Smaller Stories of the Freight and Logistics Industry You Might Have Missed This Week

UK – Quality Freight UK, part of the Peel Ports Group, partnered with client heavy transport specialist Collett to move 27 wind turbines to the Clocaenog Forest near Denbigh. The Clocaenog Forest Wind Farm will have an installed capacity of up to 96 megawatts, enough renewable energy for the equivalent domestic needs of as many as 63,800 average UK households per year.

The turbines, which weighed over 12,000 tonnes, were brought into Quality Freight UK’s Ellesmere Port dock on 12 vessels. In a complex operation, they were then carefully lifted on to trailers for onward delivery to the onshore wind farm being constructed by energy specialist Innogy. Collett provided transport and the heavy lift crane.

UK – GB Railfreight has announced a seven-year deal with Hanson Cement for rail freight services from Ketton cement works in Rutland and Ribblesdale cement works in Lancashire, to terminals at London King’s Cross, Avonmouth (Bristol) and Mossend (Glasgow).

GB Railfreight will operate on average nine trains a week transporting cement in tank wagons which will support major construction projects in London as well as the development of Hinkley Point C Nuclear Power Station.

UK – Pyroban, which provides explosion protection safety solutions for industry world-wide providing engine kits and packages, components and ATEX compliant fork lift truck and materials handling equipment conversions, has acquired Baldwin and Francis Ltd (B&F), a Sheffield based manufacturer of explosion proof electrical equipment used in hazardous and challenging environments.

B&F, established in 1919, started life producing switchgear for the mining industry where safety is paramount and went on to service the oil & gas sector amongst others with a range of switchgear, transformers, power centres and many other flameproof technology (Exd) and intrinsically safe electrical items.

UK – WORLDWIDE – Simpson Spence Young (SSY), which claims the title of the world’s largest independent shipbroker, has launched SSY Finance after taking full ownership of SSY Carnegie LLP, a previous joint-venture with Nordic investment bank Carnegie, following the bank's decision to focus on its core Nordic business. The two companies will continue to collaborate on an informal basis.

US – There have been amendments to the Marine Invasive Species Act in California requiring vessel owners and operators to implement specified federal standards regulating ballast water discharges and to comply with certain federal performance standards for implementing approved ballast water management methods.

The new legislation also delays the state’s interim ballast water discharge performance standards whilst setting a limit of January 1, 2040 as the latest time the final performance standard for the discharge of ballast water of zero detectable living organisms for all size classes would be required to be met. New legislation in full here.

GERMANY – Freight group Dachser has officially opened its new logistics centre on the Breisgau industrial park in Freiburg. At 6,117 m² the new €22 million facility houses a transit terminal with 82 docking bays as well as a two-story office building.

Freiburg occupies a key position with proximity to several national borders, the city was thus the ideal location for a Dachser logistics hub to handle groupage transports to Switzerland, France, and south western Germany and the latest development follows the establishment of the firm’s first branch there in 1984.

SWEDEN – ISRAEL – Volvo Group Venture Capital AB has invested in Upstream Security, a leading Israeli automotive cyber security company. The investment will fund the development of systems to protect connected vehicles following the introduction of data-driven technologies.

Upstream Security is a Tel Aviv-based start-up company which provides cyber security solutions designed specifically to protect connected vehicles from cyber threats or misuse while stationary and in motion. The investment is a direct result of the Volvo Group’s partnership with DRIVE, the innovation centre that focuses on disruptive start-ups in the Israeli mobility sector.

JAPAN – Last week saw a Celebratory Maritime Service in Yokohama by the Mission to Seafarers attended by its President, HRH The Princess Royal and Sir Timothy Laurence to celebrate over a century of service by the Mission in Japan where it operates in the ports of Yokohama, Kobe and Tomakomai.

The lunch was attended by many dignitaries and guests from Japan’s shipping industry and the Anglican church in Japan, including HE Paul Madden, British Ambassador to Japan, Mr Hitoshi Nagasawa, President of NYK, Mr Takeshi Hashimoto, Director and Executive VP MOL, Mr Masamichi Morooka - President and CEO of Yokohama Kawasaki International Port (YKIP) and Mr Hiroshi Imura President of ConocoPhillips, Japan.

US – BELGIUM – Los Angeles headquartered Rock-it Cargo, which provides logistics services to live event shippers, has announced it has made a ‘significant incremental investment’ in Antwerp, Belgium-based Triple M Entertainment Logistics. Eleven year old Triple M focuses on four categories of shippers, live entertainment, stage, performing arts, and corporate logistics.

Situated close to close to the seaport and connected to an inland jetty allowing containers to be trucked or barged to their cross-load site with the capacity to handle up to fifteen containers or trucks simultaneously, Triple M also has ready access to a range of Benelux airports including Brussels, Liege and Schiphol.

Photo: Part of the huge consignment of wind turbine parts en route to the Clocaenog Forest Wind Farm.