Bentley Motors has extended its contract with transport provider Ontime Automotive for a further three years as it sees an increase in sales driven by the roll out of new products, including the Continental GT, GTC and Mulsanne. The luxury carmaker, owned by Volkswagen, saw a 37% sales increase in 2011.
Ontime will now exclusively handle deliveries from Bentley’s production facility in Crewe to its UK dealerships, with a 17% increase in volume of movements, as well as handling the movement of all vehicles to the UK port of Grimsby for export to the US, Russia and Japan.
Ontime has invested £800k in four enclosed Rolfo transporters for the movement of the vehicles. They are equipped to load six Bentley Continental GTs, or a combination of three Continental GTs and/or two Bentley Mulsannes or Continental Flying Spurs.
The companies are also reported to have established a “joint systems integration project” that will provide both with real-time vehicle tracking information, a system supported by Ontime’s use of electronic proof of delivery.
Kerry builds logistics presence in Thailand
Kerry Logistics is building an automotive logistics centre in Thailand’s Rayong Province. Based at the Eastern Seaboard Industrial Estate (ESIE), which accommodates around 500-automotive facilities, the new centre will cover 35,000 square metres and is due to be ready for operation by the second quarter of 2013. General Motors, Ford, Mazda and Suzuki have already established assembly operations in the zone.
Kerry said the centre will include a covered storage area and provide inventory control, processing and packaging, as well as specialised services such as automotive pre-assembly, sub-assembly, sequencing, and JIT delivery.
The company will also provide quality control and inspection for vehicles on arrival, batch and sequence parts for delivery to customers’ own facilities or send directly to end-users.
The company is offering international one-stop services including collection of components from manufacturers in their respective country of origin, consolidation, shipping and forwarding, customs clearance, container handling and receipt on arrival in Thailand.
According to the company, the value of logistics services in the automotive zone in 2011 was valued at $66m and is expected to increase by more than 25% by 2015.
The latest announcement follows the expansion of its automotive complete built units (CBU) facility at Laem Chabang in
BLG sees increase through Bremerhaven
Throughput at BLG Logistics’ Auto Terminal in Bremerhaven rose by 8.1% to 1.05m units in the first half of the year compared with the same period of the previous year according to the company. The company said that the share of exported cars, which accounted for 80% of traffic through the terminal, is consistent with last year and continues to benefit from the rise in exports of German premium vehicles to China. Exports to the country from Bremerhaven now account for around 25% of total exports.
Elsewhere, BLG Logistics Russian partnership with the Sea Port of St Petersburg – BLG Logistics Automobile SPb – has handled the first regular shipment of Bentley vehicles at the port’s auto terminal.
BLG has been managing Volkswagen throughput at the port since 2009 and last year the range of VW owned brands was extended to include Audi and Seat.
An additional 3,000 square metres of storage space, enough for 150 vehicles, has been added to the warehouse for an unnamed European luxury carmaker.
Volvo signs transport deals with DFDS
Volvo has signed new deals with ocean forwarder DFDS for the movement of vehicles, parts and packaging on three routes between the carmaker’s facilities in Gothenburg and Ghent. DFDS said the agreements would increase finished vehicle volumes by 160,000 units and that annual revenue would amount to €55m ($67m). The contracts will run until 1 January 2015.
DFDS is the exclusive provider of ocean services for Volvo Group Logistics Services and Volvo Car Corporation between the production facilities in Gothenburg and Ghent. The two divisions of Volvo will operate as separate contracts with the former having started on 1 July this year and the second with Volvo Car staring at the beginning of August. As well as passenger vehicles the shipments include trucks, buses, construction equipment, production materials and packaging.
DFDS will also ship automotive freight for Jaguar Land Rover, a client of Volvo Group Logistics Services.
