Bertschi expands in Terneuzen

TRACK TO SUIT

TERMINAL • RISING DEMAND HAS PROMPTED BERTSCHI TO EXPAND ITS RAIL TERMINAL IN TERNEUZEN. ALONG WITH THAT ARE SOME IMPROVEMENTS IN EFFICIENCY AND SUSTAINABILITY

“IN THE PAST few years, even during the pandemic, we noticed a growing demand for storage facilities for containers at our Terneuzen terminal,” reports Barry Mol, managing director of Bertschi Netherlands. In response, the company has now completed a significant expansion of capacity at the rail terminal in ValuePark Terneuzen, expanding its footprint from 12,000 m2 to 22,000 m2 and adding some 225 metres of additional track to allow longer trains to call at the facility.

The Terneuzen terminal provides an important link for the local petrochemical industry, which is dominated by Dow Chemical’s plant; tank containers are loaded onto trains at the ValuePark terminal, with five trains heading each week for Antwerp, from where the tanks are distributed to destinations across Europe. “Some 75 per cent of our containers and tank containers are transported by rail, 15 per cent by barge/ shortsea shipping and only 10 per cent by truck,” says Jan Arnet, CEO of Bertschi Group. “These figures are approximately the same for our Terneuzen operations.”

The expansion of the Bertschi rail terminal in Terneuzen will allow for more throughput and more cargo to be moved off the roads. Bertschi says its intermodal logistics chain saves some 70 per cent of CO2 emissions when compared with road-only transport.

At ValuePark Terneuzen, Bertschi was reaching maximum capacity at peak periods, making it clear that the expansion was necessary. “The more customers that make use of our train to Antwerp, the more price-efficient it will be compared with trucking. And less truck milage is better for the environment, too,” says Mol. “Larger storage facilities and longer trains are necessary to support our ambition to become what we call a multi-colour terminal.”

BEST FOR DOW “Dow Terneuzen is Dow’s second largest manufacturing location in the world. Here, we are the central point for supporting our services in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and India,” says Peter van Egerschot, senior logistics director for Dow Europe. The Value Park, which is located on the west side of Dow Terneuzen, has direct connections to the rail and road networks, and international waterways. “Before this expansion, Dow already benefited from Bertschi’s rail terminal at the ValuePark for over a decade. We look forward to not only increase intermodal services, but also to accelerate supply chain efficiency at our site through innovative and sustainable concepts.”

The size of the Bertschi terminal means that companies can use it for temporary storage, giving chemical companies the option to have product on stock outside their own storage space, which can help with production planning and dealing with supply chain uncertainties. Bertschi has also put in use its own yard trucks, which reduces the waiting time for visiting drivers to 20 minutes. “Although it is our ambition to reduce the amount of road transport, we still receive trucks at our terminal and we have arranged a situation in which the waiting time for a truck driver is brought back to a minimum,” says Mol. These yard trucking facilities have also been expanded with the enlargement of the terminal.

Similarly, the extension of the rail track has been accompanied by a switch to enable the locomotive to move from one end of the train to the other. “It will then no longer be necessary for the train to leave our terminal in reverse to the customer’s complex to change the position of the locomotive. This saves a lot of time and unnecessary manoeuvring,” Mol adds. www.bertschi.com