Wallenius Wilhelmsen officially opened its South Atlantic Transportation and Logistics Mega Center with Georgia Ports Authority at the US port of Brunswick last week.
Wallenius Wilhelmsen has officially opened its South Atlantic vehicle and equipment processing hub at the US port of Brunswick. The new 12-hectare complex at the Colonel’s Island terminal is a consolidation of activity that was previously based at the Savannah container terminal, also operated by the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA).
“This is a world-class facility and I am very impressed by what we have managed to achieve together with our partner GPA,” said Lasse Kristoffersen, President and CEO of Wallenius Wilhelmsen at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
GPA said the new facility creates a strategic hub in the US for the export and import of finished vehicles that has scalability and agility. It also features an equipment processing center (EPC) onsite for heavy equipment export and import.
Wallenius Wilhelmsen has added three new buildings to support vehicle processing for Nissan North America. The carmaker moved to the Colonel’s Island terminal in 2022 and is already one of the top five vehicle makers by volume based there. The three new buildings, managed by Wallenius Wilhelmsen, are processing Nissan and Infiniti brand vehicles.
As reported in September last year, Wallenius Wilhelmsen has signed a 20-year lease agreement with GPA. TransDevelopment Group (TDG) provided Wallenius Wilhelmsen with consulting and project management services as part of the latter’s relocation of high and heavy equipment processing from Savannah to Brunswick in what is now the South Atlantic Transportation and Logistics Mega Center. TDG said the relocation creates the largest high and heavy processing facility in the world, and broadly includes the construction of 15 buildings and associated site work. TDG is directly managed the construction of six of the 15 buildings, with the remaining structures being completed by GPA.
“Brunswick, with its facilities and infrastructure investments, is well-positioned to accommodate further growth in the US,” said John Felitto, chief operations officer for logistics services at Wallenius Wilhelmsen, at last week’s official opening ceremony. “Our integrated offering at the terminal showcases our capabilities as an integrated logistics provider. We are excited to enhance our services at Brunswick and to be even better equipped to expand the scope of our South Atlantic offerings.
GPA said the new cargo-handling equipment at the facility will include electric trucks and forklifts. Currently, there are 29 chargers on the terminal for yard vehicles, shuttle vans and trucks. The GPA plans to improve several of the level 2 chargers to level 3 and 42 EV forklifts are on order to replace aging and diesel forklifts, amongst other equipment.
The Brunswick terminal will be able to accommodate all the vessels in the Wallenius Wilhelmsen fleet, including its Shaper-Class vessels and the Tirranna wind-propulsion vessel.
The EPC stands on roller compacted concrete and heavy-duty pavement will doorways up to 9.1 metres wide and 7.3 metres high, according to TDG, which also constructed two major paint shops, and an 18-bay production shop. That production shop features 10-ton bridge cranes throughout the building, allowing the operator to hoist boom arms, buckets, and other accessories into place, or even to lift out and swap engines.
“Every heavy machinery customer would like to have finish to order (FTO) activities close to the port to reduce costs, improve delivery velocity to customers and access to global markets,” said Flavio Batista, GPA’s chief commercial officer.
At Colonel’s Island, they’re able to perform last mile manufacturing activities inside the port with all the processing and buildings on the terminal to perform their FTO customisation work.”
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