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Issue 8 2017 - Freight Business Journal Ceva opens Midlands pharma site


CEVA Logistics has opened a refurbished 132,000sq ft facility at Redditch to customers in the healthcare sector and to bring it up to Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency standards. Work included the


addition of LED lighting as well as the installation of a heating, ventilation and air


conditioning system in line with industry requirements. There is also a dedicated area in the warehouse that allows specialist items to be kept at between two and eight degrees Celsius. The opening of the facility


coincides with a new five year warehousing agreement and a three year transport agreement


Hapag-Lloyd to reap UASC


merger benefits


With now only six players offering more than 1 million teu of capacity, the level of consolidation over the last three years in the container shipping market, said Hapag-Lloyd’s senior director of corporate communications, Nils Haupt in a recent interview with FBJ. Haupt noted that, of the 20


largest lines of just three years ago, only 11 are now leſt; the others having merged, are in the


process of merging or have gone out of business. While it is sad to see well-


established lines disappearing from the industry as independent players, it was vital


for the industry to deal


with the over-capacity and consequential pressure on rates that had bedevilled the business, he believes. Consolidation is proving an important mechanism to better realign


with medical nutrition firm Nutricia. CEVA provides the warehousing and distribution of medical nutritional feed products to both pharmaceutical wholesalers and


home-bound patients


and the site has a Registered Pharmacy to dispense prescriptions. There is also an on site pharmacist and support


supply of capacity with demand, while fewer major ship orders and a higher rate of scrapping have also helped (last year saw the highest level of scrapping that the industry has experienced for a decade). Haupt


believes that the


future market is likely to consist of between five


and seven


global carriers – the rest being smaller providers. “The level of consolidation over the last three years has been unprecedented,” he explained. “It’s all happened at an incredible pace.” Hapag-Lloyd is about to


complete integration of United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) into its fold. While the vast majority of the various aspects of the integration had already


team to check all home delivery orders and prescriptions using bespoke software. In addition, BMI Healthcare, UKs largest private hospital group is also moving to the new facility where CEVA will continue to provide warehousing and distribution for its medicines and hospital consumable goods.


been accomplished, he told FBJ in late October – including IT, staff and fleet resources – the completion of the process will only be formally celebrated on 28-29 November when global management meet in Hamburg to mark the occasion. He added that the integration


process has been “faster and smoother” than expected. However, the full benefits of the tie-up – estimated at US$435 million per year by the line – won’t be felt until 2019, and one-off integration costs will be incurred this year The merger has created the


world’s fiſth-largest shipping line, consisting of 230 vessels and a shared fleet capacity of approximately 1.6 million teu.


Tilbury to recruit a battalion of new workers


The Port of Tilbury Logistics Academy, Tilbury on the Thames Trust and the Royal British Legion have launched ‘Attention to Logistics’ a training scheme and bursary to help forces veterans and their families develop their skills and future employment potential. The scheme aims to help ex-


service men and women and their families back into work through the logistics sector.


Stuart Wallace, chief


operating officer of Tilbury owners, Forth Ports and chair of Tilbury on the Thames Trust said: “The launch of the Attention to Logistics programme


delivered by


our award winning Logistics Academy, will create improved pathways to new opportunities for veterans whose military service make them well suited for careers in logistics.”


China flights are shot in the arm for the North


The first year of operation the Manchester-Beijing air route, operated by Hainan Airlines, has driven a significant increase in exports and investment into the North of England, according to a new study by consultants Steer Davies Gleeve. Two years since President Xi Jinping announced the UK’s


first direct flight to China outside of London, the value of goods exported by businesses across the region via Manchester Airport to China has increased by 265% to nearly £200m every month. Inward investment is also


increasing. Minister for the Northern


Powerhouse and local growth, Jake Berry, said: “In just one year the Hainan route has brought such significant rewards to the Northern Powerhouse that I feel there is a real appetite to explore launching airline routes from Manchester to other regions in China.” “As we head to Shanghai


we will flourishing


look to build on the commercial


relationship that the UK and China have established, bringing with us Northern businesses which demonstrate the strengths and opportunities in the region.” The study comes on the back


of a separate study produced for Transport for the North’s International Connectivity Commission, which concluded that


enhanced direct access


to markets like China was vital if the region was to achieve “transformational” growth in the years ahead.


///NEWS News Roundup


A new National Infrastructure Commission will examine the UK’s freight sector and how it can meet the country’s needs long into the future, its chairman Lord Adonis said on 23 November The plan was announced in the Budget the previous day. The study will look at what Government can do to help businesses move goods faster and more efficiently. It will also review options to improve existing infrastructure and recommend on how new technologies and processes can improve freight flows by road and rail, in towns and cities, cross- country and into and out of ports and airports. It will also consider new developments such as electric vehicles and biogas fuels and how to manage the effects of congestion caused by freight movements.


Road & Rail


The first intermodal TIR operation involving road, sea and rail has operated between Ljublana in Slovenia to Bandar Abbas, Iran via Italy and Turkey. The International Road Transport Union said it gave a five-day time saving. The route included a road leg from Slovenia to Italy, followed by a sea crossing from Trieste to and rail and truck in Iran.


Kuehne + Nagel has added a number of origin points to its KN Eurasia Express rail service, introduced six months ago, including northern China, Japan, South Korea and South-East Asia. Among them is Changchun, an industrial metropolis in northern China, which now has weekly departures to Hamburg. KN is also offering shipments between Japan and South Korea as well as destinations in Europe as a combined sea and rail service. South-East Asian countries are connected via KN’s existing overland transport network in the region.


The International Road Transport Union has developed new guidelines and checklists for the transport of animals including loading and unloading, feeding, watering and transport in extreme temperatures. The checklists are available in English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Polish and Romanian.


The government has given the green light to a controversial plan for an International Railfreight Park at Mossend, near Glasgow. Transport and logistics firm PD Stirling said it would include 775m rail sidings and 200,000sq m storage and logistics facilities. However, last year local councillors refused to approve the project aſter receiving 1,200 objections from local residents. PD Stirling said it would create a new community woodland area.


P&O Ferrymasters has added a fiſth rotation to its rail service between Poznan and Rotterdam. The train, which launched four months ago and is operated in conjunction with Polish logistics company Erontrans, will add Wednesday departures in both directions. It provides a link between the CLIP terminal in Swarzedz-Poznan to Europoort in Rotterdam, from where cargoes are transported to Britain via P&O Ferries.


The European Commission is to set up a dedicated group of rail infrastructure managers to develop best practice for contingency plans. It follows the Rastatt incident in which a section of track collapsed, closing the busiest North-South rail route for several weeks.


DHL is making “an eight-figure investment” in a freight hub at Hanover Airport Business Park to cater for less-than-truckload and full loads. The new site, building of which is expected to open in early 2018, will have over 80 loading bays and a capacity of 600,000 tonnes a year.


Policies that try to force freight off roads onto other modes of transport will not work, warns the International Road Transport Union (IRU) in its response to the European Commission’s ‘Clean Mobility’ package. Marc Billiet, who leads IRU’s activities on goods transport in the EU, said it should instead concentrate on improving efficiency and capacity of the multimodal freight transport and logistics network, adding: “We haven’t seen any significant modal shiſt results over the last 25 years and this proposal will not change anything.” IRU suggests that it would be better to incentivise the use of European Modular Concept vehicles in combined transport o reduce the number of trucks needed.


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