News bulletin – tanks and logistics

NEWS BULLETIN

TANKS & LOGISTICS

HOYER GETS SMARTER

Hoyer reports that it has now converted more than 10,000 of its tank containers to the Smart Tank concept. “With Smart Logistics, the company is today the innovation leader in the intelligently networked logistics field, and offers smart solutions to monitor, analyse and optimise logistics processes. One of the central points here is systematically upgrading the fleet to so-called Smart Tanks,” says the company.

Marlen Blechschmidt, head of digitalisation in the Netlog Business Unit, explains: “By using this technology, our Smart Tank will report deviations in critical load parameters, thus offering our customers even more safety, quality and efficiency for the product being transported.”

Hoyer’s Smart Tanks are equipped with sensors to monitor the parameters of products in transit, such as temperature, filling level, pressure, and the tank container’s location. These are important factors in ensuring the safety, security, efficiency and consistent quality of transport movements, Hoyer says. www.hoyer-group.com

PACKED FROM PAKISTAN

Van den Bosch has delivered its first batch of tank containers to its new operation in Pakistan, which is operated out of the company’s Dubai-based subsidiary, Van den Bosch DMCC. The foodgrade tanks, which will be mainly used for the export of ethanol, are now at the Pakistan Terminal Operators depot in Karachi and, the company says, “represent a new milestone in the further development of the deep sea activities of Van den Bosch”.

“We have received a lot of positive feedback about the expansion to Pakistan,” says Bart van de Vorst, general manager of Van den Bosch DMCC. “The Asian continent offers great opportunities to develop our global network and will create new possibilities for our customers.” www.vandenbosch.com

CASH BOOST FOR NEXIOT

Nexiot AG, one of the leading enablers of the digitisation process in the chemical logistics sector, has received a SFr 15m ($15.5m) injection of capital from SVC Ltd, an investment vehicle of Credit Suisse. The investment will help Nexiot to continue to develop new technologies for the logistics industry, expand its team and boost its international commercial activities.

“The additional investment from a range of companies in Nexiot AG is a vote of confidence in our mission to develop unique solutions to drive global logistics digitisation,” says Marcel Scheurer, Nexiot’s CFO. “This development highlights our growing global success story and strengthens our leadership position in enabling the digital supply chain with true end-to-end solutions, in order to increase efficiency, as well as generate additional revenue streams and increase value for our clients and partners.”

Nexiot was formed in 2015 as a spin-off from the ETH Zürich technical university. Last year it opened new offices in Hamburg and Dallas. www.nexiot.ch

MILKYWAY GOES MANLESS

Milkyway Group has announced plans to build an unmanned chemical warehouse in Zhangjiagang, on the Yangtze River in Jiangsu province, China. The development is the outcome of a three-year project and will rely on management and control systems developed by the company.

Milkyway says the unmanned warehouse, due for completion this year, will make operations safer and faster, taking inventory out of the supply chain and improving efficiencies for the local chemical industry. Zhangjiagang is one of Milkyway’s 11 operating clusters in China.

The announcement was made at a ceremony in the city on 4 January, where Pan Guoqiang, deputy secretary and acting mayor of the Municipal Committee, said: “In recent years, Zhangjiagang has actively explored the path and mode of modern supply chain to promote high-quality development, and was officially approved as a national pilot city for supply chain innovation and application in October

last year. During the pilot period, Zhangjiagang will focus on building a number of characteristic industry supply chain platforms with strong integration ability and high collaborative efficiency, cultivating a number of intelligent logistics supply chain platforms with port logistics as the main body.”

Shi Xu, general manager of Milkyway’s warehousing group, said: “The total chemical throughput from the Millkyway Group is as high as 120m tonnes a year. Under such a huge cargo throughput, the key factor to ensure the safety and efficiency of the supply chain is to continuously invest in science in technology.” www.mwclg.com

GET FIT WITH SUTTONS

Suttons Group is lending its support to an online campaign to help truck drivers stay healthy in body and mind. The campaign, ‘Truckers Who Run’, is a community-focused Facebook group started by Lee Gibson (below), a driving trainer based at Suttons’ Stockton-onTees depot, that now has more than 2,000 members. He felt he could not be the only UK trucker who would benefit from a dedicated place to discuss lifestyle, diet tips and fitness advice.

“It’s great to see this idea I had one day sitting in a truck has blossomed and is now helping drivers all over the country,” Gibson says. “We can advise our members on good places to run near where they’ve parked up for the night, offer them motivation when they’re finding it tough to exercise and provide a place to air worries and stresses, because mental health is just as important as physical fitness.”

“Suttons fully supports Lee with his campaign to assist drivers who are trying to improve and maintain their health and fitness,” adds Steve Hassall, operations director at Suttons Tankers. “We encourage our drivers to join his online community and are backing this up with a series of well-being campaigns each month aimed at staff.” www.suttonsgroup.com

H ESSERS GETS ITS MAN

Stijn Bijnens has joined the board of directors of H Essers. Until recently he was general manager of investment company LRM and is currently CEO of Cegeka, an IT group.

“Stijn is truly the right man in the right place,” says Hilde Essers, chair of the H Essers board of directors. “In the coming years, there are many crucial innovation and digitisation projects in the pipeline that will allow us to further expand our strategic segments. With his extensive experience, he represents true added value for our board of directors.

“We will be rolling out many innovative projects in the coming years, both nationally and internationally, to optimise our services and further expand our strategic segments of chemicals, pharmaceuticals and high-value logistics,” Hilde Essers continues. “In Genk, we are developing our trimodal site Dry Port Genk, we are starting construction of our new head office, and much more. And we are constantly developing opportunities both nationally and internationally to further expand our synchromodal approach. By combining road, rail and water transport in an intelligent and dynamic way, we are able to simultaneously optimise the impact on the environment, the transit time and the cost price for customers. Synchromodality is a real game changer for our sector and for our company. Thanks to advanced systems, we can guarantee continuous monitoring and optimisation of the logistics process. Our present solutions already allow us to make the difference today for our customers, but our aim is to continue to play a pioneering role in this industry in the future.”

Bijnens is clearly ready for his new role, saying: “The company has always been a step ahead in terms of innovation and digitisation. It is fascinating to be able to contribute to this family business and help realise its growth ambitions. I look forward to an inspiring collaboration.” www.essers.com