Another Major Container Shipping Line Moves Into Thames Riverside Deep Water Port

UK – CMA CGM, the world's third biggest container shipping line, has announced that it is to take a long-term lease and invest in a build-to-suit, multi-temperature warehouse facility at DP World London Gateway Logistics Park. The CMA CGM Group will occupy, through its international freight forwarding and logistics solutions subsidiary, a one hectare cold store facility within a 2.4 hectare logistics plot development on the River Thames and located close to main road access into the London area.

This state-of-the-art facility, which will be fitted with IT traceability and management systems, represents a major milestone for the CMA CGM Group’s strategy to develop a global range of products in maritime transportation but also in inland solutions and logistics.

With this unique cold store, the Group will not only feature chilled and frozen chambers to handle a large variety of temperature-controlled products but says that it will also offer customers a wide range of added value services such as, product quality controls, packing, sorting, labelling, palletisation or bagging. It will also offer customs clearance, shunting (transfer from the quay to the warehouse) and delivery transportation (last-mile delivery). Work will start later this year, and the facility will become operational in early summer of 2019.

The CMA CGM Group, which claims to be second in the world’s list of reefer container carriers, is currently bringing cargo through DP World London Gateway Port on seven services. This includes large numbers of refrigerated containers arriving from the Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand, India and South America. In the last two months, CMA CGM has consolidated much of its UK-bound temperature-controlled cargo, originating in the Southern Hemisphere, to come through DP World London Gateway Port.

This development and growth of CMA CGM’s reefer volumes ties in with DP World London Gateway’s sworn purpose to deliver time and cost savings, as well as reduce waste and carbon use through a logistics solution that will increase product speed-to-market and reduce haulier mileage. Alexis Michel, CMA CGM Group Senior Vice President Inland Activities, said:

“This is an important step forward for CMA CGM and we’re looking forward to adding even greater value to the operations of our customers through the development of this facility. Drawing on the logistics expertise that exists within the CMA CGM Group, we’ll be able to offer our customers a unique range of value added services and make sure their goods receive the best care all along their journey with CMA CGM and until they reach their final destination.

“This is also a significant step up in our partnership with DP World, showing that ports, shipping lines, logistics companies and industrial zones can work collaboratively to deliver value for cargo owners shipping into and out of the UK. With the construction of this facility, CMA CGM reaffirms its commitment to its customers by placing their needs at the centre of the Group’s development.”

The developing port is already handling large numbers of refrigerated containers arriving from all over the world. It uses more than 1600 reefer points, a weather-resilient, automated container stacking system, custom-built inspection facilities and a service for shunting containers between the port and its neighbouring Logistics Park. Chris Lewis, Chief Executive Officer, DP World UK, said:

“We’re delighted that the CMA CGM Group is establishing a temperature-controlled warehouse & logistics services on DP World London Gateway’s Logistics Park. The group is already bringing a significant amount of cargo through the port and this is an exciting next step in the product and service CMA CGM can offer its customers. We’re proud to have worked with such a key customer on a project which will without doubt increase supply chain efficiencies and add value.

“Our combination of a reliable, efficient port, with its international rail terminal and Authorised Economic Operator status – all plugged into a network which links more than 100 ports in 60 countries all over the world – on the same site as a flexible, scalable Logistics Park, enables logistics providers to bring different parts of the supply chain into one location; a location which sits just 25 miles from Central London, the largest consumer market in Western Europe.”

Photo: – (L) Farid Salem, Executive Officer and Member of the Board of Directors of the CMA CGM Group, (R) Chris Lewis, CEO of DP World UK.