ISSUE 3 2011
NEWS Mersey gateway wins funding
use the additional capacity to increase their service from the current five to 16 trains a day. Waterway connections are available close to but not within the site – the Tesco development is in fact on an infilled dock. The nearest operational quays are at Mersey Gateway across the river Mersey in Runcorn but the port of Liverpool’s Seaforth
container terminal is also close by, as is Liverpool John Lennon airport. The Rail Freight Group (RFG) welcomed the funding for the sector describing the Gateway, together with AV Dawson’s £1.2m award for a new terminal in Middlesbrough as “ excellent schemes” winners.
that were worthy second half of 2011.
road freight service as part of the express and logistics operator’s renewed focus on the continent. A DHL spokeswoman said that development of the concept was still under way and details are still being finalised, but Africa Connect will be offered from Mombasa and Dar es Salam, Spain and Morocco and Johannesburg and Cape Town. The target launch date is the
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DHL goes on the road in Africa DHL is to launch a pan-African
The forwarding arm of DHL also announced plans for four oil and energy centres of excellence in Africa over the next 12 months in Cape Town, Luanda, Accra and Mombasa. They will offer customers specialist expertise in oil and energy logistics.
DHL is assembling a team to design and implement logistics solutions for the sector.
The Mersey Multimodal Gateway (3MG) partnership has secured £9 million from the Government’s Regional Growth Fund.
The 3MG partners - Stobart Group, Prologis and Halton Borough Council – will use the money to help develop rail infrastructure and to bring brownfield land back into use. They will also expand the freight park and attract more blue chip retailers to the borough. The Regional Growth Fund, launched by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) in 2010, provides a mixture of direct support for private sector investments and for some basic infrastructure to remove the barriers that trigger private sector led economic growth as part of a wider investment. Cllr Rob Polhill, Leader of Halton Borough Council, said: “The announcement is tremendous news for 3MG and Halton. It will allow the continuation of the Mersey Multimodal Gateway which will secure thousands of new jobs for local people”. Richard Butcher, deputy CEO of the Stobart Group, added: “Stobart Group has already demonstrated its commitment
to develop opportunities for jobs in the Halton region and also to deliver sustainable transport solutions for the future. Securing this funding is an important step to ensure those objectives continue to be met.”
Sally McDonald, in charge of major projects at Halton Borough Council, said that the site would be one of the largest logistics developments in the UK. “The Stobart Group currently have 45 acres built out, but that still leaves 100 acres.” A recent deal with Prologis would create 1m sq ft of warehousing but the total area could ultimately be around 2m sq ft. Tesco is already a major user of the site and has created around 1200 jobs but the total job potential of the entire site could be nearer 5,000 McDonald said. Future development, she continued, would be to add more rail sidings into the site, which would be available for outside users as well as Multimodal Gateway tenants. These would be 450 metres long and would have a direct connection to the Liverpool branch of the West Coast Main Line. Completion is expected within the next two to three years. Stobart Rail would
Transport Exchange plans air and sea service soon
Transport Exchange Group (TEG) plans to launch an online exchange for sea and airfreight sometime next year. It will allow large shippers, for example, to set up trading groups of selected freight service suppliers with real- time communication between the parties, including real-time requests for quotation (RFQs) and quote handling. Transactions would also be based on standard Incoterms and would fully take into account the complexities of international freight transactions, TEG managing director Lyall Cresswell told FBJ. However, he said he could
not yet give a firm date for implementation, though it would be during 2012. At the moment, TEG is working on a US version of its Courier Exchange service and has also recently launched two Closed User Group exchanges in Europe. Corporate Exchange and Contract Exchange will help larger companies devise collaboration systems with customers and suppliers.
The Pallet Network is the first customer for Corporate Exchange. Its members will be able to post loads and capacity within their network.
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