All Feature articles – Page 46
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Seat renews rail deal at Martorell
Spanish carmaker Seat has signed a new, three-year contract with Autometro to transport vehicles by rail from its Martorell plant to the port of Barcelona for export.Operating since 2008, the service run by Catalonia’s regional railway FGC transports an average of 105,000 vehicles a year.Under the renewed contract, several technical ...
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Ceva strengthens partnership with CMA CGM
Logistics provider Ceva is to take over the freight management business of its major shareholder and strategic partner, the CMA CGM shipping line.The agreement, part of a wider shake up in the relationship between the companies, comes days after Ceva rejected a takeover bid from Danish rival DSV, which has ...
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Imperial Logistics to run VW packaging centre in Wilhelmshaven
Volkswagen Group has signed a contract with Imperial Logistics International to run its packaging centre at Jade-Weser-Port in Wilhelmshaven, Germany. The centre is due to open next year. In a statement, Imperial Logistics said it would take over the operation in April. “We are happy and proud ...
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Škoda tests out drone for stocktaking
Czech carmaker Škoda is trialling an autonomous drone to identify and count containers outside its factory in Mladá Boleslav. The goal is for drone-assisted stocktaking to become a regular feature of operations in the medium term.“We are continuously working on improving the efficiency of our everyday production processes and making ...
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FCA reconsiders Ram production in Mexico
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) is reported to be reconsidering its plans to cease Ram Heavy Duty (HD) pickup truck production at its Saltillo plant in Mexico. The company had previously announced it would phase out Ram HD production in Mexico by 2020 and move it to the Warren truck assembly ...
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Vegard Synnes moves to Kar-Tainer
Vegard Synnes has moved from his role as global key account manager at Changjiu International Logistics to take up a new position as director of marketing in Asia for Kar-Tainer International, a global provider of containerised vehicle transport systems.Synnes, who will be based in Shanghai, has been working in China ...
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GPA expands ro-ro and rail capacity at Brunswick
Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) has announced it will be adding 24 hectares (60 acres) to support vehicle handling at the port of Brunswick over the next 12 months, creating 8,250 car parking spaces. It also said it would be doubling dockside rail capacity for building loads for inland distribution.GPA is ...
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Stockpiling strategies to survive Brexit
The prospect of Brexit in just a few months, deal or no deal, has focused minds on the inevitable consequence of supply chain interruption. The British media have begun to report the likelihood of stockpiling goods and even panic buying of certain products such as pharmaceuticals and food – although ...
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Energising the synergising
Renault and Nissan began their wide-ranging alliance and set up cross-shareholdings in each other back in 1999, and since then Daimler, Avtovaz and most recently Mitsubishi have also become part of this evolving structure. Numerous shared vehicle platforms, manufacturing and logistics operations and back-office functions have been developed. Furthermore, impressive ...
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Favouring freight rate recovery over fleet expansion
Following a four-year splurge in newbuilding contracting that culminated in more than 300,000 Car Equivalent Units (CEU) being ordered in 2015 alone, less than 20,000 CEU were ordered during 2016 and 2017.Maritime Strategies International (MSI) has recorded just two orders this year, a 2,200 CEU vessel designed for Chinese coastal ...
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Q&A: Srini Muthusrinivasan
What is meant by this term ‘the autonomous supply chain’?The word autonomous has got very prevalent today in the industry. [To understand] the idea of the autonomous supply chain, you’ve got to go back to the history of how we went all the way from the industrial revolution to the ...
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Peacing together new logistics
The end of a longstanding conflict in the Horn of Africa is set to create new pathways into one of the potentially richest automotive markets in the continent; after two decades, Eritrea and Ethiopia have concluded a conflict that has cost hundreds of thousands of lives. The catalyst for peace ...
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VW starts making Seat Tarraco at Wolfsburg
Spanish carmaker Seat, part of the VW Group, has begun producing its Tarraco SUV on assembly lines at VW’s Wolfsburg factory – the first time in 20 years a non-VW vehicle has been built at the plant in northern Germany.Designed and developed in Barcelona, the Tarraco is built on the ...
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Russian carmakers appeal for a stop to state aid
Leading carmakers in Russia have appealed to the government’s Industry and Trade Ministry to stop providing state aid to companies investing in new vehicle assembly plants in the country.Domestic carmakers including Avtovaz, Gaz and Sollers have been joined by foreign rivals such as Renault-Nissan, Mitsubishi and Daimler in calling for ...
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Mitsubishi starts Chinese engine production
The GAC Mitsubishi Motors (GMMC) joint venture between Guangzhou Automobile Group (GAC) and Mitsubishi Motors has started making engines in Changsha, Hunan province, southern China.The new plant will produce the 4J1 powertrain for Mitsubishi’s Outlander SUV, already manufactured at the adjacent assembly plant, and the new 1.5L direct-injection petrol engine ...
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FCA to sell Magneti Marelli to CK Holdings
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) is selling its Italian-based automotive components business Magneti Marelli to CK Holdings, parent company of Japanese components supplier Calsonic Kansei, in a deal worth around $7 billion.With combined revenues of €15.2 billion ($17.6 billion), the newly combined Magneti Marelli and Calsonic Kansei will be the world’s ...
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Maersk invests in freight-booking startup Loadsmart
Digital freight broker, Loadsmart, has received funding worth a total of $21.6m from the venture investment arm of container shipping giant, AP Møller-Maersk, and two other leading investment firms.Maersk Growth, along with Connor Capital and Chromo Invest, are investing to increase Loadsmart’s operations team and support product development and engineering. ...
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Ford highlights the high cost of US-made steel
Ford has highlighted the high cost of US-made steel, in the aftermath of the 25% import duties on the metal imposed by President Donald Trump.Speaking about the cost of key input materials at a recent event to mark the start of Ranger pick-up production at the Wayne assembly plant in ...
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Apollo's Rivallant named European president
Apollo Tyres has promoted Benoit Rivallant to be president of its European operations.Rivallant has been with the tyre manufacturer since 2014, during which time, successfully introduced commercial vehicle tyres into Europe as group head, global product management for commercial vehicle tyres, the Indian company says.“It is our corporate philosophy to ...
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Opel tasks Gefco with further cost reduction
Opel/Vauxhall has renewed its fourth-party logistics (4PL) contract with Gefco for a further four years, starting in January, tasking it with finding further cost reduction measures and intensifying its optimisation and network engineering activities.Gefco’s 4PL Solutions division provides services for Opel/Vauxhall across Europe and Turkey, including the management of 220 ...