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Issue 2 2014 Freight Business Journal


Port supply chains: time for a rethink says SuperPort chief


The UK motor industry is making more use of the Port of Liverpool – but it could increase even more substantially, predicts Liverpool SuperPort chairman Bernard Molloy. Working in parallel with the


massive engineering project to develop physical infrastructure in the form of the new Liverpool2 port project, the SuperPort group’s aim is to bring together and integrate the strengths of the ports, airport and freight community to create a ‘SuperPort’ within the Liverpool City Region and become a key driver of its economy. There is no reason why the UK


motor manufacturing industry, whose epicentre is in the Midlands


but is now increasingly important in the North-West of England, should be so wedded to southern ports like Felixstowe and Southampton, argues Molloy, whose ‘day job’ is global industrial logistics director at Unipart Logistics. “From the North of England to Liverpool are all the first- and second-tier automotive suppliers. You have Jaguar, Land Rover, Bentley, JCB – all the big manufacturers.” North America is an important


market for these companies, both in terms of the finished product – large numbers of which move on ACL’s ships from Liverpool – and components and spares for the all-important aſter-market, which again is well served by container


services to and from Liverpool. In fact, it’s never been lack of


suitable shipping services that has prevented the car industry from using Liverpool – it’s more to do with companies’ entrenched logistics policies. Molloy states: “In many respects,


the reasons are historical, geared to the traditional strategies of centralising inventory and ‘value added’ work purely in the ‘Golden Triangle’ of the Midlands. But over


the past decade, higher


fuel prices, road congestion and environmental


concerns have


started to change the maths in favour of a more North-centric approach,” Bernard Molloy believes.


Get on board the Mersey Buzz


Merseyside is really buzzing, says Mark Basnett at the Liverpool Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) - and the logistics industry is playing an important part in that. Up to 4,000 new businesses have been started in the past year, creating 12,000 jobs, despite swingeing public spending cuts that have affected the local economy. Nevertheless, “we’ve had a real liſt from the automotive sector and its supply chain, along with offshore wind farm work in the Irish Sea.” The retail and visitor economies are all doing very well. In the summer, Liverpool will be


the epicentre of an International Festival of Business, one of the biggest events of its kind since the Festival of Britain back in 1951, which will incorporate a Maritime and Logistics Fortnight. The UK Warehousing Association will also hold its annual conference and dinner during the Festival, and there will also be an Automotive Supply Chain conference. The LEP will be attending a


number of UK and international conferences in other parts of the country, including Multimodal in Birmingham and the MIPIM property event in France. Industrial property is a major issue on Merseyside at the moment, says Basnett: “We’re looking at demand and supply of logistics property at the moment and at what we need to do to bring things forward. Our challenge at the moment is that we need more larger sites – in gross terms we’ve plenty of land – and we need to get these sites ready.” One such project is the 250


///NORTH WEST


Manchester’s new logistics terminal ready for take-off


Construction work is under way and the first firm deal has been signed up for the logistics area at Manchester’s new


Airport


City development. Manchester Airport Group’s vice-president for property, John Atkins says that DHL will be taking 50,000sq ſt for a new distribution facility – which neatly coincides with the express carrier’s announcement that it is to launch daily 767 freighter services between Manchester and its main European hub at Leipzig. The new terminal, which


is scheduled for completion in October, will be a highly- automated, high-capacity facility that will also include a public parcel pick-up area. Moreover, Atkins revealed,


talks are at an advanced stage for two major sites, of 300,000sq ſt and 500,000sq ſt with a freight operator and an internet fulfilment company which, if they come to fruition, would take up 50% of the new logistics area. The rest of the area would be


hectare Parkside development alongside the M6 at St Helens which the LEP is keen to get through the planning process in time for when the Liverpool2 port development comes on stream. Another is G-Park near Widnes. In common with the rest of


the UK, there’s little speculative development in Liverpool at the moment; property developers got burned in the recession and aren’t yet ready to re-enter the market in a big way. “There is only one large high quality building that’s ready to roll,” Basnett points out. Liverpool2 is a vital catalyst


in sparking off wider economic development in the region and, together with Jaguar Land Rover on Speke, the port is one of the two main drivers of the local economy. The other important piece of


work is to ensure that the local road and rail transport network is able to cope with the new demands placed on it. MDS Transmodal recently produced a study of the effect of Liverpool2 on the wider UK transport system and it showed that it could decisively reduce congestion on the roads further south – provided of course that roads in the North-west are able to


cope with the new demands put on them. But the second Mersey bridge is poised to go ahead and is expected to open in about 2017, which is probably when Liverpool2 will start to generate large volumes of traffic. Rail


improvements the continued and development


of the Manchester Ship Canal will also ensure that there are good alternatives to road. The Transpennine rail line is being electrified and this will increase capacity on a vital east-west link. Put all these different elements together and you will create what has been dubbed the Liverpool Superport, a holistic approach to transport and logistics covering the entire region. The human element shouldn’t


be forgotten in all this and in recent years there has been a resurgence in shipping and logistics employment on Merseyside. Many of the leading shipping lines have established their


‘back office’ functions in


the city and overall Liverpool LEP estimates that transport and logistics directly account for 7-8% of jobs in the region, of 17,000 in total – without even beginning to take account of secondary factors.


Roadways wins three more years with Edge Worldwide


Container haulier Roadways Container Logistics has won Salford, Greater Manchester- based frozen food specialist Edge Worldwide Logistics’ (EWL) business for three more years. Roadways’ general manager, Marc Wynne, said: “Currently we’re managing over 200 movements a week for EWL. We believe our success is due to our consistently


high performance levels and the flexibility of service our network provides.” There is a Roadways dedicated


member of staff at EWL’s Salford headquarters responsible for co- ordinating container movements. Manchester is one of Roadways’


busiest and most important regions. The heart of its operation is at Barton Dock Road on Manchester’s


Trafford Park Estate, where it operates 35 of its own trucks along with subcontractors. The haulier’s general manger, Marc Wynne, says that moves to and from the nearby railhead provide a large chunk of its business along with the port of Liverpool; Roadways also has a subsidiary depot at Garston, close to Freightliner’s Liverpool city terminal.


A Staple of the shipping scene


From a backstreet in the suburban town of Altrincham, Staples International Shipping has masterminded a global freight operation taking in all corners of the world since Byron Staples founded the company nearly 20 years ago. Many freight forwarders’


approach is to set up a service and then find freight but


Staples’ starting


to fill point


it, is


the customer’s requirements. “Within reason, we will move anything anywhere in the world,” Byron Staples explains. While Staples offers a


complete range of NVOCC services, it is perhaps best known


in the wider freight industry for its niche groupage services to Malta, Greece, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia. Staples’ business is


overwhelmingly export, not import, and it’s not particularly North-west orientated – around 60% of it originates from down south. Freight is though consolidated at Cheadle Heath near Manchester. Attention to detail is as


important in forwarding as it ever was, he adds. The company is IATA-, AEO- and ISO-registered


customer’s needs and you’ve got to have people that apply themselves. Remember, goods cannot move until everything, all the paperwork is in place.” The onus is on the forwarder more than ever before with the virtually disappearance of the in- company shipping manager. One problem that Staples


but, even more


importantly, says Byron Staples, “you need to understand the


along with the rest of the industry is facing is a lack of qualified shipping people, in the North- west as much as the rest of the country. “There is a void in the industry,” Byron Staples admits – though it’s one that he seeks to fill by offering internships for undergraduates.


let in plot sizes ranging from 25- 50,000 sq ſt to 500,000 sq ſt. MAG is keen to attract small and medium- sized freight firms, Atkins insists: “We’re not pricing it at a premium – prices will not be significantly different from the market position that’s there at the moment, when you consider the quality of the facilities and, for instance, the fact that there will be 24-hour security.” As well as the logistics area, there will also be a new 200-300,000sq


ſt transit shed, which MAG hasn’t yet started to actively market, says Atkins. • Saudi Airlines Cargo is to introduce a new three times a week passenger routes from Riyadh and Jeddah to Manchester with the start of the new summer timetable from 1 April. It will be operated by a B777-200 aircraſt offering a nine tonne cargo capacity from Saudi Arabia and 12 tonnes into the country.


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