22


Issue 4 2012


People and places are Verbrugge’s strengths in Vlissingen


“We have two strengths here in Vlissingen – our location and our people,” says Dolf van Dijk. As the commercial manager for woodpulp and paper at local stevedoring firm Verbrugge Terminals, he is at one of north-west Europe’s transport crossroads. Vlissingen (or Flushing as the Brits call it) is perhaps not among the best known of the Netherlands seaports, but perhaps it should be. It offers deep draſt, of up to 14.5m and a minimum of 12m, direct connection to the open sea but at the same time excellent connections by river, rail and road to France, Germany and the Rhine. Verbrugge is a family owned


company founded 52 years ago by Anton Verbrugge and his son Martin is still very actively involved in the day to day operations of the business. It actually consists of three arms – Verbrugge Terminals, which handles stevedoring; Verbrugge Road Transportation, with 300 trucks and 1000 trailers operating mainly in Benelux, Germany and France; and Verbrugge Marine, which takes car of port agency and chartering. Verbrugge Terminals has three


locations, its original location in the port of Terneuzen on the other side of the river Scheldt estuary and two in Vlissingen, to which it moved its deepsea operations in 2000. The


Terneuzen terminal continues to cater for short-sea traffic. “We can save twice six hours


here in Vlissingen compared with sailing up the Scheldt to Antwerp, Dolf van Dijk explains. “The river passage isn’t easy – and it’s time- consuming.” Likewise, while Zeebrugge


shares Vlissingen’s advantage of access to the open sea, it currently has no connection to the inland waterway network, he points out. The people are the company’s


other big plus-point, he continues. “We have an owner who is really involved in the company and who knows how to motivate people.


And we also put a lot of effort into training – safety is a particularly important issue with the break- bulk cargoes we handle, so our staff do a minimum of a month’s training before they start work.” Unlike many of the larger ports,


Verbrugge is able to employ its own stevedores directly rather than hiring them from a pool of dock labour. Working practices are also much more flexible and workers are multi-skilled, combining roles such as crane driver, forkliſt driver and cargo inspector. There are no minimum gang sizes and, if a vessel finishes loading halfway through a shiſt, it is possible to start work on


An essential gateway for Norbert Dentressangle


Benelux is “an absolutely key gateway”


to Europe, says David


Barron, global commercial director for Norbert Dentressangle Overseas (NDO). Chinese companies looking to establish themselves in the European market often set up in Belgium or the Netherlands first and the region’s major ports and airports are a prime gateway for the rest of the Continent. “We’re doing a lot of partnering


work with Chinese shippers looking to supply to the rest of Europe,” says David Barron. “And fiscal representation is also important. We can create a legal entity to handle all the business aspects as well as the logistics for them.” Norbert Dentressangle offers


forwarding, warehousing and distribution centre management and final distribution to the store or end point and operates a range of DCs throughout the region. The


For NDO, which uses all the major shipping lines, services from major Chinese manufacturing regions are effectively daily – or better – and if there isn’t a service to Rotterdam from a particular point, there probably isn’t one anywhere else in Europe. There are really very few


David Barron


big attraction of Benelux is that it is possible to reach a wide swathe of Europe within 24 hours including Northern France and a good part of Germany – even parts of Poland and the Czech Republic. Widen the delivery window to 48 hours and virtually the whole of western and central Europe is reachable. “The geographical location is perfect for European DC management,” says Barron. Rotterdam still cannot be beaten as an entry point for ocean services.


downsides to the Benelux, David Barron continues. “Yes, you can get port congestion but no more so than in most other European ports.” There is some road congestion, but no more so than anywhere else on the European highway network. Nor is it a high-cost area


for warehousing. Norbert Dentressangle has operations in Nijmegen, Rotterdam, Antwerp and Amsterdam, to name a few and there really is very little problem in finding space in the quantity and type needed, says Barron.


We can save twice six hours here in Vlissingen compared with sailing up the Scheldt to Antwerp - Dolf van Dijk


///BENELUX


decided to locate its largest non-US plant there. The new road tunnel also gave


Vlissingen a big boost; both ports are now only three hours by truck from Paris, one of the ports’ major markets. The other big plus-point of the


two ports, Vlissingen in particular, is space. “There is still a lot of land available here, compared with Rotterdam, Antwerp or Zeebrugge. We ourselves have grown a lot in the past ten years, but we still have more space to grow into,” says Dolf van Dijk. Rob Quartel, general manager


another, again unlike some of the other ports. Verbrugge handles a wide


variety of different cargoes, mostly breakbulk. In Terneuzen, it handles forest products, fertilizers and minerals and is in the process of building a terminal for liquid fertilizer. Terneuzen is in a cut-off enclave of the Netherlands that is surrounded by the Scheldt estuary on one side and on the other three by Belgium, although since 2003 there has been a 7km under-river road tunnel linking it to the rest of the Netherlands. It was a bit of an agricultural backwater until the 1960s when chemical giant Dow


of Vlissingen Terminals points out that traffic at the port has grown steadily over the years, as against a largely static picture for the other ports in the area. “There has been a huge consolidation in a lot of industries and at the same time the number of vessels has decreased but the amount of cargo per vessel has increased – which has encouraged ship operators to concentrate on one port – and the coastal ports have an advantage because they can offer quick in and out access.” Verbrugge started its operations


at Vlissingen’s Scaldia terminal in 2001 with a single shed of around 16,000sq m, handling woodpulp imports from Chile – the company having


successfully anticipated


a move in the market from Scandinavia to South America – and that has now grown to no fewer than 14 warehouses. Next to the Scaldia terminal is


Verbrugge’s Zeeland terminal, its multipurpose terminal handling forest products, metals and project cargo, among others. The company is


also building


new sheds here and again there is space for further expansion. “It has helped us that we are so diversified,” says Dolf van Dijk. “As construction is weak, steel is slow but other metals like aluminium are doing well. So we’ve managed to grow, despite the weak economy.” There were plans for a container


terminal at Vlissingen – in fact both Verbrugge and the port authority had their own alternatives – but with


so much container port


capacity going spare in this part of Europe, now is not the time to venture into this segment of the market. But the plans are there and could be reactivated if conditions are right. In the meantime, there are daily


container barge connections from both Vlissingen and Terneuzen to Antwerp, Rotterdam and Zeebrugge, at a very reasonable cost, says Dolf van Dijk. Another main traffic at


Vlissingen is trade cars, handled by Cobelfret. Connections to the hinterland will be further improved by the scheme to enlarge the Canal du Nord which links both ports to France. The work will allow barges of 2,500 to 3,000 tonnes to operate. There are also regular train connections to Italy, East Europe and Germany.


Fourth freighter for Cargolux


Luxembourg-based all-cargo airline Cargolux took delivery of its fourth Boeing 747-8 Freighter at the manufacturer’s delivery centre in Everett on 24 May. Aſter a short ferry flight


flight continuing to Los Angeles prior to joining the Cargolux fleet in Luxembourg. It is one of a 13-strong order for the carrier. It is also the first 747-8F


to Seattle-


Tacoma International Airport the aircraſt went into revenue service on the same day with the


delivered from Boeing with increased operational weights, with a six tonne higher maximum take-off weight.


Cargolux is meanwhile


continuing its fleet rollover program. The new aircraſt replaces a 747-400F that is due to leave the fleet in the summer and the 747-400F fleet will successively be reduced as further new aircraſt are delivered.


AEO for U-Freight Holland


The U-Freight Group’s U-Freight Holland subsidiary has been certified by the Dutch Customs authority as an Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) in the Customs Simplifications and


Security Procedures categories. U-Freight Holland expects to see tangible benefits of AEO accreditation including fewer physical and documentary examinations of


cargo, priority


use of non-intrusive inspection techniques when examination is required, priority processing by Customs whenever security is heightened and ‘Preferred Trader’ eligibility.


E-commerce helps Rhenus grow in Tilburg


Rhenus Contract Logistics is to open a new logistic centre in Tilburg in the Netherlands. The 18,000 sqm facility will be used for Rhenus’ e-commerce activity and brings total storage capacity for Rhenus Contract Logistics in


Tilburg to around 100,000sq m on four ‘campus’ locations. E-commerce services at the


new location will include storage, distribution, order fulfilment, kitting and assembly and two international clients will be


stationed at the new centre. Rhenus Contract Logistics


now has seven logistics centres in the Netherlands involved in European supply chain activities for e-commerce and the healthcare and technology industry.


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