Transport communications

Portcare International is the press relations consultancy for the shipping and logistics industry. Formed by transport people for transport people. We can truly claim to understand our clients’ needs and ‘talk the same language’. Portcare provide effective, value for money PR to some of the industry’s best-known names.

Archives for August 2013

Naming Ceremony for Ever Living

August 27, 2013 by

August 28, 2013

Evergreen Group today held the naming ceremony for its first L-type vessel built by CSBC Corporation in Taiwan, the Ever Living. The ceremony held at CSBC’s Kaohsiung shipyard was officiated by Mr. S.S. Lin, First Vice Group Chairman of Evergreen Group. The official rope-cutting of the new 8,508-TEU vessel was performed by Dr. Jih-Chu Lee, Chairperson of Taiwan Financial Holdings and Bank of Taiwan. The ceremony was attended by dignitaries from Taiwan and abroad.

In his speech, Mr. S.S. Lin said, “The ten L-type vessels are the biggest and most advanced among our owned fleet.  Over the next two years, their deliveries will substantially enhance the competitiveness of our operating fleet in the global shipping market.”

Evergreen Group signed a contract with CSBC to build ten L-type vessels in May 2011; the biggest order received by CSBC to date.  To celebrate the naming CSBC arranged a performance of Chinese lion dance and invited the Evergreen Brass Band, part of the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra (ESO), to perform live. The stirring music enhanced the ceremonial atmosphere of the event tremendously.

CSBC committed significant resources to the building of the Ever Living, spending nine months in optimizing the hull design.  The results of testing by the Hamburg Ship Model Basin (HSVA) revealed a speed 0.7 knot faster than the average value experienced by the Institute and a 0.45 knot higher speed compared to the expected performance of the optimized design.  Given the same engine specification and operated at an identical speed, the hull design can achieve reduced fuel consumption of more than 10%.

For the main hull structure, CSBC adopted high tensile steel (HT47), which was jointly developed by the shipbuilder and China Steel Corporation in Taiwan.  The special metal enables the ship to achieve the same structural strength with less material.  With lighter weight, the vessel requires less propulsion, saves energy and produces lower carbon emission.  In July the sea trials of Ever Living revealed excellent performances, confirming that CSBC’s quality and technologies can keep pace with other leading shipbuilding companies.

Ever Living is 334.8 meters in length, 45.8 meters wide, with 948 reefer plugs and a draft of 14.2 meters.  The vessel can cruise at a speed up to 24.5 knots.  The ship, owned by Evergreen Marine (Singapore) Pte Ltd, will join Evergreen Line’s Far East – Europe route after her delivery on August 30.

Evergreen vessels, the Ever Vital and Ever Vigor were the first two containerships built by CSBC and ordered by Evergreen back in 1977 and now, Ever Living is the biggest containership built by CSBC. The construction of the L-type vessel not only indicates an important milestone for the local shipbuilding industry but also highlights the enhanced competitiveness achieved by the cooperation among Taiwan’s shipbuilding, steelmaking and marine transportation sectors.

 

 

Filed Under: Evergreen Line

Dachser adds more floor space for food

August 22, 2013 by

Logistics provider Dachser is investing roughly EUR 50 million in three sites in Germany: Langenau, Kornwestheim, and Schönefeld.
Dachser’s Logistics Center Berlin, in Schönefeld

Kempten, August 22, 2013. As the new European Food Network is launched, Dachser is heavily investing in its Food Logistics business field. At three locations in Germany, the logistics provider simultaneously started up new facilities in the summer of 2013 for the transshipment and storage of food.

A new 5,200 square meter transit terminal and a 7,500 square meter high bay storage facility with 15,000 palette storage spaces has been operating in Langenau since October 2012. “The first palettes were put into stock mid-August; the new transit terminal is up and running,” explains Robert Mittermeier, Branch Manager of Operations at the Ulm logistics center. Over the last few years, Dachser’s Swabian facility, just off the A7 autobahn, has evolved into one of the largest food warehouses in the corporation: currently in Langenau, a total of 54,000 food-laden pallets can be stored in various temperature zones.

Dachser steadily expanded its food logistics business in Kornwestheim near Stuttgart as well, so that after only eight years, it became urgently necessary to relocate into a larger transit terminal. “Sausage and ham from the Black Forest, along with other Swabian delicacies, are shipped out of Kornwestheim to locations all over Europe. We have an additional 6,000 square meters of logistics floor space for our customers, with a temperature range of two to seven degrees. One part of the hall was additionally equipped with shelving,” says branch manager Bernd Schäfer.  “The prior food transit terminal was converted into a warehouse. This means that we can now offer our Kornwestheim customers food storage capacity in different temperature ranges.”

Dachser’s Logistics Center Berlin, in Schönefeld, also offers more floor space for food. A 7,200 square meter transit terminal for food was put into operation in June. This facility allows 76 trucks to be loaded and unloaded simultaneously. “Our focus is sustainable growth. For this reason, we equipped the transit area with energy-saving LED lighting technology. As a result, the branch has reduced its annual CO2 consumption by roughly 48 tons,” reports branch manager Olaf Schmidt.  At Logistics Center Berlin, Dachser has taken over procurement and distribution of the coffee segment for the Dallmayr Company. This endeavor also includes an array of additional services – such as constructing display cartons and mixed cartons, as well as quality controls.

“Dachser Food Logistics has grown steadily over the past few years; in 2012 alone, we achieved an increase in sales of over 13 percent,” affirms Alfred Miller, Managing Director of Dachser Food Logistics. “We anticipate additional growth momentum with the launch of the European Food Network and the vivengo product group on October 1. In preparation for this, we had to acquire additional capacity in a timely manner—as we did in Langenau, Kornwestheim and Schönefeld for EUR 50 million, for example. This is the only way we can maintain stable operations in our network during the peak capacity periods of four-day weeks, and offer our customers a consistently high level of service quality at the same time.”

About Dachser:

In 2012, Dachser, a leading logistics provider with global operations, generated a total revenue of EUR 4.41 billion and handled 49.8 million shipments weighing a total of 37.46 million tons. As of December 31, 2012, Dachser’s employed 21,650 individuals at 347 sites worldwide.

You find more information about Dachser at http://www.dachser.de.

 

Filed Under: Dachser UK

“K” LINE Zhenhua Logistics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. Opens large-scale Warehouse at Yanshang, deep-water Port near Shanghai

August 8, 2013 by

August 8, 2013

 

“K” Line Zhenhua Logistics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter KLZH-Shanghai), a joint venture between “K” Line and a Hong Kong company, holds opening ceremony for new warehouse which was constructed in Logistics Park of Shanghai Lingang New Town and starts operation on August 8, 2013. The Logistics Park is an economic development zone which has been ratified by State Control of the PRC. This area which expects continuous future development is located on Shanghai City side of the bridge connecting Shanghai City and Yanshang deep-water port, now ranked as one of the largest trading ports in the world.

This new modern facility is a 2-story warehouse having 43,890 square meters of total floor space with first phase constructed on about 140,000 square meters land area. KLZH-Shanghai deals with a wide variety of cargo such as daily necessities, apparel, electronic parts and automobile parts and provides excellent service utilizing a most-advanced inventory system. It can be used for CFS warehouse for export cargo, devanning and interim storage warehouse for import cargo, also as distributive processing warehouse for domestic cargo with vanning and devanning operations between 1st floor and 2nd floor provided speedily by using rail crane. KLZH-Shanghai can examine lease of the warehouse space upon request. It is provided with sprinkler system as a disaster prevention measure and a monitoring system by CCTV and security personnel 24 hours daily as anti-crime measures.

The “K” Line Group provides tailor-made warehouse services to meet a variety of customer needs especially targeted for export and import cargo in Shanghai port where an increase in future transaction volume is being expected.

The name of warehouse: “K” Line Zhenhua Logistics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. Lingang Warehouse (named as Yanshan International Logictics Center)

Address: 668 Qiuxian Road, Logistics Park, Lingang New Town, Pudong District,

Shanghai, PRC

Contact information: Tel: +86-21-6327-2200, Fax: +86-21-3330-2006

Total floor space: 43,890 square meters

 

 

For further information, please contact

 

Goichi Tsuruta

General Manager, Business Promotion Group

Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. Tokyo

TEL: +81-3-3595-5272  FAX: +81-3-3595-5175

Filed Under: "K" Line

Green thumbs for logistics

August 7, 2013 by

Dachser DIY-Logistics at the spoga+gafa 2013: Stand 6.1, Hall D001

At spoga+gafa (September 8-10, 2013) Cologne this year welcomes “the whole world of the garden“. A very special green thumb – one for logistics in fact – is a feature of Dachser (Stand 6.1, Hall D001), given that the network of the international logistics supplier last year, with the inclusion of Spain, Argentina, Peru, Vietnam and Turkey has now grown to 41 countries.

In its completely integrated logistics network, Dachser transports goods by air and sea, stores them temporarily along the way when necessary, distributes them over its European land transport network by truck to construction and garden supply markets and even puts them on the shelves.  Merchandise is flowing continuously and as needed from suppliers to points-of-sale and, when necessary, back again, so that all products are available at all times and in sufficient supply at the market.  Dachser customers on the supplier and trade side can – at least in terms of logistics – lean back comfortably in their garden chairs and call up current shipping information on line or using a smartphone app.

Solutions for end-customer delivery

Starting with Germany, this DIY supply pipeline is now being expanded to include solutions for delivery to the end-customer, because the garden market industry is also part of the current trend for multi-channel sales structures. Trade expands stationary sales floor space with mail-order offerings and E-commerce-platforms, in order to react to the changed consumption behavior of customers and create new growth potential. “End-customer delivery of relatively large and heavy goods is however also an enormous logistical challenge, especially if additional services, such as two-man handling or assembly are needed,” explains Ralf Meistes, Dachser DIY-Logistics Manager. “It’s good when you can turn to trusted partners and structures for such service.”

With its export expertise and the service components of the DIY supply pipeline – from procurement and distribution through warehousing, value added services and merchandising all the way to end-customer delivery– Dachser acts as growth accelerator for innovative DIY customers. “In this area we can make full use of our green thumb for logistics,” says Ralf Meistes with a grin. In his central Dachser DIY logistics team he bundles industry experience and speaks the customers’ language. This is includes all major European markets, because the European DIY project managers contribute their local expertise.

Dachser DIY Logistics daily delivers to all 18,000 construction and garden markets in Europe within set time windows.  The SynLOG bundling concept  reduces ramp contacts.  Quality control in the far east completes the concept from audit to certification. Dachser DIY-Logistics works closely with the BHB industry association, the Haus & Garten manufacturing association, Garden industrial association (IVG), Global Home Improvement Network (GHIN) and GreenNet.

 About Dachser:

In 2012, Dachser, a leading logistics provider with global operations, generated total revenue of EUR 4.41 billion and handled 49.8 million shipments weighing a total of 37.46 million tons. As of December 31, 2012, Dachser’s staff comprised 21,650 employees at 347 profit centers worldwide.

Filed Under: Dachser UK

“K” LINE (INDIA) Private Limited adds New Marine Management Services in India

August 6, 2013 by

August 6, 2013

“K” Line (India) Private Limited (hereinafter KLIN), “K” Line’s subsidiary company in India, has started marine management services (vessel inspections, port captaincy, port and terminal investigations, recruitment of marine professionals) in the city of Mumbai, India.

KLIN is steadily expanding operations in this region while experiencing a considerable increase in vessels in port, including not just containerships but also car carriers and bulk carriers. KLIN has operated and managed over 20 vessels in Mumbai. The Indian subsidiary of “K” Line Ship Management Co., Ltd., “K” Line’s subsidiary company for ship management, operates a well-equipped facility in Mumbai for manning vessels and providing marine technical training. Moreover with KLIN’s joint venture partner J. M. Baxi Group having employed top-class Indian seafarers for many years, “K” Line has accumulated considerable in-depth know-how. Leveraging these human resources and the experience within KLIN’s group, KLIN will now have four ship Captains and one Chief Engineer working full-time to deliver these new additional marine management services.

With India continuing to experience remarkable growth, and with expected future expansion of both Middle Eastern and African markets, being in a position to deliver such a full range of marine management services from India is geographically advantageous. The first introduction of these services began at the beginning of July when we carried out vessel inspection for a Supramax bulk carrier visiting port on India’s east coast.

KLIN is dedicated to providing the high quality services of the “K” Line brand in all its operations in India; not only to our own group’s vessels, but to our many business partners as well.

 

For further information, please contact

Goichi Tsuruta

General Manager, Business Promotion Group

Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. Tokyo

TEL: +81-3-3595-5272  FAX: +81-3-3595-5175

 

Filed Under: "K" Line

Foundation of New Subsidiary – “K”LINE RORO SERVICES LTD.

August 1, 2013 by

July 31st, 2013 

Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. is delighted to announce the foundation of a new subsidiary company, “K” LINE RORO SERVICES LTD., effective October 1, 2013. The business outline of the new company is Sales and Marketing of so-called RORO cargo, including construction machinery, agricultural machinery and static cargo, as well as used automobiles and used construction machinery.

RORO cargo team, Car Carrier Business Group of Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. has been handling this role previously, which will be wholly shifted to the new company. The new company will expand its customer base of such cargo and will further enhance sales activities to customers dealing with such cargo.

We recently see more and more diversification of cargo mix being loaded, or susceptible for loading, into our car carriers. The new company, composed of a group of specialists in the handling of this above-designated cargo, will promote its activities through communication with present and potential customers, analyzing their needs

and offering reasonable and personalized solutions, and will also provide them with reliable, well-established, service utilizing the extensive fleet of car carriers operated worldwide by Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd.

Outline of the new company:

Name  :  “K”LINE RORO SERVICES LTD.

Foundation  :  October 1, 2013

Offices  :  Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Hiroshima

Business  :  Sales and marketing of RORO cargo and used cars and equipment.     Marine technical support for RORO cargo.

 

Filed Under: "K" Line

“K” Line (India) Private Limited starts Milk Run Service of Auto Parts in India

August 1, 2013 by

July 31st, 2013

“K” Line (India) Private Limited (hereinafter KLIN), “K” Line’s subsidiary company in India, has started Milk Run of automobile parts in the suburbs of Delhi, India for DENSO India Limited.

“Milk Run” refers to a logistics service for making a circuit of several automobile parts manufacturers at a set time, collecting products aiming for “just-in-time” delivery to customers. Milk Run is the ideal logistics method to perform consecutive circulation of returnable boxes designated by customer.

Until now auto parts manufacturers delivered their products individually, whereby using Milk Run method they can improve their efficiency in collecting products in small lots from several manufacturers using just one truck, and in this way DENSO India Limited can drastically reduce traffic within the factory. Milk Run also has the advantage of being an eco-friendly logistics service that reduces the overall operational process, traffic jams around factory and carbon-dioxide emissions.

KLIN is introducing Milk Run service around Delhi for DENSO India Limited from July 2013 by utilizing 6 trucks. A “K” Line subsidiary company in Thailand has already been providing Milk Run service to automakers and auto parts manufacturers for more than 10 years, currently utilizing about 300 trucks. The “K” Line group has accumulated extensive knowhow regarding logistics that it is anxious to share by providing comprehensive logistics services to meet customer needs that utilize strong local ties.

Filed Under: "K" Line

“K” Line announce Financial Highlights for 1st Quarter of F2013

August 1, 2013 by

31st July 2013

 

“K” Line announce Financial Highlights for 1st Quarter of F2013

On behalf of our client Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd, (“K” Line) we are pleased to send you notification of their Financial Highlights for the 1st quarter of F2013.

English version

These are also available to download from their website : http://www.kline.co.jp/en/

Filed Under: "K" Line

Geodis Wilson strives to grow its footprint in the US

August 1, 2013 by

Iselin, NJ, 29 July 2013

 

GEODIS WILSON STRIVES TO GROW ITS FOOTPRINT N THE US AND ANNOUNCES THE APPOINTMENT OF MICHAEL GRECO AS MANAGING DIRECTOR 

The appointment of Michael Greco as Managing Director marks significant development for the global freight forwarding division of the Geodis Group in the US market. Greco is taking over a business that aims to grow 50% in net sales in the coming five years.

“With the appointment of Michael Greco, we have added a talented and energetic leader to our already strong and capable US team.” commented John Gallahan, Regional Vice-President – Americas. “Michael brings a skill-set oriented towards building and motivating effective teams, which will be vital to us over the coming months as we implement our growth strategy in the US.”

Today, Geodis Wilson operates 15 offices with 403 employees in all major logistics hubs of the US. With the appointment of Michael Greco the company will put focus on trade lane growth in the emerging markets of Brazil, China and India accompanied by their traditional stronghold in mainland Europe and Asia Pacific. Sales and operational teams will be strengthened to support their client’s supply chain performance particularly in the Oil & Gas segment, Cruise logistics, the Fashion & Lifestyle and FMCG industry, as well as the Hi-tech and Automotive markets.

“I am honored to join the Geodis Wilson family. I relish the challenge presented by the organization at this time to significantly augment its presence in the US freight management sector”, says Michael Greco. “Geodis Wilson has a talented and enthusiastic team ready to join me in fulfilling our growth promise and I’m energized by their passion and determination to succeed together with our clients.” Greco joins Geodis Wilson with over 17 years of experience within the international freight forwarding and logistics industry, most recently as Business Unit Manager and Vice President for Panalpina, New York.

ENDS

Notes to the Editors:

About Geodis Wilson and the Geodis Group

Geodis Wilson is a leading global freight management company. With 7.700 employees in more than 50 countries the company delivers tailor-made, integrated logistics solutions to customers enabling them to operate as ‘best in class.’ Geodis Wilson is the freight-forwarding arm of Geodis Group which became part of the French rail and freight group SNCF in 2008. With its 47.600 employees in 60 countries ‘SNCF GEODIS’ ranks among the top 7 companies in its field in the world.

For further information about Geodis, please visit www.geodiswilson.com

 

Filed Under: GEODIS