Global round up

A major new multimodal logistics development at the Turquerie business park in Calais, France, which promises to build the biggest logistics centre in northern France, has been officially launched.

 

Conceived as the main gateway for the shipping of goods between France, northern

Europe and the UK, the Calais Premier project, located 5km from the port of Calais, is expected to double the size and productivity of the port by 2015. It will bring in up to €300m of investment from companies in the logistics, distribution and automotive manufacturing sectors.

 

Sited on the Calais-Dunkirk railway line, the first phase, which will commence in 2012, will see the development of a 50-hectare surface area due for completion in 2013-14.

 

 “This is the first phase of one of the largest logistics projects in northern France,” said Natacha Bouchart, Mayor of Calais.

 

“It includes the construction of 220,000m2 of logistics warehouses and 50,000 acres of land of storage assemblies around the future rail spur.

 

“In the end, the ‘Turquerie’ will be a larger platform than the multimodal platform of Dourges,” she said.

 

Alongside this €2m will be spent creating a railway junction at the site and modernising the Calais-Dunkirk railway line, and a further €400m will go into doubling the size of the port of Calais.

 

Developers, DCB International, expect the entire project to be complete by 2015, creating thousands of jobs.

 

The site directly connects the Continent with the UK via the Channel tunnel as well as being situated near the A16 and A26 motorways connecting with Paris and the rest of Europe.

 

Supply chain management provider ProTrans International is providing 3PL and transport consolidation services to Michigan-based interior components and systems supplier International Automotive Components (IAC) following the signing of a multi-year agreement.

 

ProTrans is designing programs specific to IAC’s shipment needs throughout North America following a comprehensive review the supplier carried out into its supply chain operations.

 

IAC’s North American operations include 32 manufacturing facilities in the US, Canada and Mexico, providing parts and systems for Chrysler, Honda, Ford, GM, Toyota, Volkswagen, Nissan and BMW.

 

The programs ProTrans is providing are based on its CORE supply chain management offering which focuses on control, visibility and reporting.

 

“By operating the IAC business with our CORE supply chain management program we are a freight manager as well as a true operator in the network,” said Shawn Masters, vice president of Operation at ProTrans. “We integrate shipments for over 300 customer volumes to optimize capacity within a shared network while managing businesses across all modes of transportation.”

 

Toyota has celebrated its 10th year of operations at its Le Pouzin parts centre in the south of France. Toyota Parts Centre South of France (TPCSF) processes, warehouses and distributes orders for service parts and accessories for the South of France region, Corsica, Andorra and north-eastern Spain before being distributed to more than 208 Toyota and Lexus dealers, as well as individual customers.

 

Operations at the facility began in 2001 with deliveries to southern France, equivalent to 55% of the French network. In 2002 the facility took on temporary support for the entire network of dealers in Spain before reducing it to 20% in the following year when I also took up support for Toyota Parts Centre in Europe for the Paris region.

 

Over the past decade the operation has more than doubled the volume of parts and accessories processing as well as increasing efficiency by 50% according to the company.

The warehouse at Le Pouzin covers 7,698 m² and processes around 3,735,000 service parts or accessories each year. All items moving through the warehouse are catalogued using handheld barcode scanners. Real-time RF data transmitters give warehouse operations complete systems control over parts handled with precise storage location information.

 

The facility is one of 14 Toyota Parts Logistics Centres in Europe, responsible for ensuring the availability of parts for Toyota and Lexus vehicles currently on European roads, regardless of vehicle age or origin.

 

Ceva Logistics has renewed its partnership for the aftermarket supply of tyres with Continental Italy for a further three years. The company will manage the loading and unloading of tyres, handling and storage in specialist metal cages provided by the customer, as well as the picking, shipment and distribution of the items through its network in Italy.

 

Ceva has been a logistics partner with Continental in Italy since 1997.

 

It is dedicating 24,000m2 at its warehouse at Somaglia, near Lodi, and will handle approximately 2m outgoing tyres annually through the daily use of 10 inbound and 25 outbound vehicles.

 

Ceva will also provide two important special services: ‘Same Day’ delivery which guarantees distribution across the province of Milan within 24 hours; and ‘Pit Stop’, an express delivery service which serves the national territory ensuring distribution within 24 hours to all Italian regions with the exception of Calabria, Sicily and Sardinia, where deliveries are guaranteed within 48 hours.

 

The logistics provider will also install a visual management system in Continental Italy’s headquarters in Milan – a database which gives information about the status of all the inbound processes, and provides all data in real time to guarantee the customer constant visibility of its goods.

 

Francesco Domenghini, market operations manager of Continental Italy, commented: “We decided to renew our partnership with Ceva for a further three years because we are very satisfied with the services they have provided. Our two companies share the values that underpin Continental Italy’s mission: an approach based on excellence and the use of advanced technological systems.”

 

NYK Group has developed a carbon calculator with its logistics and airfreight division, Yusen Logistics, to help customers work out the amount of CO2 emitted during cargo transport by containership or airfreighter. The online calculator can estimate the emissions throughout an entire cargo transport route, from loading to unloading.

 

It can also can also be used to determine CO2 emissions for inland transport by truck and rail (only in China and North America) from the place of cargo acceptance to the delivery destination.

 

NYK said it previously responded individually to inquiries from customers regarding data on the environmental impact of cargo transport, especially CO2 emissions but, with more attention now given to carbon footprints the group has decided to develop a tool that allows end users to make the calculations themselves.

 

Users can download the name of places of acceptance and destination as well as the calculated data for CO2 emissions.

The e-calculator, which has an English language interface to easily respond to queries from around the world, is now available on the company website.