Kemi Shipping Oy, owned by Finnish Metsä Group, has ordered eight award-winning Konecranes E-VER fully electric forklifts including full service contracts for their operations in the Port of Kemi. Highly impressed with an E-VER delivered early in 2022, the Finnish logistics company is strengthening operations with an additional order. The order was received in June 2022 and will be delivered in the first half of 2023.

Kemi Shipping provides a range of harbor services for customers in the region. With Metsä opening a new mill for bioproducts in the north, Kemi Shipping is taking the step to invest in new lift trucks for their new warehouse operations. The port facility is big and will benefit from the eight Konecranes E-VER electric forklifts that will serve the mill with their product handling as it reaches full production capacity.

“Sustainability is at the core of our business, so the first thing that attracted us to the Konecranes E-VER was the fact that it is fully electric,” says Kari Lundell, CEO of Kemi Shipping. “We had one Konecranes E-VER delivered earlier this year for paper board handling, and we could see its advantages immediately. Besides eliminating tailpipe emissions, it offers outstanding efficiency, and our drivers love it. Once all eight E-VER electric forklifts are on-site, they will mark another big step on our journey to greater productivity and lower emissions.”

“Kemi Shipping has been a loyal Konecranes customer for over two decades, sharing our mutual commitment to the environment” says Klaus Kaukovalta, Product Manager, Lift Trucks for Konecranes Finland. “Konecranes E-VER, that won the sawmill industry Product Novelty Competition for improving the environmental performance, gives us the perfect opportunity to provide Kemi Shipping equipment that meets their specific requirements in a demanding industry.”

The eight additional lift trucks are Konecranes E-VER 16-1200C forklifts, with a fully-electric driveline and a capacity of 16 tons. Lithium-ion batteries manufactured with clean energy power each truck, taking just 45 minutes to fully recharge and re-generating brake energy back to its battery. With less heat, oil and fewer moving parts, the electric forklift requires less maintenance, and produces less chemical waste. The trucks will be supplied with special bale clamps to securely handle wood pulp.

These Konecranes E-VER electric forklifts are also Smart Connected Lift Trucks, in which TRUCONNECT^® Remote Monitoring follows each truck’s performance and maximizes battery life through analytics such as charge optimization and energy consumption.

A strong focus on customers and commitment to business growth and continuous improvement make Konecranes a lifting industry leader. This is underpinned by investments in digitalization and technology, plus our work to make material flows more efficient with solutions that decarbonize the economy and advance circularity and safety.

Konecranes is a world-leading group of Lifting Businesses™, serving a broad range of customers, including manufacturing and process industries, shipyards, ports and terminals. Konecranes provides productivity enhancing lifting solutions as well as services for lifting equipment of all makes. In 2021, Group sales totaled EUR 3.2 billion. The Group has around 16,600 employees in 50 countries. Konecranes shares are listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki (symbol: KCR).

Vanderlande has selected Kollmorgen NDC Solutions as a technology and service partner for their automated guided vehicle (AGV) applications. Based on Toyota Material Handling forklifts equipped with the Kollmorgen NDC Solutions technology, Vanderlande aims to strengthen and grow their portfolio of complete logistic and warehouse solutions. 

Vanderlande is a market-leading, global partner for future-proof logistic process automation in the warehousing, airports and parcel sectors. Its extensive portfolio of integrated solutions – innovative systems, intelligent software and life-cycle services – results in the realization of fast, reliable and efficient automation technology.

“Vanderlande and Kollmorgen share a very similar mindset. We both have a long history of advanced, industrialized and proven automation solutions – with reliability, collaboration and the relentless strive for end-user success being our common cornerstones. We are convinced that this collaboration will drive strong growth for Vanderlande and Kollmorgen – but above all for our end-users”, says Tobias Byfeldt, Vice President, Kollmorgen AGV.

“Vanderlande strives to deliver the best fully integrated autonomous vehicle (AV) offering as part of our solutions for our warehousing, parcel and airport customers. With this collaboration we are confident that by combining our expertise and solutions we can jointly deliver and continuously develop better AV solutions”, adds Daan Stikkel, General Manager AV Vanderlande.

For more information about Vanderlande, please visit www.vanderlande.com.  

About Kollmorgen NDC Solutions

Kollmorgen's NDC Solutions is the industry leading platform utilized by vehicle builders to create driverless logistics automation solutions. The platform consists of both software to route vehicles efficiently, and hardware for navigation and control. With Kollmorgen NDC you may automate virtually any type of vehicle or robot and integrate it to any type of material handling application, in any industry, worldwide. Learn more at www.kollmorgen.com/agv.

Average container prices have declined by more than half from the last year in August as China picks up containerised trade volumes more recently, according to an analysis published by Container xChange, a technology marketplace and operating platform for container logistic companies. The analysis is a part of the monthly container logistics report published by Container xChange titled ‘Where Are All The Containers’.  

• Average container prices halved from August 2021; leasing rates decline by 17% from June to July this year 
• China to Canada one-way leasing rates decline at the highest rate by 49 per cent as compared to China to any other country 

The decline in average container prices and leasing rates offer good opportunities for shippers and freight forwarding companies to plan cargo as the supply chain braces for the peak season, typically from July to September. 

Trade in China was impacted in the first half of the year, but the containerised trade seems to have picked up since July (2022) according to the analysis put together by Container xChange.  

“Shippers are once again hoping that the exports will restore in full swing as the industry prepares for the peak season. Amidst this, there are more reasons for shippers to rejoice as the average container prices and one-way leasing rates Ex China shows a downward trend at a time when shipping is historically at its peak in the country. The average container prices are more than halved as compared to the last year, in August. Clearly, this brings cheers to the shippers and forwarders hoping to ship cargo containers out of China.” said Christian Roeloffs, Co-founder and CEO, Container xChange 

Shanghai Container Availability index (CAx) indicates that the CAx is 0.58 in week 33 as compared to 0.52 in 2021, 0.32 in 2020 and 2019 (pre-pandemic). This could potentially mean that there are more containers in China with reduced prices, making it easier for shippers and freight forwarders to plan trips from China.  

“This is the peak shipping season, and the industry expects heavy outflow of containers from China to fulfil orders from demand centres. This year, we haven't witnessed two key trends that are a norm during this time in previous years – a rise in leasing rates and container prices in China and a decline in CAx values,” added Roeloffs. 

17% decline in one-way leasing pick-up rates of containers from China to the US from June to July.  

One-way leasing rates for standard containers, were in the range of $100-$300 before June 2021(see graph above). The rates picked up from July 2021 skyrocketing at $1470 in the month of July 2021 and peaking by September to reach $2792. The leasing rates then started to decline. This year in May, the leasing rates stood at $1277, plummeting to $1095 in June and further to $906 in the month of July.  

On the China to Germany stretch, these one-way pick-up rates for leasing containers plummeted from $3394 in January 2022, further to $2428 in April and now to $1995 in the month of July.  

China to Canada one-way leasing rates decline at the highest rate at 49 percent as compared to China to any other country 

The data shows a significant drop in the average per unit rates for 40HCs from China to Europe and North American countries. Canada is leading the fall with a 49.4% drop in the leasing rates between June and July. Right behind Canada is the US with a 32.5% drop in the average pick-up or PU (Pick Up) rates. For countries in Europe, the average one-way PU charges from China dropped by 16% in the UK, 13% in Germany, 18.4% in France, and 17.3% in Belgium.   

In Qingdao and Shanghai, CAx remained over 0.5, in July, and continued increasing. The continued high CAx scores align with the decreased container rental fees and indicate a comparatively slowed-down movement of boxes at these ports. Ningbo’s CAx scores were lower than 0.5 in July indicating that more containers are leaving the port. And, that there’s probably more demand for export containers than full imports at the port and a likely delays cargo acceptance. 

Average Trading prices in China halved year on year in August this year 

From around $5500 for a cargo-worthy standard container size in September 2021, and further declining from there to reach $3494 in May 2022, the current average trading price has plummeted to $2679 so far in August 2022. Last year in August, this average trading price was $5470. More than halved from last year same month.  

Download the full report here - https://www.container-xchange.com/reports/monthly-container-logistics-update/

About Container xChange  

Container xChange is a technology company that offers a container trading and leasing platform, payment infrastructure (for transparent and easier payment handling) and efficient operating systems to manage the end-to-end container movement across the globe for container logistic companies worldwide. Covering the entire transaction process of shipping containers starting with finding new partners to track containers and managing payments, xChange makes using 3rd party equipment as easy as booking a hotel. We are on a mission to simplify the logistics of global trade.     

Being one of the top ten logistics tech companies globally, xChange is fundamentally transforming thousands of processes involved in moving containers globally. xChange is trusted by more than 1000 container logistic companies such as Kuehne+Nagel, Seaco or Sarjak that use xChange every day to improve operational effectiveness and improve productivity.    

Rhenus Warehousing Solutions has signed an agreement to acquire the Danish company DKI Logistics A/S and its warehouse investment affiliate DKI Automatic A/S (both together "DKI"). The logistics provider specialises in complete warehousing and supply chain solutions with customised value-added services. With the acquisition, Rhenus Warehousing Solutions expands its presence in Europe to the Nordic countries.

Founded in 2001, DKI is now one of Denmark's leading third-party logistics providers with 350 employees. DKI has seven warehouse locations spread between the headquarters in the port city of Horsens and the cities of Herning and Køge. With more than 280,000 square metres of warehouse space, DKI offers various inbound, storage, order handling and transport services for the Danish market. Companies from the healthcare, FMCG, furniture, clothing, household appliances and DIY product sectors are among its customers.

To accommodate the continuous growth over the past years, DKI has constantly invested in automated technologies such as AGVs, robots, conveyor belts and shuttle systems. In general, the seven DKI warehouses are characterised by a high degree of automation in picking, packing and sorting. One new warehouse is currently being built and is expected to be completed by the end of 2022; another is planned for the coming year.

Andreas Plikat, General Manager Rhenus Warehousing Solutions, says: "Rhenus Warehousing Solutions and DKI both stand for high-quality and scalable customer solutions. In this respect, it was the logical step for us to shape our market entry into the Nordic countries together with DKI." In addition to geographically complementing the Rhenus Warehousing Solutions network in Europe, this acquisition strengthens the presence of the Rhenus Group in the FMCG and healthcare sectors. With DKI becoming part of the Rhenus Group, customers will benefit not only from the warehousing service but also from the wide range of services, including the global air and sea freight network and the extensive European land transport options. The acquisition of DKI is another step in the continuous growth of the Rhenus Group in Denmark: With locations in Copenhagen and Aarhus, the logistics specialist guarantees a reliable service in close proximity to its customers.

The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and closing is expected in Q4 2022.

For more information about DKI, visit https://dki-logistics.dk/.

Further information about the Rhenus group in Denmark can be found here: https://www.rhenus.group/dk/en/.

About Rhenus Warehousing Solutions

Rhenus is one of the pioneers in warehouse logistics and has an extensive global network with more than 155 business sites in 21 different countries and warehouse space measuring 3.5 million square metres. Rhenus Warehousing Solutions specialises in numerous industrial sectors so that its customers benefit from tailor-made warehousing solutions and fulfilment services. The company focuses on innovations, sustainability and continually optimising processes at its multi-user facilities and when providing dedicated and in-house solutions.

About Rhenus

The Rhenus Group is one of the leading logistics specialists with global business operations and annual turnover amounting to EUR 7.0 billion. 37,500 employees work at 970 business sites and develop innovative solutions along the complete supply chain. Whether providing transport, warehousing, customs clearance or value-added services, the family-owned business pools its operations in various business units where the needs of customers are the major focus at all times.

SortIE is the new intelligent and efficient put-to-wall sorting shuttle system that Addverb is launching on the market and is predicted to heighten robotic standards in warehouse logistics

Addverb Technologies, a global robotics company providing complete end-to-end warehouse automation solutions, announces the release of a new sorter robot called SortIE – a fast-moving scalable solution for rapid and efficient order fulfilment. As a fully automated robotic put-to-wall sorting system, SortIE is capable of performing SKU-wise intelligent sortation at very high speeds and at different height levels. Additionally, it enables easy and rapid picking. It can be easily integrated with existing conveying systems such as conveyors, robots, and manual transport with no impact on ongoing operations.

“We are excited for SortIE to reach the market because there is nothing like it,” says Pieter Feenstra, Addverb’s CEO of the EMEA region. "This robot increases productivity with up to 450 sorts per hour, meaning up to 250 orders fulfilled at any given time, and increases order cube utilisation by up to 20%. The entire sorting system is simple and fully automatic, which shortens the return on investment and requires no human intervention. We’re proud to have led the charge on a robot like this coming to the market.”

Founded in 2016, Addverb offers a unique logistics combination of fixed and mobile automation along with advanced enterprise software. Their expertise involves IoT, robotics, and warehousing consulting. Addverb has provided warehouse automation solutions to customers involved with fast-moving consumer goods such as Unilever, Flipkart, Amazon, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Dabur, and more.

SortIE has a speed of 3m per second to ensure quick turnaround cycles. Combined with a Zippy sorting solution, it can also increase the number of destinations on a smaller footprint. This system is ideal for industries like e-commerce, third-party logistics, fast-moving consumer goods, and retail for quick order sequencing and sortation, allowing for faster dispatch of large order quantities. For more information, visit Addverb Technologies’ website.

Reichmuth & Co Investment Management AG has ordered 35 Vectron AC locomotives from Siemens Mobility through its investment vehicle LokRoll 3 AG. LokRoll 3 will lease the locomotives to SBB Cargo for eight years through its asset manager Northrail GmbH, which it commissioned for the deal. The entire transaction was arranged and structured by Paribus Rail Investment Management GmbH. The lease also includes local maintenance of the locomotives by Siemens Mobility for eight years. The Vectrons will be manufactured at the Siemens Mobility plant in Munich-Allach and delivered in 2024.

• Siemens Mobility delivers Vectron AC locomotives
• Contract includes maintenance for eight years

“The fact that we are again delivering locomotives for Switzerland confirms the high level of reliability and performance of our Vectron platform. Although the AC locomotives will primarily operate in Switzerland, they can also be used for cross-border service in Germany and Austria. This enables our customer to plan for the future in a long-term and flexible manner,” said Albrecht Neumann, CEO Rolling Stock of Siemens Mobility.

Geek+, the global leader in AMR technology, is pleased to announce that German third-party logistics provider Bergler Industrieservices has put their faith in Geek+’s Picking and Put-away solution, now fully operational in Bergler’s new logistics center in Erlensee, not far from Germany’s transportation hub, Frankfurt.

• Geek+ AMRs have allowed Bergler to fully automate picking operations in their highly anticipated logistics center

Bergler’s success is derived from providing top-quality logistics services, including order fulfillment and returns management, for German and international e-commerce actors. To modernize their picking and put-away processes, Bergler opted for Geek+’s P-800 picking AMRs and sophisticated warehouse management system. With the picking process automated, Bergler can leverage their considerable advantages and know-how to offer top-of-the-line service to their clients.

This know-how is based, among other things, on experience from the production sector, allowing Bergler Industrieservices to offer its customers value-added services such as component assembly, quality control, packaging, and much more in addition to handling typical fulfilment tasks.

The automated order picking system is therefore a great help for the around 40 employees who have been assembling, packing, and shipping a large number of orders for customers of various e-commerce operators every day since moving to the 11 000m² Erlensee site in 2019. Bergler’s warehouse employees are now front and central in both the inbound and outbound operations and enjoy much more comfortable conditions. The P-800s bring the racks to the operator at the workstation, then return the racks to an optimized position based. This saves countless hours that would otherwise be spent walking through the vast site. 

Saverio Carella, Sales Director DACH at Geek+, said: “We have greatly enjoyed working with Bergler to make this project a reality. Together, we have achieved a modern logistics center that represents the best of what AMR technology and expertise have to offer. Bergler, their employees, and their customers all stand to benefit from this modernization.”

Thanks to the integration of advanced robotics technology, not only is picking faster, more comfortable, and more accurate, but storage density is also much higher, thanks to the AMRs’ low profile and modest space requirements. This allows Bergler more freedom to scale up their operations and expand their business horizons.

Bergler CEO Raimund Bergler said: “The Geek+ robotics solution is something we have been looking forward to for some time now, and we’re thrilled with the results. The picking robots allow us to embark on a new phase in our development and ensure that we continue to guarantee our customers an extremely high level of service.”

Geek+ is once again very proud to have enabled an independent third-party logistics provider to scale up their operations and deliver new levels of quality. The AMR leader stands ready to assist Bergler in making the most of their newly expanded capacities.

About Geek+

Geek+ is a global technology company leading the intelligent logistics revolution. We apply advanced robotics and AI technologies to realize flexible, reliable, and highly efficient solutions for warehouses and supply chain management. Geek+ is trusted by over 500 global industry leaders and has been recognized as the world leader in autonomous mobile robots. Founded in 2015, Geek+ has over 1500 employees, with offices in Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, South Korea, Mainland China, Hong Kong SAR, and Singapore. 

For more information, please visit: https://www.geekplus.com/

A.W. Jenkinson Forest Products and A. W. Jenkinson Transport Ltd are pleased to acknowledge the work of the Forest Industry Safety Accord (FISA) being founder members since 2012 when representatives of the Forest industries leading organisations came together to set out the Accord which underlines a commitment from the sector to raise the standard of health and safety in the forestry workplace: www.ukfisa.com

FISA have just produced a great new online resource for the sector – a Forest Haulage Induction Video which can be viewed here. As the haulage industry currently works through some well documented driver challenges, this is aimed at new entrants who have HGV experience – but who have may not have previously driven in Forest conditions. As well as the obvious timber trucks and walking-floors, this also covers drivers of fuel tankers, low loaders and other materials deliveries. A.W. Jenkinson Transport will use this easily accessed online tool to create a meaningful impact on new entrants and use it as part of their induction process and driver apprentice training.

Mammoet has achieved a major milestone in the development of sustainable heavy lifting and transport – undertaking the replacement of a production vessel at a chemical plant in the Netherlands using purely electric power.  

The Shell facility produces feedstock for a range of everyday applications including medical equipment, car components and cellphones. When a key production vessel needed to be replaced, the customer was keen to look at how this could be done with the lowest possible environmental impact. 

Seeking ways in which new technology can help to reduce – and eventually eradicate - the carbon footprint of projects, Mammoet has explored many possible solutions in recent years. One such focus has been a partnership with Scheuerle to transition its SPMT fleet from diesel to renewable energy.  

Whilst electric technology is nothing new for domestic vehicles, the sheer force SPMTs are required to deliver in moving heavy items has presented significant barriers to finding an equivalent solution. But thanks to extensive research and testing this has now become a reality.  

The ePPU was used with four axle lines of SPMT operating in an extremely tight area of the existing plant, which meant that there were only a few meters in which to maneuver the existing vessel out and drive the new one into position.  

In fact, space was so limited that not all SPMT lines could be positioned beneath the outgoing vessel, meaning that it needed to be secured above the front two axle lines of SPMT, with the ePPU acting as a counterweight to balance the vessel as it was transported. A crane was then used to remove the old vessel and lower its replacement onto the SPMT in the same position. This was then moved back into place ready to be installed and commissioned.   

Using the ePPU delivered important benefits for the project. Ludo Mous, Operations Director at Mammoet Europe, explains: 

“The ePPU is a really important step in how we support our customers with decarbonizing projects. But in this case, the benefits were not limited only to a lower carbon footprint. With work taking place in a highly confined area, we would have been highly conscious of the emissions generated by a typical diesel PPU, and would need to carefully manage operatives’ exposure to it. By using an electric model, we removed this issue completely, whilst also creating a much quieter working environment.” 

The successful application of the ePPU here signals just the start of an exciting development for Mammoet and the wider industry. Although there is still work to be done to ensure electric power is sufficient for use in larger scale SPMT projects, the technology is now proven in use and ready to be rolled out across a broader range of work around the world. 

Mous concludes: 

“We were extremely pleased that the ePPU performed as we expected, delivering a low-carbon solution for our customer. We expect demand for it to be high, in particular for projects that are looking for more sustainable options or where exhaust emissions must be kept to a minimum for safety reasons, such as civil projects taking place within tunnels or work inside nuclear facilities.” 

Mammoet
Mammoet helps clients with Smarter, Safer and Stronger solutions to any heavy lifting or transport challenge. We aim to develop long term relationships in order to understand their businesses and challenges best, so we can realize the most efficient and cost-effective approaches. We have a unique global network and an unparalleled fleet of equipment. Through deep and longstanding engineering expertise and the highest quality and safety standards in execution we bring an intelligent and flexible approach to projects across a wide breadth of industry sectors. Clients trust us to help them achieve feats that were once considered impossible, and we have often broken records in doing so.

For more information, visit www.mammoet.com

The company ALS Customs Services has automated the processes for customs clearance between the United Kingdom and France. Once the data required for exports and imports has been entered, the Customs Control Tower (CCT) automatically generates the necessary customs declarations on both sides in advance of transport. This enables clients to benefit from crossing the border point as smoothly as possible across the English Channel.

Ever since the United Kingdom left the EU customs union, the customs formalities set by EU and UK laws apply to all goods that are imported from the United Kingdom into the customs territory of the Union or vice versa. It is therefore necessary to obtain preliminary customs clearance for imports at the ports prior to departure for France or the United Kingdom: this is because of the short crossings between Calais and Dover and the infrastructure restrictions at these border crossing points. During the border crossing, the status of pre-declared imports is automatically processed through the French SI Brexit or the British GVMS systems. Based on the regulatory risk assessments, trucks are selected for an inspection at the port or at an inland border facility or for clearance without any further stops. The challenge here is that if the necessary data is not available until late in the supply chain, transit times increase.

In order to guarantee the shortest transit times, ALS Customs Services has now developed its automated Customs Control Tower. This innovative tool, which has been created by the in-house customs technology team, obtains the required customs data via EDI and connects customers to any of ALS’ local customs systems. “Our vision at ALS is to ensure compliance while offering the smoothest border crossing experience to our customers,” says Richard Revyn, Managing Director ALS Europe. “The automated process guarantees that the data is transferred to our UK and French customs systems and simultaneously generates the appropriate customs entries on both sides – a genuine “Brexit Green Channel”.

As soon as exporters and importers are fully onboarded, transactional customs and shipment data can be processed in each connected country in line with the requirements. Fabrice Raimond, the Managing Director of ALS Douane France, adds, “In order to offer our clients a 24/7 service, we’ve developed an additional function at ALS Douane France so that the French pre-lodged import entry is automatically forwarded to the customer or their haulier. Our focus is increasingly shifting from the transaction work to customer onboarding and compliance checks.”

About ALS Customs Services

Founded in 1989, ALS Customs Services is an AEO and ISO 9001 certified customs expertise company. With a pan-European network present in 20 countries, it offers consulting services and customs formalities for importers and exporters. Its head office is located in Weil am Rhein, Germany, in the border region with France and Switzerland. For more information: https://www.als-cs.com/