DHL brings it all together in Brussels 24


DHL Global Forwarding has given the green light to a new €27m logistics centre for air freight at Brussels Airport. With a total ground area of 54,000sqm - including 23,000sqm of warehouse space - the facility will combine DHL Global Forwarding Belgium’s air freight activities under one roof at the Brucargo West freight area of the main Belgian airport. The facility will provide dedicated areas such as a 1,750sq m temperature- controlled area to meet the needs


of life science customers and others with particular requirements. With everything under one roof,


it will be possible for DHL to improve handling efficiency and quality in combination with a secured and totally fenced site compliant with increasingly stringent aviation security regulations. Deutsche Post-DHL Group’s air


and ocean freight division has been based in Brucargo since the cargo area was developed in 1980. DHL


Global Forwarding BE’s air freight operations are currently split over three different buildings at Brugcargo, a legacy of incremental growth and various business integrations over the last


ten years which now lead


to a certain degree of inefficiency. The 720 building, which is as well as being the registered office of DGF BE, is the former Air Express Building constructed in the early 80s. The 749 building was originally a capacity solution during the Danzas Air


Express merger in 2001, while the 765 building became DGF’s property during the Exel Freight Management integration back in 2006. The Starbroker freight activities


are also currently outsourced to an external warehouse location due to space and capacity constraints within the existing DGF facilities. The current buildings will not be retained but will be handed back to their owners. DHL Global Forwarding’s CEO for Benelux and France, Jean-Claude


Zeebrugge ready to enter the big box league


The Port of Zeebrugge has gained new funding to start the next stage of its outer port and terminal operators PSA and APMT have been given the concession to operate the new container terminals. Zeebrugge is, along with Amsterdam, one of the two relatively new entrants to the deepsea container trade but unlike Amsterdam, its business has remained and in fact even continued to grow by 6% in 2009 when many of the major ports’ box business was experiencing double-digit decreases. The port has the capacity to


handle ships up to about 18,000teu and it currently handles vessels from China Shipping, Maersk, CMA, MSC, Evergreen, Hanjin and UASC’s east- west trades. Several of the main lines operate their own feeder services and there are also common-users ones from the likes of Unifeeder. Currently, container traffic is


around 2.25m teu, not far off the all- time record of 2.5m teu reached in 2010 and still well above pre-crisis levels. The port reckons that it is in an ideal location for transhipment traffic which will account for a growing proportion of the main line operators’ trade as ships get ever bigger – and Zeebrugge can also comfortably handle the larger containerships. It is also ideally placed to serve northern France. The new reclaimed land areas,


together with new cranes could easily boost the port’s total box capacity to 6m or even 7m teu a year. In the inner port, within the locks,


Zeebrugge is continuing to market its logistics zone to maritime-linked distribution firms. One of the first takes is coffee trader Effico, which will carry out sorting and blending operations from the zone. Another major inner harbour


Zeebrugge is becoming a container crossroads


Delen, said: “We were at 105% occupation and if we were to have any kind of growth, we needed to go for yet another building. Now we have space to grow into, as well as the option to increase our space by 5,000sq m.” DHL Global Forwarding will also


become the first logistics company to gain direct airside access at Brussels airport, thanks to its DHL Aviation arm and also its high security standards. It’s also a result of “the much more commercial approach by the management of Brussels airport” in the past couple of years, says Delen. It was this that provided the catalyst for the airport authority to unlock the piece of land on which DHL’s new facility will be built. There is a realisation now that attracting large forwarders and logistics firms will in turn attract new airlines to the airport. There is more land around


Brussels airport, but much of it would have to be released by the Belgian Air Force. There is also a former Fedex building that could theoretically be used. DHL did consider off-airport


scheme is the Ship Project to create a larger lock that will double the size of ship able to access that part of the port. It will also make part of the current locked area tidal, effectively moving it from the inner to the outer port. Zeebrugge has also developed


a unified border inspection post so that any traffic that is summoned for inspection – whether phytosanitary, for scanning or customs control - can be dealt with at a single location. The port has a good reputation for its phyto controls, gained as result of its involvement in the Australia and New Zealand trades. The port offers several added-


value services including no less than five centres for pre-delivery inspection of vehicles or post production modification. Cars are big business at Zeebrugge and the port regularly vies with Bremerhaven as Europe’s top car port. (At the moment, Zeebrugge’s import- orientated volumes are down a bit


as a result of the Japanese tsunami whereas Bremen’s are up on the back of the German export boom.) The port handles some of the


world’s largest car-carrying ships of 6,500-8,000 unit capacity with K Line’s Kess subsidiary and UECC running connecting services all over Europe. Zeebrugge has also benefited


from the EU-funded Motorways of the Sea programme and now has


36-hour connections on


Transfennica con-ro vessels to Bilbao, a daily service to Gothenburg also taking 36 hours by Stora ro ro vessels, Finnlines to Finland, the Baltic and Russia and to Esbjerg. Hopes are that the programme will continue though funding for new projects may slow a little. The main worry on the horizon,


for Zeebrugge along with all other North west European ports is that the new sulphur limits in ships’ fuel could start to drive hard-won


business back onto the roads again. Inland, the French government


decision to start enlarging the Seine Nord narrow canal between the Paris and Lille areas could have benefits for Zeebrugge. The Belgian government


is currently


considering a plan to similarly enlarge the Seine West canal that provides a link to Seine Nord but there could be environmental objections. Zeebrugge’s Port Connect


subsidiary has also invested in two ‘estuary’ barges of 450teu capable of operating along the coast and then inland along the Scheldt and Rhine rivers, as far as Meerhout, Belgium’s biggest inland barge terminal which serves the local chemical industry as well as Nike’s European distribution centre in Limburgh province. Europort also run two 250teu estuary barges. On the rails there are daily train


connections to Duisburg and three a week to Dourges south of Lille.


sites but, aſter careful review of all the proposed scenarios, no real valid operational solution could be envisaged. This in combination with the Brussels Airport Investment Plan, which included a stronger footing for freight activities, persuaded DHL to stay on at the airport. Other factors included the available freight capacity on long- haul passenger and freighter flights together with Brucargo’s location astride the E19 highway. Congestion on the roads around


the airport was also a factor in persuading DHL to stay on airport, as was the airport site’s better security. “We are planning to achieve AEO status within a couple of months,” explains


Jean-Claude Delen. “We


hope this will be by the time we move into the new building.” He would much rather


that Belgium’s airports took a cooperative strategy rather than compete with each other. “Where you have two airports within a 100km of each other, rather than compete with each other it would be much better for them to work together.” Belgium’s politics does however confound this ideal; if an airport in the French speaking region of Walonia gains a particular facility, then the central Government feels obliged to provide something similar at one in the Flemish region too. “But ultimately the real competition to Brussels is not Liege or Antwerp but Amsterdam or


Paris,” Jean-Claude Delen points


out. DHL Global Forwarding mainly


uses DHL Aviation capacity within Europe and also to some US destinations. It has three connecting flights a night from Brussels to DHL’s new Leipzig hub. For the rest, there is plenty of scheduled capacity from Brussels to Asia and the US – Brussels Airlines’ new flight to New York is especially welcome, says Delen. “We would though welcome a couple of additional destinations from Brussels and we do really miss having a US West Coast connection.” Amsterdam does offer an alternative but it can be four hours away if the traffic is against you. For Africa, there is the Brussels A330 passenger flight but


it also


trucks to Liege for Ethiopian Airlines’ freighter to Addis Abba and onward connections. Liege is only 1hr 10min by truck from Brussels – traffic permitting – and with ready-built, screened pallets, traffic only needs to arrive there an hour before take-off. Meanwhile, the Belgian economy


is in a bit of a trough. It did recover a bit in 2010 but this was mainly to retailers having run stocks down; 2011 saw little if any improvement and 2012 has been much the same. There is very little sign of an export- led boom from Europe: “Confidence just isn’t there,” says Delen, and he does not expect to see much of an improvement until the third quarter of 2012 or early 2013. The life science industry is the mainstay of local exports. That said, Belgium remains an


attractive distribution location for Europe, though its role as a hub for Africa has now largely been usurped by Dubai. Belgium and the Netherlands


offer pretty much the same advantages from a distribution point of view. The latter possibly has the advantage in terms of language ability, says Delen; on the other hand, Belgium has more space available, in his opinion, particularly the Wallonia and Limburg regions. The Netherlands currently has its


nose ahead for customs facilitation, although both countries’ customs administrations tend to watch each other closely and services available in one generally become available in the other aſter a short time. The Netherlands does though offer the ability to pay VAT and tax in the country of final destination and its IT systems are probably slightly ahead of Belgium – but taken together, both countries are well ahead of the rest of Europe when it comes to fiscal representation.


Issue 4 2012


///BENELUX


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36