News bulletin – tanks and logistics

NEWS BULLETIN

TANKS & LOGISTICS

ALBATROSS MAKES STRATEGIC MOVE

Albatross Tank-Leasing has appointed Lindenau Full Tank Services (LFTS), which has recently been acquired by CIMC Enric Holdings, to act as its central European operations hub at its Oberhausen site north of Duisburg, Germany. Albatross has recently taken delivery of ten new T75 cryogenic tanks at Oberhausen and more are to join in the coming weeks.

The tanks will be available to lease under Albatross’s new Strategic Move fleet management package. Albatross says it now has one of the largest T75 fleets, including 20-foot units for a range of industrial gases, including oxygen, nitrogen, argon, ethylene and ethane, as well as 40-foot units for LNG.

To help with the rollout of Strategic Move, Albatross has also appointed Fredrik Niermann as its new marketing and sales manager. His main area of responsibility will be the new fleet management system which offers, apart from the tank container leasing, a digital platform for round-trip supervision, including technical support and control of the dedicated tank. albatross-tanks.de

WIDER AEO FOR LESCHACO

Leschaco Nederland has been awarded Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) status, adding to similar accreditation awarded to Lechaco’s subsidiaries in Belgium and Brazil last year. The certification confirms that Leschaco Nederland is a reliable business partner for customs clearance in international trade. Customers benefit from simplified customs declaration procedures, which among other things allow customs formalities to be completed more quickly and efficiently.

“The AEO certification is a great success for our Leschaco subsidiary in the Netherlands and another important step in our constant efficiency and quality improvement for our customers,” says Jörg Conrad, owner and CEO of the Leschaco Group.

Leschaco has also pursued its leadership succession plan, with Sirka Hintze now formally appointed CFO after joining as incoming CFO in September 2019. Rainer Barthel, who has held the post since 2014, will retire at the end of the year and will remain with the company until then to work with Hintze on ongoing projects. Hintze arrives from Marquard & Bahls, where she was head of finance for North America, based in Houston. www.leschaco.com

MORE STORAGE WITH RHENUS

Rhenus Midgard has embarked on an expansion of its hazardous goods container store at the JadeWeserPort Freight Village om Wilhelmshaven, Germany. Rhenus is adding another 1,000 m2 of space, taking the entire site up to some 4,000 m2 .

“We’re growing with our customers; they’ll have more storage space at the Freight Village in Wilhelmshaven in future,” says Matthias Schrell, managing director of Rhenus Midgard Wilhelmshaven. “The container store forms one element in the services that we provide for containers. They not only include storage, but also stripping and stuffing, the containerisation of project loads as well as freight forwarding and customs clearance.”

Work began in April and is due to be completed by the summer. www.rhenus.group

MILKYWAY EXTENDS EXPERTISE

China-based tank container operator Milkyway has completed its first shipment of hazardous waste, having started work to develop the capability this past October. Its first cargo involved a waste organic solvent transported from Wuxi to Nanjing by Milkyway Baohua Logistics.

“The completion of this transportation task marks that Milkway has opened up a new market in the chemical transportation business, and has made a new breakthrough,” the company says. The move into waste transport has also prompted investment in onboard systems, including real-time positioning, safe driving identification and intelligent video analysis for all vehicles in transit.

Milkyway has also extended its expertise into the transport of radioactive materials, with a containerised cargo from South America

arriving in Shanghai in March. The movement involved coordination with the Brazilian government, shipping companies, terminals, customs and other relevant departments. www.mwclg.com

TRANSCONTAINER GETS NEW HEAD

Alexander Isurin has been appointed president of TransContainer and has been nominated by the company’s major shareholder, Delo Group, to take a seat on the board of directors.

“The most important task for me is to upgrade effectiveness of the company, its competitive advantages in complicated conditions of modern container transportation market. I’ve been handling tasks like this for 25 years of my work for Maersk, MSC, FESCO, which is especially important now, when TransContainer has become a private company,” Isurin says. trcont.com

COTTER THE MAN FOR CLX

CLX Logistics has appointed Tim Cotter as vice-president of North American operations. He arrives from Penske Transportation, where he was general manager of international operations and of brokerage, and had previously led the startup of Penske’s US freight forwarding operation.

“We are excited to have Tim join our team of logistics professionals. His experience will be a benefit to every customer we are fortunate enough to serve,” says David Vieira, president/ CEO of CLX Logistics. www.clxlogistics.com

DACHSER SMOOTH AS SILK

Dachser has completed the first block train transport for BASF from Ludwigshafen, Germany to Xi’an, China. The transport of 42 containers via the ‘New Silk Road’ took 14 days, half the time the journey takes by containership, and went from the KombiTerminal Ludwigshafen (KTL) via Poland, Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan.

Thomas Krüger, managing director of air and sea logistics, EMEA at Dachser, describes the transport as “faster than sea freight, cheaper than airfreight, very easy to plan and reliable”. He adds: “For certain logistical requirements, rail traffic to China via the ‘New Silk Road’ can become a value-adding alternative to air and sea freight.”

In particular, Dachser sees the route as being especially interesting for those chemical companies located in the interior of China, far from its seaports.

KTL plays an important role in BASF’s logistics chain, functioning as a hub where products from around Europe are bundled and trains put together. It is Germany’s largest inland terminal and sits directly adjacent to BASF’s main production plant. It offers up to 30 train connections every day to more than 20 economic centres across Europe.

From Ludwigshafen, the 40-foot high-cube containers travelled to Malaszewicze in eastern Poland where they were reloaded onto Russian-gauge wagons; a similar process took place at the border between Kazakhstan and China. On arrival in Xi’an, Dachser North China organised customs clearance and the distribution of the containers by truck to BASF’s customers. The containers were loaded primarily with granules, fuel additives and catalysts.

BASF and Dachser have a decades-long relationship in the transport and safe storage of palletised chemicals in Europe; Dachser operates two hazardous goods warehouses for BASF in Hungary and Romania, both of which meet the highest safety criteria and are assessed in accordance with SQAS.

“With the first train to Xi’an, we are taking the logistics partnership with BASF to a new level,” says Michael Kriegel, department head of Dachser Chem-Logistics. Further block trains are scheduled to go from Ludwigshafen to Xi’an in the coming months. www.dachser.de