disaster recovery
We have all experienced the frustration when a PC or laptop crashes, when our internet connections fail or
our mobile devices cannot connect.But when it comes to running a business this type of incident is
more than just a frustration and can be extremely costly. As the need for technology increases so does dependence on its reliability.
When systems fail the cost to business can be massive, not only in the decline in efficiency but also in getting the operation back to full speed. The ability to keep staff informed during any failures can be difficult, as communication is often driven using those same services that may not be available. Communication with customers and suppliers is also important, especially when service failures occur following these events.
The shipper’s customers set their expectations high and require a service that is not only reliable and cost effective but provides visibility of the movement of goods.
Delays to the movement of goods and services can be costly to all parties in the distribution chain. The process of recovery also adds more costs to each party affected.
Disruption to the smooth running of any business is unfortunately easily achieved. There are many ways in which a shipper’s operation can be brought to a standstill. Power loss, transport disruption, flood, and adverse weather are only a few. Those which damage or remove you from your IT are even more serious. The longer the disruption the greater the time it takes to recover.
Protecting customersIn recognising the costs any disruption causes, IT providers have developed a variety of additional services to help safeguard their customers. These services are diverse and wide ranging. Many of these will have been included in the package they sell to their customers. Software suppliers will ensure you have a reliable and high availability system that meets your needs but will also continue to develop and improve their systems.
Regrettably, disruption to IT systems can be as a result of malicious
damage as well as technical failures.Security within business systems and the networks that they
operate is vital. IT providers can ensure the networks and access to their software is safeguarded from malicious external attacks. They can also ensure valid users have access only to those areas of the systems authorised. Management of staff access to systems is also important with a regular audit provided. Security of personal and commercial data is also a vital element in any system.
Contingency Planning has also become key in order to manage those type of events that are beyond the control of most companies. Almost on a daily basis we read in the national press about events which result in the evacuation of buildings due to fire, flood and accidents. I know from personal experience the serious disruption that results to any company that has had to leave their building at short notice due to events outside their immediate control. As a result of a major fire in an adjoining warehouse our building was evacuated and operations disrupted for almost 24 hours. Fortunately despite the extent and speed with which the fire spread no deaths or injuries were sustained.
The operator of the warehouse in which the fire occurred was able to restart their business operations within 24 hours due to their contingency planning and the ability of their system providers to provide systems in an alternative location using the data and software held and backed up off site.
Disaster Recovery is often built into not only the systems you use but also in the networks over which they operate. Many system providers and networks will have an ability to switch over to an alternative back up system in the event that their prime site is not available. Many providers also have multiple power supply sources and an ability to switch their communication via a different route.
One new area which software providers are increasingly developing is the ability to use mobile networks to safeguard any disruption to business when access to the key systems used to run a business are disrupted. The ability to not only communicate within the company but maintain external communications with customers and suppliers
can be offered using mobile technology whilst any disruption within the business is occurring.
Fallback arrangements are another area used in order to maintain operations when key systems such as CHIEF (Customs Handling of Import and Export Freight) and NCTS (New Computerised Transit System) are not available. AFSS members have been actively participating in recent years working on the provision of fallback arrangements with the Community Service Providers (CSPs) and HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs). The CSPs manage and run the port systems and have demonstrated over many years that they are able to offer a good reliable service at the ports and airports. Often as a result of external failures and planned outages, their links to CHIEF are unavailable. The ability to continue export and import operations during any technical failure is key. Delaying the export of goods can be very costly not only for the shipper but for his customer.
As a trade association representing the Software Suppliers to the Freight industry, AFSS constantly presses for improvements to those UK and EU systems on which the shipper depends so heavily. While continuity of service cannot always be guaranteed, it is important that when the use of such systems is mandated in order for goods to be moved and exported there needs to be high levels of availability.
Regrettably, not all services provided by the various government agencies meet the service levels we would expect and seek. It is therefore important that we look for alternative electronic methods by which trader’s systems can be used during any planned or unplanned outage. Trade associations in the UK have an opportunity to meet and work with various government agencies and departments to ensure there is adequate provision both now and for the future to keep trade moving and the UK Government has recognised the need to develop the technology that links both trade and population to government services.
Gordon Tutt is chairman of the Association of Freight Software Suppliers
Antwerp to launch sustainability awardAntwerp port community has published its
third Sustainability Report. Claimed to be unique in its kind, the report
covers the sustainable enterprise initiatives taken by the many different companies in the port. The fact that is produced by the port community as a whole is also indicative of the way in which it was drawn up, in extensive dialogue with the various stakeholders, Antwerp says.
The first Sustainability Report for the port was presented at the beginning of 2012 by Antwerp Port Authority, the Left Bank Development Corporation and VOKA-Alfaport. This first edition was a benchmarking exercise, ie, a measurement of the starting points. It also identified sustainable enterprise as the challenge of the 21st century. In that same year the report won the award for the ‘Best Belgian Sustainability Report’.
The second report, which went live at the end of 2013, focused on seven main areas, each of which was assessed from the three points of ‘People, Planet and Prosperity’, as sustainability covers much more than just the environment.
For this third report the number of subject areas has been extended, but still with the same attention paid to the ‘3Ps’. “In this way the biennial report has developed into a touchstone for the port of Antwerp’s determination to maintain its leadership position in creation of added value,” said a port spokesperson.
To publicise and lend emphasis to this ambition a Sustainability Award will be presented for the first
time in 2016. A project for this will be launched at the end of the year.
In this third report, sustainability is measured on the basis of no fewer than 80 indicators, ranging from laws and regulations to quality of the environment, water consumption and emissions. In addition the privacy of customers and the safety of the more than 60,000 port employees are examined, among many other things.
For example, when it comes to safety the report notes a downward trend in the number of industrial accidents, “but sadly we are still confronted with fatal accidents”, the port noted. In order to reduce harmful emissions it is very important to introduce cleaner means of transport. Truck transport is now significantly cleaner, as 70 percent of trucks used in the port area have Euro V or Euro VI engines.
As for hinterland freight carriage, rail transport is an important point for attention: here, both the volume and the proportion of goods covered by rail are declining. Initiatives, such as the Liefkenshoek rail link and Railport, should help to reverse this trend. Finally, the report shows that many companies are investing in research and innovation in order for them to operate as sustainably as possible.
One example is ADPO (Antwerp Distribution and Product Operations), a logistics company that focuses on storage of specialty chemicals. In 2014 it set up the first LNG filling station in Belgium where trucks can fill up both with LNG (liquefied
natural gas) and with CNG (compressed natural gas). LNG is cleaner than diesel and about one quarter cheaper. ADPO has also purchased 12 trucks powered by LNG and in the longer term it aims to replace all 40 of its trucks. According to a study by the Flemish Institute for Technological Research, LNG is 90 percent less harmful to the environment than diesel, as it produces lower emissions of particulates, CO2 and nitrogen oxides. The trucks are also less noisy.
In another example, Gyproc Belgium produces plasterboard and plaster systems for the construction industry. In order to control run-off
from its site the company has built a ‘wadi’, a wide ditch where rainwater collects and is able to percolate slowly into the ground water. This ‘left-over green area’ has now been given a higher ecological value by reprofiling of the land and an appropriate programme of mowing.
The full Sustainability Report (at present only in Dutch) can be viewed online atwww.duurzamehavenvanantwerpen.be
An English version will follow shortly at www.sustainableportofantwerp.com
running Advance Fuels has formally opened its redeveloped Harefield Oil Terminal,
in Uxbridge, UK. Attended by local dignitaries, businessmen, customers and media, the launch signified
the conclusion of a £1 million project to construct the facility.Harefield Oil Terminal represents one of the largest development projects
commissioned by Certas Energy, which owns Advance Fuels. The terminal is now the second largest fuelling facility to the west of Greater London, with a storage capacity of over 1.3 million litres.
London and the South East have seen a sharp decline in fuel storage and supply over the past 10 years as a result of the closure of the Buncefield oil terminal and Coryton refinery. In response to demand, Certas Energy invested in Harefield to provide a needed fuel source and security of supply for customers in the capital, Home Counties and South East England.
Part of the redevelopment included the construction of a pump island, with multiple fuelling points.
Located on Harvil Road, the terminal serves domestic, commercial and agricultural customers in the Greater London region. Advance supplies road diesel, gas oil, heating oil (kerosene) and a full range of lubricants. The company is also a key employer, supporting 18 employees on site, with a view to expanding this number in the coming months.
Intermodal Europe17-19 November 2015Hamburg, Germanywww.intermodal-events.com
10th Annual GPCA Forum 17-19 November 2015Dubai, UAEwww.gpcaforum.net
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Certas Energy invested in Harefield to provide a needed fuel source and security of supply for customers in London and South East England
Now in its 9th year, Multimodal brings 8523 shippers as well as senior decision makers from leading cargo owners looking to reduce costs by running a slicker supply chain.Over three days you can:
Sales Director, major logistics companyNissan Motor Manufacturing UK Ltd Argos
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gateway growingEthiopia and Djibouti have signed an agreement for a
US$1.55 billion fuel pipeline with Black Rhino Group, backed by Mining, Oil & Gas Services and Blackstone Group LP, according to Bloomberg.
The two countries in the Horn of Africa signed framework agreements on Tuesday for construction of the 550km pipeline to transport diesel, gasoline and jet fuel from Djibouti port to central Ethiopia, the companies said.
The pipeline will transport refined oil products from the port to storage facilities in Awash, Ethiopia, near the capital Addis Ababa.
Currently, Ethiopia imports fuel through the Djibouti port and road tankers then transport the jet fuel, diesel and gasoline. Some 500 trucks a day deliver product to the load centre, travelling 800km of narrow two lane road.
Ethiopia’s demand for refined oil products is growing at a rate of around 15 percent a year. Compared with historically similar countries on a similar development path, Ethiopia’s demand for fuel will continue to increase at approximately 20 percent annually.
In another move, French group Rubis is entering the fuel distribution business in Djibouti. The group won the invitation to tender for the assets and Total-branded business in the strategically located country.
Under the agreement Rubis will take control of the largest fuel distributor in Djibouti, which is present in the fuelling station, commercial, aviation, marine and lubricants markets, representing a yearly volume of over 100,000 cbm.
It could also open up future opportunities to Rubis in bulk liquid storage for imports to and exports from the country, as well as fuel distribution.
BP has reached agreement to part-sell its US terminals in deal with Kinder Morgan.
BP Products North America Inc reached an agreement with Kinder Morgan, Inc to offload 15 refined products terminals and associated infrastructure in a transaction valued at US$350 million.
Kinder Morgan and BP will form a joint venture limited liability company (JV) terminal business to own 14 of the acquired assets, which Kinder Morgan will operate and market on the JV’s behalf. One terminal will be owned solely by KMI.
Kinder Morgan will own 75 percent of the JV, with BP retaining the balance. The terminals are located in the US Midwest, Northeast, Southeast and West Coast.
The terminals, with approximately 9.5 million barrels of storage, are pipeline-connected to key refining and processing centres across the United States and offer truck, vessel, and barge access and service capabilities. In connection with the transaction, BP will enter into commercial agreements securing long term storage and throughput capacity from the JV, which plans to market additional capacity to third party customers. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2016.
“We are excited to be partnering with BP on this joint venture,” said John Schlosser, president of Kinder Morgan Terminals. “By combining BP’s expertise in product trading and marketing with Kinder Morgan’s strength in operations and terminal development, the JV is well suited for growth opportunities in high-demand refined petroleum products markets. We believe this arrangement benefits BP, Kinder Morgan and third-party customers.”
USD Group LLC and Pinto Realty Partners have formed a joint venture to develop a US Gulf Coast terminal on the
Houston Ship Channel. USDG will co-lead commercialisation efforts for the 988-acre
property, TDWP Terminals, which is capable of supporting a multiple unit-train per day rail terminal for liquid hydrocarbons, in addition to storage, blending and export operations.
The location offers direct inbound pipeline access and service from two Class 1 railroads, as well as the potential for outbound pipeline and barge connection to major Gulf Coast refining centres and deepwater dock access to international markets.
“USDG remains committed to developing energy infrastructure solutions that improve customer access to end markets,” said Dan Borgen, USDG’s CEO. “We believe this site is uniquely positioned to provide our customers with flexible market access to key demand centres – both domestic and abroad – and we look forward to working closely with Pinto to execute on this tremendous opportunity.”
The site currently supports rail storage operations and is served by the Burlington Northern Sante Fe and Union Pacific railroads. Included in the property are numerous pipeline rights-of-way and a
substantial dredge material storage facility, which is capable of supporting future development needs and may also provide an economical disposal option for others along the ship channel.
