18 BULKDISTRIBUTOR
Logistics
Talke wins PE3 logistics
terminal contract
C
zech petrochemical company Unipetrol
has awarded Talke a CZK700 million
contract for the engineering and construction
of a logistics facility at its Litvinov location.
Talke’s project for Unipetrol includes the construction of a battery of 40
storage silos
The contract is part of a new polyethylene unit
project (PE3), the biggest investment in the history
of the Czech petrochemical industry. The overall
PE3 project costs are estimated at CZK8.5 billion.
“The investment in the new polyethylene unit
will help to contribute to greater integration of the
petrochemical and refining production of
Unipetrol Group and will enable us to reach out
for new industrial sectors, including cosmetics and
packaging,” said Unipetrol CEO and chairman
Marek Switajewski. “It will increase our storage
needs for polyethylene granules to ensure efficient
storage and expedition of additional polyethylene
volume produced by the new PE3 unit.”
Christoph Grunert, director logistics Europe at
Talke, said the undertaking is the firm’s biggest
European construction project to date.
Unipetrol named Talke as general contractor for the
logistics facility to handle and package an annual
volume of 270,000 tons of polyethylene type HDPE
granules. The project includes the construction of a
battery of 40 storage silos with a total capacity of
16,000 tons, the extension of an existing packaging
hall, and the installation of suitable machinery for
bag filling, pallet packaging and truck loading.
In addition, a pneumatic conveying system for the
transfer of product from the production site to the
storage silos, as well as new offices, cloakrooms
and social facilities are subject to the contract.
The concept originates from a study executed by
Talke. It will be realised under an engineering,
procurement and construction (EPC) contract with
completion planned for Q1 of 2018. The
polyethylene unit is being built under Ineos
license. Construction started in June.
Unipetrol became part of PKN Orlen Group,
central Europe’s largest crude oil processor, in 2005.
Meanwhile, Talke has sold its Belgian and Dutch
logistics locations and activities to Antwerp-based
Katoen Natie. Talke, which is headquartered near
Cologne, said the divestment is part of a programme
to optimise its location portfolio. The company also
wants to focus more on its business in other parts of
Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the USA.
July/August 2016
Concrete move from Vos
V
os Logistics has taken two new concrete
truck mixers into service for third parties.
The company will apply its expertise in this
market to meet growing demand for flexible
transport capacity. It has acted in customer-specific
concrete transport since 2015, transporting
concrete and delivering materials to building sites.
“We have a great deal of expertise and
experience in this kind of transport and offer
flexible transport capacity especially for this
market,” said Marc van Alphen, managing
director of Vos Logistics’ bulk activities.
The new truck mixers were developed jointly
with Volvo and mixer truck builder Mulder.
The mixers can be deployed flexibly and will
be used mainly in the Randstad region of the
Netherlands. Vos Logistics will hire out the mixers
from its facility in Uithoorn by the day, week or
for a longer period.
The mixers have a capacity of 13.5cbm and
a steered fifth rear axle. They are equipped with
the latest safety innovations. The trucks have
a reversing and blind spot camera system so
that drivers have an overview of the site, and
to optimise driver safety, the cab door can only
open inwards.
Schmidt, Sibur ink
Tobolsk deal
W
ithin the next three years, a silo farm will spring up at Sibur’s Tobolsk site in Russia.
ZapSibNeftekhim is a greenfield project, comprising 45 silos of 1,000cbm each, eight
packaging lines integrated into a covered warehouse complex of 50,000sqm and a container
terminal with a capacity of 2,600 FEU will be built to handle the yearly throughput of two million
tons of polypropylene and polyethylene.
Undertaking construction of the logistics infrastructure is Schmidt Heilbronn. Recently, Schmidt
and Sibur officially signed the engineering, procurement and site services contract at Schmidt’s
headquarters in Germany.
The two firms said this new contract is a further milestone in the already well established
partnership between the two, both at Tobolsk and other production sites in Russia.
Sibur is a vertically integrated gas processing and petrochemicals company. It owns and operates
Russia’s largest gas processing business in terms of associated petroleum gas volumes handled and
is a leader in the Russian petrochemicals industry.
Operating out of 26 production sites located all over Russia, Sibur serves more than 1,400 key
customers operating in the energy, chemical, FMCG, automotive, construction and other industries
in some 75 countries and employs over 27,000 people.
10 years on the river
M
ultimodal operator Samskip and inland
waterway transport provider Pro-Log
celebrated the 10th anniversary of barge
operations between Rotterdam and Duisburg
by adding a second vessel, increasing service
frequency to six times weekly.
“Reliability is a cornerstone in the competitive
case for multimodal transport, and nowhere is it
more crucial than in the corridor between
Rotterdam and Duisburg,” said Leo Osseweijer,
Samskip general manager procurement &
equipment control.
“Over the past decade, Pro-Log has proved
itself reliable day in, day out, as well as cost
efficient and flexible enough to work with
Samskip as a true partner.”
Osseweijer added that customers in the Ruhr
region depend on sustainable multimodal services
to avoid congestion on the roads to and from
the port of Rotterdam. To date, 2,876 trips have
been completed.
“We calculate that choosing multimodal has
meant that customers have saved 479,415kg total
in CO2 emissions in the past 10 years – equivalent
to 17,433 trees,” he said.
Service levels achieved by the Pro-Log vessel
Theodela, which can carry 60 45ft containers, had
proved decisive in selecting an inland barge
partner a decade ago. Adding a second vessel
increases the service to six times a week in both
directions, while also making it possible to add
calls in Nijmegen within the schedule.