Transport & Logistics - Issue 2

Transport & Logistics www.bus-ex.com ISSUE 2

As logistics becomes an integral part of industrial strategy, we look at the response of port and airport operators, as well as the leading logistics operator, DHL

TRANSPORT&LOGISTICS TRANSPORT&LOGISTICS

Editor’s letter

EDITORIAL Editor In Chief Martin Ashcroft mashcroft@bus-ex.com Managing Editor Becky Done bdone@bus-ex.com DESIGN Art Director Matt Johnson mjohnson@bus-ex.com Graphic Designer Louise Culling lculling@bus-ex.com BUSINESS Director of Sales James Martin jmartin@bus-ex.com Assistant Research Directors Vincent Kielty vincent@bus-ex.com Sam Howard showard@bus-ex.com Richard Halfhide rhalfhide@bus-ex.com Robert Hodgson rhodgson@bus-ex.com Chief Executive Andy Turner info@bus-ex.com SUBSCRIPTIONS info@bus-ex.com

Global networks The movement of goods and the provision of services around the world is a critical factor in competitive advantage. In this second issue of Business Excellence dedicated to transport & logistics, we look at the response of logistics providers to the challenges of the global economic landscape, and the expansion of port and airport facilities around the world to anticipate and keep pace with the increasing demands of travel and trade.

In the world of logistics providers, they don’t come more global than DHL. While the rest of the world suffers from languid economic growth, Mark Seager, CEO of DHL Supply Chain in Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, has what he considers the best job in the entire company, managing a set of regions that have been less affected by the downturn than others. “We are happily growing at double digits every year,” he says.

In the Middle East, major ports are extending their capacity at an impressive rate. The Qatari Port of Ras Laffan, the world leader in the distribution of natural gas, is a case in point. With the added bonus of the 2022 World Cup being held in Qatar, says Capt. Feisal Saad, manager of the Port, “Qatar already had a 20year plan for its infrastructure, and that has now become a 10-year plan!” It’s a similar story in Jordan, where Aqaba Container Terminal has evolved from a regional feeder port into one of the most important container ports in the region.

The mining sector in Australia is particularly buoyant, too. Flinders Ports in South Australia plans to treble its capacity in the next few years, and has recently added a logistics division to the organisation. “We are currently in talks with 10 different mines in different stages of development, trying to work out how we can help them get their cargo to their customers,” says CEO Vincent Tremaine.

Editor-in-chief Martin Ashcroft mashcroft@bus-ex.com

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10

Contents DHL Supply Chain Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa The world’s logistics company

10

A story of outstanding success in an industry that has been characterised by consolidation as logistics become an integral part of lean industrial strategy.

CEVA Logistics Middle East Optimising the links

One of the world’s leading supply chain management companies is playing to its strengths in a region of opportunity.

Laser Logistics

Power through collaboration

Creating seamless access to the capabilities of other group operating divisions has resulted in a wider service offering and stimulated growth.

Southern Engineering Company Limited Multi-faceted marine and logistics group

This member of the Alpha Group of companies is benefiting from international interest in East Africa.

Ras Laffan Port Gas and goals

Ras Laffan Port expects to average more than 1,000 ships a year going forward, handling 30 per cent of the world’s LNG traffic.

Aqaba Container Terminal

Gateway to the Levant & Iraq

Aqaba is becoming the port of choice for ships wishing to move cargo through the whole of the Levant and Iraq.

28 38 46 54 66

114

Contents Haifa Port

Promoting growth

A new container terminal at one of Israel’s major ports will relieve congestion and markedly increase productivity.

Flinders Ports

Ambitious for growth

The operator of seven of South Australia’s ten ports has ambitious plans to treble its capacity in the next few years.

Colombo Dockyard At the crossroads

Colombo in Sri Lanka is perfectly placed to catch passing shipping trade from Australia, the Far East, Europe and the Gulf oilfields.

Greatship (India) Limited Partner of choice

Technology, leadership and excellence in execution could hold the key to expansion in the offshore support business.

IMPERIAL Air Cargo

An upward trajectory

Capturing around 50 per cent of South Africa’s overnight express airfreight services market within five years is an impressive achievement.

Empire Aviation Group Flying high

Maximizing asset value is key for the Dubai-based operator and manager of the Middle East’s largest fleet of corporate and private jets.

76 86 98 106 114 124

162

Contents Setting the standard

134

National Airports Corporation Limited of Zambia

144

Aviance Ghana

Success in the challenging ground handling industry rests on providing a high-quality, reliable and customer-focused service.

The gateway to Zambia

Improving Zambia’s four most important airports is creating a gateway to the nation and a lasting impression for visitors.

Miami International Airport Gateway to the Americas

The new North Terminal Development at Miami International Airport represents the biggest ever single investment in US aviation history.

Qantas Group

A Qantas of resilience

Australia’s national or ‘flag’ carrier is extending its regional business while showing the rest of the world how long-haul services should be run.

Coega IDZ

Building a winning score

Megaprojects don’t get much more ambitious than South Africa’s Coega project, which aims to create a mass production and services environment from scratch.

WearCheck

Finger on the pulse

Using an oil condition monitoring service can be invaluable to businesses that rely on oil-lubricated plant and equipment.

154 162 170 182

10 Transport & Logistics

DHL Supply Chain EEMEA

Transport & Logistics 11

12 Transport & Logistics

DHL Supply Chain EEMEA

W

ith a global network presence in more than 220 countries and territories, and about 275,000 employees worldwide, DHL, a division of Deutsche Post, has grown to its present size by acquiring the leading players along with enjoying its own customer growth. Its story is one of outstanding success in an industry that has been characterised by consolidation as logistics has become an integral part of lean industrial strategy and a function that many companies have been driven to outsource. As a whole the group generated global revenues of more than €51 billion in 2010.

Perhaps the group’s most significant expansion was its €5.5 billion acquisition of Exel in 2005.

Exel was the company that Jaguar Motors chose to set up and run its logistics centre at the Castle Bromwich assembly plant, newly configured in 1998 for the S-Type. By the time of the takeover, approximately 111,000 employees worked for Exel in 135 countries, and one of these, Mark Seager, now has what he considers to be the best job in the entire company, as CEO of DHL Supply Chain in Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Seager’s considerable job satisfaction derives principally from being able to play a crucial role in keeping his clients’ business running smoothly and reliably, year in and year out. “It gives you a unique window—a privileged view into so many companies,” he says. “It allows us to share their challenges and successes because we work so deeply with our clients and their organisations.”

Transport & Logistics 13

DHL Supply Chain EEMEA However, he is also fortunate to be managing a region, or rather a set of regions, that have been less affected by the global recession than some. DHL’s fortunes are linked to those of its customers, he admits, so growth in the economy means growth in his business. “I am lucky because our region has been much less affected than more established and developed markets.

We are enjoying growth on a number of fronts.

We have clients still setting up business to access local domestic markets that are growing as the wealth of their population improves. Other clients are moving into our region to access the cheaper costs in land and labour. The recession has only dampened the growth rate a little and on the supply chain side we are happily growing at double digits every year.”

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The recession has only dampened the growth rate a little and on the supply chain side we are happily growing at double digits every year Double digit growth in the transport industry is pretty amazing in the current climate; but it’s not quite so amazing when one considers the massive infrastructure and natural resources development taking place in Africa, together with the rapid growth of spending power in countries like Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana and Uganda. The oil-driven economies of the Middle East enjoy unstoppable growth, while DHL’s Eastern European markets, principally Russia, Slovakia, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary continue to attract clients, he says. “We have seen many clients doing a strategic review of their supply chain, driven by the need to drive more efficiencies within their own business and so change the nature of the way they manage that supply chain, or indeed moving into my part

Transport & Logistics 15

DHL Supply Chain EEMEA of the world to cut cost. That has accelerated in the recession.”

DHL Supply Chain positions itself as a single source contract logistics provider that designs and implements comprehensive customerfocused solutions across the entire value chain, explains Seager. “Our customers rely on us to ensure a smooth logistics flow from planning, sourcing, production, storage and delivery to return logistics and end customer service. We can give them warehousing, distribution, managed transport and value-added services, business process outsourcing, supply chain management and consulting.”

With more than 160 of its own warehousing

PointPark Properties PointPark Properties (P3) is an established international asset manager and developer of warehouse and industrial property and is currently active in 12 European countries. P3 has agreements to manage over 1.5 million square meters of assets in over 72 distribution buildings and has a land bank of 600,000 sqm for further development. By concentrating on one sector of the property market, P3 is able to provide its customers, investors and stakeholders with a detailed understanding of the warehouse and industrial sector across Europe. The company was established in 2001 and has offices in Paris, Prague, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Bratislava, Warsaw, London and Bucharest.

Our customers rely on us to ensure a smooth logistics flow from planning, sourcing, production, storage and delivery to return logistics and end customer service sites in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, totalling nearly two million square metres, he certainly has the resources to deliver this level of service. “DHL is not only present in all the geographical markets; we are strong in almost every sector. Automotive of course, which is an historic strength, but also in the energy sector, consumer goods, retail logistics and life sciences.” The last of these—including healthcare and pharmaceuticals—is one of the fastest growing sectors and a good example of how DHL is working with customers to keep ahead in a fast changing competitive climate.

Innovative schemes are originating in Turkey, says Seager, where healthcare legislation has changed in response to the proliferation of counterfeit drugs. DHL Supply Chain’s ‘2D Coding—Serialisation of Pharmaceutical

Transport & Logistics 17

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DHL Supply Chain EEMEA Products and Data Management’ project in Turkey is reducing fraud and counterfeiting across the country. For the first time in the pharmaceutical industry, it introduced an IT-driven solution throughout the supply chain, from manufacturer to end consumer. And its success is attracting interest from other markets looking to follow suit in the future.

Turkey became the test bed for the new technology because of its particular problems with fraud—prior to 2010, it was estimated that the government lost US$150 million annually. The Ministry of Health first announced its intention to implement an anti-fraud solution in 2004, and DHL Supply Chain Turkey began work in 2008

The industry solution that is emerging is 2-D, or Matrix barcoding, and DHL has developed a bespoke solution for its pharmaceutical industry customers in Turkey on a country-wide 2D coding system that would support its 35 major pharmaceutical partners as well as 25,000 pharmacies. By the start of 2011, uncoded medicines were a thing of the past in Turkey and pharmacies were reporting high levels of satisfaction with the new system. The solution had demonstrated collaborative working across DHL’s Operations, IT and Quality Assurance staff, and had involved liaison with some of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies, including Novo Nordisk and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

The industry solution that is emerging is 2-D, or Matrix barcoding, and DHL has developed a bespoke solution for its pharmaceutical industry customers in Turkey. “That sort of activity is spreading around Europe, with Turkey really leading the way in pharma regulation. I believe

Transport & Logistics 19

DHL Supply Chain EEMEA we will see it introduced in the UK soon.”

While pharmaceuticals and energy markets are among the fastest growing sectors, DHL continues to develop its longer standing relationships in the automotive industry. Automotive may have taken a hammering in recent years, but it is bounding back now, Seager observes. We saw earlier how Exel took on board the supply chain management at Jaguar, creating its own hub there and sequencing suppliers’ components and sub-assemblies to the plant. Last year, however, DHL demonstrated an even more symbiotic type of partnership when it entered a new five-year contract with Europe’s largest car manufacturer, Volkswagen.

DHL continues to develop its longer standing relationships in the automotive industry Under the contract, DHL Supply Chain took over from another company a major part of the inplant logistics for the Volkswagen assembly plant in the capital of Slovakia, Bratislava. Around 800 DHL employees will manage in-plant logistics for 50 per cent of the production materials of the models produced by the Volkswagen Group at Bratislava. This involves engines, gearboxes and windscreens for the Volkswagen Touareg, Audi Q7 and Porsche Cayenne. Services provided include in-bound receiving, put away and storage, picking and kitting, sequencing and line-side deliveries directly to the Volkswagen production lines.

The contract is unique within the Volkswagen Group, which normally commits itself to such deals for just three years, but as head of Logistics at Volkswagen Slovakia Juraj Janác observed, DHL’s extensive local presence and ability to understand VW’s business needs allowed it to develop a strong relationship with the Bratislava

Transport & Logistics 21

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DHL Supply Chain EEMEA plant’s management. “DHL’s ability to transfer established automotive experience and industry best practice from existing operations, plus the established reputation of 1,500 local IT, HR, technical, financial and operational personnel clearly positioned it as unique in the region.”

Once the terms of the partnership had been worked out, attention focused on achieving a transparent switchover of Slovakia’s largest outsourced logistics operation in just 10 weeks, says Seager. With the need to transfer contracts for almost 700 staff without change to position

Vital Distribution Solutions Vital Distribution Solutions (VDS) is a tried and trusted specialist warehousing and distribution company. With a fleet of over 420 vehicles, VDS has shown significant growth in a very competitive market.

VDS boasts a national footprint with distribution centres in Gauteng and Durban, and operates transhipment facilities in the major centres which augment the FMCG footprint. Vital also manages client-owned warehouses and dedicated fleets for clients.

DHL is not only present in all the geographical markets; we are strong in almost every sector or salary, the local human resources, finance and quality teams were critical to success. But with planning in its final stages the upturn in the market he referred to called for some quick thinking. An upturn in global demand called for the addition of a third shift, requiring the addition of 300 staff just days before the switchover.

A consistent increase in demand soon required the addition of a fourth shift, with the DHL team carefully recruiting a further 400 people. Now, with the need for 24/7 operational management cover and recovery periods limited to Sunday night, people and processes exceeded expectations once again, further strengthening the partnership. Just nine months into the contract, overall standards reached an all-time high. According to Janác: “In the first year of our partnership with DHL, and working together, we achieved all the goals we had set. Volkswagen

Transport & Logistics 23

Slovakia is becoming the benchmark in the logistics processes including in-house logistics operations and considering the forthcoming challenges in production, we require partners that are the best among the best.” Responding to strong demand, annual production at the Bratislava plant currently exceeds 144,000 vehicles.

The Volkswagen contract is a fantastic illustration of an embedded, seamless type of partnership that, if it works in a car plant, notoriously the most demanding lean environment in the world, will bring benefits to customers in any other sector, says Seager. “The great benefit we have is our presence in so many sectors. We are in a position to transfer knowledge and best practice from one sector to another. Automotive

24 Transport & Logistics

has been seen as leading the way in lean logistics and manufacturing for many years now. We have tried to embrace that thinking and bring it into the supply chains of more traditional sectors.”

He cites the high tech manufacturing sector, with its mass customisation and continual design and function upgrading. “Mobile devices are a case in point: there are a lot of virtually stockless supply chains. Suppliers, let alone retailers, can’t afford to hold stock because of the obsolescence issue. And in the food industry, chilled supply chains really are stockless—they operate on a cross docking principle where product is received from the supplier and distributed to retail outlets within a very short time.” It’s not a new principle, he explains, having been used in automotive supply chains for many years, but its successful

DHL Supply Chain EEMEA

We try to develop a bespoke solution, very much geared toward specific customer needs implementation in fast moving modern logistics depends on sophisticated IT support from DHL’s ERP and warehouse management, EDI, barcoding and RFID systems.

Customised supply chains can’t be served by off the peg solutions, he stresses. “We try to develop a bespoke solution, very much geared toward specific customer needs; we are not trying to sell them a network solution by any means. That’s why we have dedicated account management teams focused on specific

customers: the logic behind that is that if we achieve a close alignment with the customer we have a far greater chance of delivering what they want.” For most customers streamlining the supplier base is vital these days, and to do that they need a trusted logistics partner, he adds.

But when you are dealing with a customer like Volkswagen, it is never enough simply to be good at understanding the local market.

Global customers need the same level of service wherever they are located. “I try to make sure

Transport & Logistics 25

DHL Supply Chain EEMEA that a customer in Lagos, Moscow or Nairobi has the same experience as one in the UK or the Netherlands.”

However multimodal its operations; however smart the technology it uses, DHL will always be in the business of moving goods round the world, a large percentage of them by road. It has huge environmental and safety issues, but unlike large sections of the industry, it takes steps to address these issues. All employees are encouraged to take part in the company’s ‘Living Responsibility’ programmes, which include all types of community involvement but seem to focus much of the time on children and their education.

Living Responsibility is subdivided into environmental (GoGreen), educational (GoTeach) and disaster relief (GoHelp) activities. There’s an impressive array of initiatives, from the new UPstairs scholarship scheme piloted in the spring of 2011 with 50 scholarships made available in Indonesia, Mexico, Romania and South Africa.

By 2014 the programme is scheduled to cover 600 scholarships in a total of 42 countries around the world. While UPstairs is limited to employees’ children, Trucks and Child Safety (TACS) aims to cut the number of seven to 11 year olds harmed in road accidents by making them more truck-aware. Employees take trucks into schools and demonstrate their sheer size, and impress on the children just what the driver can and can’t see or hear.

DHL is globalisation in practice: indeed it aspires to no less a goal than to be the logistics provider for the world. “We have a way to go yet,” says Seager, “but as world trade opens up we find ourselves in a strong position. I really do believe that if we can become the provider of choice to our customers we will inevitably be the investment of choice, bringing in the capital we need to grow, and the employer of choice too—because when it comes down to it, we are a people business. It’s not complicated!” www.dhl.com BE

Transport & Logistics 27

28 Transport & Logistics

CEVA Logistics Middle East

Transport & Logistics 29

30 Transport & Logistics

CEVA Logistics Middle East

C

EVA was formed in August 2007 as a result of the merger of TNT Logistics and EGL Eagle Global Logistics. United as a single entity, the organisation is one of the world’s leading supply chain management companies. CEVA’s first office in the Middle East opened in 1993 as Eagle Global Logistics in Dubai. Since then, it has rapidly expanded throughout the region, now offering multiple centres in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Jordon, Qatar and Iraq as well as the United Arab Emirates.

Warren Angus joined the company in 2003 and is based in Dubai as the regional sales and marketing director for the Middle East. He is delighted for the company’s rapid progress in the region. “We have recently expanded our operations in Qatar with relocation to new premises next to Doha International Airport. It is an ideal location which will allow for future growth, especially in the oil, gas and energy sectors as well as catering for the many projects related to preparation for the World Cup in 2022,” he states.

The company has also recently begun direct operations in Sohar, Oman. “We needed to invest further in Oman to support the aggressive growth plans we have for 2012 and Sohar was the obvious location to do so,” he adds.

Business in the emirate of Dubai is equally buoyant. “At the end of last year, we launched our third multi-user facility in the Jebel Ali Free Trade Zone, taking our logistics footprint to over 90,000 square metres in Dubai alone. We took this major investment decision in order to be able to offer a world-class service to support our global

Transport & Logistics 31

Hyster Following a warehouse expansion

To help move pallets around the warehouse

programme in the UAE, CEVA Logistics

facility, to and from the marshalling area,

selected Hyster and Kanrent as the

Hyster platform rider P2.0S FBW pallet trucks

materials handling partners for its

were supplied, providing fast acceleration and

new warehouse facility in the port

productivity for CEVA. Hyster J2.0XNT three

town of Jebel Ali. CEVA Logistics, one of the world’s leading logistics companies, has undertaken an extensive selection process to find a suitable materials handling equipment supplier in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Hyster and Kanoo Machinery’s rental division, Kanrent, were chosen as the successful partners and have recently introduced Hyster equipment to CEVA’s new warehouse facility in Jebel Ali, a port town just 35km southwest of Dubai.

In the selection process, CEVA was looking for a company that would not only provide the right equipment, but fulfil their needs for professional account management together with excellent after sales support. Kanrent provided some of the latest Hyster forklift trucks and warehouse equipment as part of the lease to meet CEVA Logistics’ requirements. Hyster, one of the leading global brands of materials handling equipment, provided technical and application support in the equipment selection process

wheel electric counterbalance forklift trucks are now also in operation unloading and loading containers and trailers, which have a choice of maximum energy efficiency ECO-eLo mode or high performance HiP mode.

CEVA will benefit from the energy efficient intelligent design of the latest range of Hyster battery powered equipment in operation, helping to support environmental plans and increased battery shift life. Operators have stated that the machines are performing in line with their requirements providing excellent reliability.

In support of the fleet, all maintenance work is covered by Kanrent helping to give the customer peace of mind. Kanrent also agreed to strict engineer response times in the event of a breakdown of just two hours during the working day and four hours outside of working hours. Intensive training was also provided for all the operators for the full range of equipment supplied, which will continue every four months.

to ensure the equipment matched CEVA

The machines provide a low cost of operation

Logistics’ needs.

and have been leased on a contract hire basis,

Hyster Matrix R2.0W reach trucks were specified to handle the double deep racking operation in the warehouse and new Hyster K1.0L AC medium/high level order pickers were

helping the customer have good control of the materials handling equipment costs, and the feedback over the last year of operation has been extremely positive.

selected to allow operators to pick items from both ground and first level pallet locations in

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order to build a pallet load.

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34 Transport & Logistics

CEVA Logistics Middle East

We have recently expanded our operations in Qatar with relocation to new premises next to Doha International Airport customers who are increasingly looking to the region for new business opportunities,” he states.

The new facility, known as CEVA number ‘four’, is located in one of the world’s largest and fastest growing free trade zones. It covers 63,000 square metres and comprises two discrete units with a temperature controlled environment. Within the industry, it has been recognised as incorporating a number of state-of-the-art design features and has been certified by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) initiative. This is an internationally-recognised green building certification system, which provides a framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions.

CEVA is a pioneer in the construction of this new generation of eco-friendly warehouses, which feature in-built photovoltaic panels.

Within the Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa region (SEMEA), this kind of investment is enabling CEVA to save 10 million kilos of CO2 emissions each year. As the company expands across the region, many other programmes have been adopted for reducing waste in operations as well as optimising network efficiencies to reduce the environmental impact of transportation.

The drive towards more efficient operations has also led to the development of many new IT solutions. “IT is fundamental in securing a competitive advantage in this business and advanced IT infrastructure will play an integral part in the growth of our business in the Middle East,” he declares. “Real time visibility in the supply chain is a relatively new phenomenon in the Middle East. These platforms already exist across the CEVA network globally and we believe that by extending them to this region,

Transport & Logistics 35

CEVA Logistics Middle East we will be able to far exceed the current service expectations of our customers.”

As part of the service package, CEVA engineers have identified and standardised the core supply chain processes. The company’s SMART Solutions are a set of modules built on CEVA’s vast experience of logistics around the world and a thorough understanding of the specific industries it serves. “Every supply chain is different, but designing each logistics solution from scratch takes a long time, involves lots of unknowns and invariably comes at a high price.

Our SMART Solutions are a set of established and proven processes which help us identify common areas where customers are able to standardise their core processes. Using this

End solution to their benefit, including General Motors (GM). “They are using our SMART Endto-End Solution to manage their global inbound and outbound flows of materials across multiple different locations across the world and it is delivering continuous improvements to the efficiency of their supply chain,” says Angus, adding that the solution is capable of delivering average year-on-year savings of up to 15 per cent when twinned with CEVA’s Operations Excellence programme.

“Visible performance management is how we ensure the effectiveness and consistency of our operations across the globe. Our operations excellence programme is based on the following building blocks: SMART, Zero Defect Start-Up

Visible performance management is how we ensure the effectiveness and consistency of our operations across the globe approach enables our engineers to customise supply chain solutions according to specific needs while applying proven best practice experience,” he explains.

To drive strategic advantage for customers through every link in the supply chain, CEVA has also launched its new End-To-End SMART Solution. This is a standardised, consistent and configurable process that delivers value at every stage, and when coupled with CEVA’s commitment to Operational Excellence, it provides rigorous management of global supply chains for both finished goods and production and spare parts.

Under this new solution CEVA is able to manage everything from components and inbound logistics, through to moving the finished product.

Several leading global customers in a variety of sectors are already implementing the End-to-

to deliver complete compliance at the start of a new project, measurable lean and performance management programmes, and health, safety and environmental targets. These all combine to drive us further towards a culture of operational excellence,” he adds.

With this sort of infrastructure in place, Angus is convinced that CEVA is ideally positioned to increase its footprint in the region through straightforward organic growth. “In those countries where we do not currently operate in our own right, we will definitely be looking to either establish new centres or possibly acquire established businesses which have synergy with our own values. However we proceed, this region is one of the most exciting prospects for CEVA,” he concludes. www.cevalogistics.com BE

Transport & Logistics 37

38 Transport & Logistics

Laser Logistics

Transport & Logistics 39

F

or most logistics companies operating in the retail sector, the economic downturn of the last few years has been more than a little challenging.

For Laser Logistics, this period has been one of transformation through an innovative twopronged development strategy. Moving to a more aggressive expansion strategy, the company has been working to diversify its service offering and customer base. But the real differentiator has been to create seamless access to the capabilities of all operating divisions within the Laser Group, which has resulted in a much wider service offering and stimulated growth across all three businesses.

Headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa, Laser Logistics operates in a competitive market, providing warehousing and distribution services primarily for the middle to higher end market clients in the retail sector. With a network of warehouses located in the main population hubs, including 15,000 square metres of warehousing in Cape Town, a new 20,000 square metre facility in Johannesburg and 2,500 square metres of space in Durban, and a fleet of more than 140 vehicles—65 of which are refrigerated—the company counts many well-known household names among its clients including Bosch, AEG, Electrolux Floor Care, Kelvinator, Siemens and County Fair Foods.

“I’ve been with the company for three years,” explains CEO Warren Hewitt, who has driven this remarkable change, “and when I first arrived it was noticeable that the industry

40 Transport & Logistics

Laser Logistics

Transport & Logistics 41

here in South Africa seemed ‘silo’ driven and was not leveraging off the specialised service offerings available. We quite quickly recognised a tremendous opportunity to cross-utilise the specialised services provided by the operating divisions within the Laser Group.”

The logic was impeccable. Most competitors in Laser’s marketplace were insular, dealing in specialised elements of logistics. “As a result, customers had to deal with four or five different companies to obtain the range of services they required. Our aim is to provide all of that in-house, with a single point of contact and administration, yet maintain fulfilment visibility by bringing together the capabilities of all our specialised divisions within the group. And if we don’t have

42 Transport & Logistics

the required capabilities within the group then we will develop a subcontract network that can be accessed through a seamless interface.”

Alongside Laser Logistics, the group includes two other well established operating businesses.

Express delivery and collection services company DPD Laser is by far the largest subsidiary in the group and accounts for some 70 per cent of group activity. This division represents a successful joint venture with La Poste (the French Post Office) utilising its leading European brand DPD, and incorporates two highly successful divisions that are already market leaders in their fields—Dawn Wing and Time Freight. The second subsidiary within the group is international freight clearing and forwarding company GAC Laser International,

Laser Logistics

We’re taking established best practice from within the group and incorporating it into all our divisions which is 50 per cent owned by the Dubai-based ships agency company, Gulf Agency Company Ltd. If these capabilities are combined, the group could offer anything from world-class parcel and courier delivery services through warehousing to import and export services.

“Integrating these services into a single offering has required substantial investments in IT across the group, and we have had complete group management backing for this,” says Hewitt.

The investment began with a new group-wide warehouse management system, which is now operational. To complement this, the high level

transport management system that had already been developed for Dawn Wing—South Africa’s second largest courier delivery service—is currently being rolled out across the group. “So rather than reinventing the wheel, we’re taking established best practice from within the group and incorporating it into all our divisions,” he explains.

“To complete the IT infrastructure we are currently implementing a high-powered ERP system across the group to overlay all the other IT applications,” he continues. “Once the system goes live in the middle of next year, customers will be able to drill down to any access point to

Transport & Logistics 43

Laser Logistics provide service visibility and manage their supply chain for themselves as though it was part of their own business.”

Each of the specialised divisions will continue to operate independently with full service accountability, but their services can now be accessed seamlessly by any of the others within the group. “To begin with, it was not easy to convince our sister companies of the opportunity this presents,” Hewitt says. “But as we’ve evolved the concept, the buy-in has become

Looking to the future, I certainly see significant opportunities for growth easier and easier. And as that happens we will get more financial participation and expansion opportunities from their sides as well.”

Strategically, Laser is spearheading a strong marketing drive not only to take the full outsourced logistics service to existing but also to potential customers. With a marketplace keen to improve efficiency and reduce costs, the concept is being well received, and has already resulted in major contract wins. Hewitt was initially cautious about the speed at which this would happen, as outsourcing contracts are built on trust— and relationship building at this level takes both time and dedication. However he expects Laser Logistics to play an increasingly important role in the success of the group going forward.

“Looking to the future, I certainly see significant opportunities for growth,” he comments. “In fact, we anticipate that within 12 to 24 months we will be, by a large margin, the biggest customer of our other divisions.”

To support this strategic expansion into full outsourced logistics, the company is up-skilling the workforce and bringing a higher level theoretical knowledge into the company through the recruitment of logistics graduates. As that knowledge flows through the organisation

he believes it will complement and boost the existing skills and experience. “For me, the key differentiator in terms of performance, customer service and reliability is our drivers and crew,” he says. “They’re working in a tough environment, seldom getting thanks for being on time yet always getting negative comments if they’re not. So we spend a considerable amount of time focusing on their wellbeing and development within the workplace. We are also doing a lot of ‘after-hours’ activities, to keep motivation levels high.”

The company also encourages buy-in and commitment from these customer-facing disciplines through initiatives such as a bottomup customer service programme which seeks out their opinions on customer service levels and incorporates their recommendations into the improvement process.

Now that Laser has established such a strong market offering, the next challenge will be to develop that service and maintain the differentiator. “And we are doing this by building strong customer relations, talking with customers, listening to what they need and developing our services to match these needs,” Hewitt concludes. www.laserlogistics.co.za BE

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46 Transport & Logistics

Southern Engineering Company Ltd & Alpha Logistics Services (EPZ) Ltd

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48 Transport & Logistics

E

Southern Engineering Company Ltd & Alpha Logistics Services (EPZ) Ltd

East Africa arguably contains the ‘tiger’ economies of Africa. Kenya has traditionally been in the regional driving seat with a developed economy based on agricultural exports; but recent oil and gas discoveries in Uganda, Tanzania and Sudan are starting to attract investment from every part of the world, while Tanzania’s mineral resources are finally being exploited efficiently.

However to realise this potential, these countries are having to upgrade their infrastructure, which returns the focus to Kenya, which has the advantage of well established roads, railways, power networks and ports. Mombasa has been a key harbour on the East African coast for centuries. It competes with the Port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania for traffic, and both ports are investing to overcome depth restrictions and delays. Work to deepen the berths at Mombasa has finally started; once the dredging work has been completed, Mombasa port will become a strategic harbour, the main route in and out of East Africa.

The port is being extended to include a new container quay and the navigable depth is being increased substantially by dredging the access channel. As a result of the work, larger vessels will be able to enter the port in the future, which will lead to an increase in container traffic.

Southern Engineering Company Ltd (SECO) and Alpha Logistics Services (EPZ) Ltd (ALSL) play a role in the marine support activities to the port and its contractors.

Occupying a strategic location in the Port of

Mombasa, SECO is a well established player in marine engineering and support services across the region. As the only sizeable shipbuilding company in East Africa is it also very important to the governments of Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya.

“Shipbuilding is SECO’s core activity,” says company spokesman Shivan Agravat. “However we do an enormous amount of maintenance work as well.” With a 160 metre long private berth and an engineering/ship yard covering approximately 40,400 square metres with 4,000 square metres of covered workshop space, it has serious capacity at the port to service its clients’ vessels.

Two floating dry docks provide these clients with a convenient and cost effective resource—they have a combined lifting capacity of 1,200 tonnes for vessels up to 60 metres in length.

Ferries, cargo carriers, bunkers, tugs, passenger boats and landing pontoons have become something of a speciality for the shipyard. “There’s a continuing demand for small passenger and car ferries on the rivers and lakes, and we have done a number of them for the Ugandan government,” says Agravat. “We build them here in Mombasa and transport them in modules, by road to rivers, lakes or wherever they are to be deployed, assembling them on site.”

Following the sinking of the ancient Greekbuilt ferry Spice Islander off Pemba earlier this year, safety in both design and construction has taken on a new importance for this ISO 9001:2008 certified company. However its bread

Transport & Logistics 49

Units 2&3, Greenhill Works Delaware Rd. Gunnislake Cornwall PL18 9AS U.K.

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SUNFIRE

SAFETY AND SUPPLIES LTD SAFETY IS OUR BUSINESS

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Sun Fire and Safety Supplies Ltd is a Mombasa Port based, Fire Safety and Contigency Services Company, offering services in Marine and Fire Equipment Servicing and Certification of Onboard Ships and Offshore Units.

We serve both the Private and Public Sector, Ships and Off shore Units, School, Hotels, Institutions and Hospitals.

Our range of Professional services are: Fire Equipment Sales and Service & Marine Company.

Contact us: Sun Fire and Safety Supplies Ltd, Liwatoni Road - Near Railway Godowns, P.O. BOX 94056 - KILINDINI 80107, Mombasa, Kenya.

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Southern Engineering Company Ltd & Alpha Logistics Services (EPZ) Ltd and butter work is in tugs, lighters, barges and other medium sized sea-doing vessels. “We are accredited to build military vessels as well as civil ones, and despite the downturn of recent years, demand for these medium sized craft from 100 to 150 metres has increased.” To accommodate this demand, SECO is building a brand new $2 million fabrication workshop in Mombasa Port.

Larger than the original facility, construction of the new workshop was commenced in January and will be completed before the end of 2011.

SECO has a specialised team of ship builders.

The ship building team handles all construction work with full compliance to health, safety and environmental regulations and it has good knowledge of the requirements for ocean-going vessels, says Agravat. “The shipyard has its own range of workshops including modern fabrication, machine, carpentry and electrical workshops.”

Since it is part of the Alpha Group, SECO can also call on the services of other companies in

Interfluid Hydraulics Ltd Established in 2001 by a team of experienced hydraulic engineers, Interfluid are bespoke manufacturers of marine, offshore & industrial hydraulic equipment.

Quality is the key to our success, both in service and product. With many years of experience in hydraulic design and manufacture we are preferred suppliers of hydraulic equipment to major players in the offshore, marine, agricultural and manufacturing industries.

Sun Fire and Safety Supplies Ltd Sun Fire is a Kenyan, Mombasa Port-based firm approved by various class surveyor bodies like LR, BV, GL and NKK to attend shipboard FFE & LSA equipment. Sun Fire also has an in-house engineering machining workshop fully equipped with lathe turning machines, heavy duty drilling, power saw cutting, heavy duty welding works and all other associated machining jobs.

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A leading referral hydraulic equipment solution provider in Africa • we servise hydraulic equipment cranes, forklifts e.t.c • manufacture hydraulic seals as per sample or measurements • repaire and manufacture heavy duty hydraulic hose pipes and • reseal and remanufacture new cylinders to customers specifications • all items are European sourced and come with service warrant accordingly Telefax: +254-41-2490636 Email: info@cesscolina.co.ke

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52 Transport & Logistics

the group involved in marine logistics, supply base services, offshore engineering, container terminal services, cold chain management, shipping and road logistics.

Ugandan Railway Corporation is also on the list of SECO’s contracts. Rehabilitation of the floating dock and marine wagon vessels is also being carried out in Port Bell. Completion of this work will provide landlocked Uganda with a faster logistics passage and the ease of using track and marine.

The Alpha Group has a 50-year history and its spread of operational expertise means that SECO with ALSL—the key companies in its marine and logistics division—can position itself as a one-stop-shop for clients in the region. As well as government and private clients, SECO and ALSL and the Alpha Group of Companies support the United Nations in many of its operations in East Africa, from Southern Sudan to Somalia. “The UN is an important customer,” he says. “All their operations require backup from a competent logistics partner, since

Southern Engineering Company Ltd & Alpha Logistics Services (EPZ) Ltd

We are accredited to build military vessels as well as civil ones most of the material they can’t bring in by air has to come through Mombasa.” The group is carrying out the bulk of the UN’s marine logistics requirements, its fabrication and construction work, and transporting its goods to destinations like Mogadishu.

ALSL, which has offices in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Somalia, DRC and Mozambique, as well as overseas support offices, offers various services including marine logistics, vessel charters, salvage, towage, civil engineering works, specialised supply base services and the provision of specialised container utility units right across East Africa. This has given the company a foothold in one of the largest infrastructure projects in Tanzania, where Canada’s Orca Exploration is investing $130 million (through PanAfrican Energy) to double natural gas output from the Songo Songo field following a surge in

demand in East Africa’s second largest economy.

Songo Songo is an offshore island located around 30 miles to the south of Dar es Salaam. As the oil and gas industry moves into East African waters, ALSL’s experience of offshore engineering work such as wellhead engineering, jetty construction and the fabrication and installation of specialised equipment on rigs and supply vessels will be in even greater demand, he believes.

ALSL plays a major part in marine support activities in the East Africa region. Mobilisation and planning is currently going on for the renewal of the single point mooring system for the Tanzania Ports Authority, which includes installing a new pipeline, trenching and dredging. Power cable laying between Zanzibar and mainland Dar es Salaam is also being carried out by ALSL in Tanzania. www.alphaafrica.com BE

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Gas goal and

It has already won the bid to h comes to liquefied natural gas Ras Laffan City has scored a h million tons of LNG production loading of six massive LNG tan

54 Transport & Logistics

Ras Laffan Port

ls

host the 2022 FIFA World Cup; and when it s (LNG), Qatar is the undisputed world leader. hat trick over the last year by achieving 77 n capacity, 5,000 LNG tanker calls, and the nkers at the same time Transport & Logistics 55

Ras Laffan Port

N

ow that the dust has settled and the losers licked their wounds, there is just one emotion predominating in Qatar—euphoria. Like the rest of the Arab world, Qatar is obsessed by football and when it won the bid to host the FIFA World Cup in 2022 (the first Arab nation to do so), the country didn’t sleep for days.

If any country in the world can afford to put on a great show it is Qatar, which has the highest GDP in the world, thanks to its oil and gas resources. It may have fewer than half a million citizens but that means mobilising its efforts to prepare for the event (in barely a decade’s time) will be easier than in a larger economy.

As a young state that gained independence as recently as 1971, it is still building its infrastructure and will simply have to compress its existing programme to be ready to welcome the world in 2022.

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Ras Laffan Port

It’s a tall order nevertheless, says the manager of Ras Laffan Port, Capt. Feisal Saad. As every scrap of raw material has to be imported, Qatar will rely heavily on the ports of Mesaieed and Doha in the south (the latter of which is being shifted to a new site to give it room for expansion), and Ras Laffan in the north. “Qatar already had a 20-year plan for its infrastructure, and that has now become a 10-year plan! A huge number of people will be coming in so we are going to have to have not only the buildings to accommodate them but water from desalination plants, energy from additional power stations and more roads. Every single person in the country is being asked to get involved in making the World Cup a success.”

While the new $7 billion Doha commercial port will not be ready until 2015, most of the work on Ras Laffan is now complete.

Established in 1996 under the national petroleum company Qatar Petroleum to handle the LNG from Qatar’s North Field, the port grew incredibly quickly once the Ras

SPIE OGS Qatar SPIE OGS Qatar has just commenced a second consecutive five-year contract to operate and maintain the Common Seawater Cooling Facility, serving all the industrial plants in Ras Laffan City.

Designed to 99.7 per cent reliability and 100 per cent availability, and capable of delivering 1,000,000M3/ hour of treated seawater through a network of 60plus kilometres of large diameter pipe, the system has been described as “unique”.

Laffan masterplan was implemented in 2006.

Now within 12 kilometre-long breakwaters it has specialised berths for every type of activity, and plenty of room for expansion with space for around 25 more berths in total. It already has six LNG berths (twice as many as its nearest competitor), six liquid product berths and six dry cargo berths. Two container berths are under construction and there are a further 13 berths reserved for offshore supply vessels.

Disruption in the world energy markets

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62 Transport & Logistics

Ras Laffan Port over the last year has if anything benefited Qatar.

The home of Al Jazeera satellite news station, the country is certainly a nerve centre but it is ahead of its neighbours in political reform and economically,

all the news is good. The LNG market has improved, Saad believes: Japan, one of the main customers for Qatari LNG, has needed more of it following the disastrous earthquake in March 2011 and consequent loss of some of its nuclear capacity. And in June the largest customer of all, the UK, received the first delivery under a new £2 billion deal with Centrica. Over three years, 7.2 million tonnes of supercooled gas will be brought by 266,000 cubic-metre Q-Max tankers into the Isle of Grain terminal in the Thames Estuary, reducing the UK’s dependency on North Sea resources.

Another bonus is that prices have firmed again after dropping early in 2010 when the US moved from being a net importer of LNG. “Qatari LNG has found a lot of customers to the east,” explains Saad. China, Thailand, India and Bangladesh are growing markets, and with increased demand from Japan and the knock-on effect of Germany’s decision to stall its nuclear programme, the prospects for what is the world’s cleanest fossil fuel are looking distinctly promising, he says.

Ras Laffan’s facilities are just about complete now. The new $2.2 billion dry dock and ship building facilities jointly being operated by Keppel Offshore & Marine Limited of Singapore and Damen Shipyard Group of the Netherlands with Qatar Gas Transport Company Ltd (Nakilat) were inaugurated in November 2010 by the Emir of Qatar HH Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. Since then it has handled more than 20 vessels including container ships, Nakilat’s Q-Max LNG tankers, and drilling rigs. “We were a little nervous at first as to how quickly the dry dock would attract work but it has been busy from the start,” says Saad. The yard has signed a three-year fleet servicing agreement with Shell International Trading and Shipping Company Limited for ship repair services and

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Ras Laffan Port has struck deals with a number of leading drilling and shipping companies to provide shipyard and dry dock services for their vessels.

Ras Laffan has been clocking up unassailable records. By the end of 2010 it had achieved its production goal of 77 million tonnes per annum of LNG. In February 2011 it witnessed a scene that Saad expects to become commonplace, when all six LNG berths were occupied. “It’s something you will never see anywhere else in the world. Only Qatar has Q-Max LNG vessels, and we have 14 of them.” The 345-metre long ships operate with something like 40 per cent lower energy requirements and carbon emissions than conventional LNG carriers, he adds.

May 2011 saw another major event—the arrival of the port’s 5,000th LNG vessel. “When you consider we have only been exporting for 14 or 15 years that

milestone was passed a lot quicker than we expected.” The milestones are going to come up even faster now that the port has hit the 77 million target—if that is sustained the 10,000th vessel will be clocked in well before the end of 2016. “We expect to average more than 1,000 ships a year going forward, handling 30 per cent of the world’s LNG traffic.”

The big outstanding project now is directed at the high end of the leisure market. A new facility will be added for building, outfitting and refurbishing superyachts. The US$60 million project details are currently being thrashed out; but the new yard will be in operation in plenty of time to use the World Cup as a marketing backdrop for luxury yachts. www.qp.com.qa BE

Transport & Logistics 65

Gateway to the

Levant

Located on the northernmost point of th port of international standards that is fa for all shipping lines wishing to move ca the whole of the Levant and Iraq. Jane

66 Transport & Logistics

Aqaba Container Terminal

y

& Iraq

he Red Sea, Aqaba Container Terminal is a ast becoming the docking place of choice argo not just through Jordan but through McCallion reports

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Aqaba Container Terminal

A

qaba Container Terminal (ACT) was founded in 2004 as part of a management contract between Aqaba Development Corporation (ADC) and APM Terminals Jordan. The concession agreement took place in September 2006 when a further 25-year joint development agreement was signed. Under the agreement, APM Terminals manages, operates and markets ACT and is responsible for the execution of the company’s ‘masterplan’. Over the past five years, the terminal has become a main liner facility, operating to international standards and playing a crucial role in the Jordanian economy.

In only five years, ACT has grown enormously. Whereas in 2006 its gantry crane productivity was seven to eight units per crane, per hour, that rate now stands at 30 moves/hour. The terminal has also evolved from a regional feeder port into one of the most important container ports in the region. As communications manager Ihab Alrawashdeh explains, much of its success can be attributed to the successful implementation of the masterplan.

“Phase one has already been completed, and has helped to establish us as a regional gateway for shipping lines. Phase two has

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Aqaba Container Terminal

been underway since 2009 and is due to be finished in 2013.� Phase two is itself divided into various projects and sub-phases, all of which are aimed at increasing the terminal’s capacity and capabilities.

By 2013, ACT will have completed an expansion project which will increase the total length of its berths from 540 metres to 1,000 metres. This will be delivered in four stages, starting with an initial 70 metre extension, followed by three 130 metre extensions. There is also building work being carried out to construct new offices at the terminal, including a new operations building and a new workshop.

As well as the expansion and refurbishment work going on, ACT is also constantly adding to its complement of heavy-duty equipment. Particular targets for investment are cranes, rubber-tyre

Transport & Logistics 71

gantries (RTGs) and a number of super postPanamax cranes. Alrawashdeh says that not only are these invaluable for the efficient running of the container terminal, but that they are also the biggest area of investment in new technology. “When it comes to new

72 Transport & Logistics

technology, at the end of the day we are a port and there are only so many places where we can be cutting-edge. However, when those opportunities arise, we seize them. Our most recent investment has been in six new RTGs which are not only as advanced as possible in terms of technical capabilities, but

Aqaba Container Terminal

they are also ‘eco-cranes’. This means that they emit much less CO2 than standard RTGs, but they still have very high productivity levels.” As a result of all these improvements, ACT’s capacity will increase from 850,000 TEUs per annum to 1.5 million.

The company is fortunate in that, while its efforts as

part of the joint venture and its commitment to Jordan ensure the terminal operates to the highest international standards, it has a number of supporting attributes that make it appealing to shipping lines. The location of the container terminal is convenient in more

Transport & Logistics 73

190 Middle East

Aqaba Container Terminal

ways than one: ACT is ideally situated to receive containers from most parts of the world that are destined for Jordan and the wider Middle East. It is connected on weekly services from Africa, Europe, the Far East and the Indian subcontinent with a number of the world’s top shipping lines.

The water surrounding the port is also naturally deep, meaning it can accommodate the larger vessels that are operated by shipping lines without having to make any special adaptations. This attribute also allows it to save money on dredging.

ACT is also well served as a transit hub: “We have excellent land transport connections for the rest of Jordan and into the Levant and Iraq, particularly in terms of road infrastructure,” says Alrawashdeh.

“We are also directly connected to the rest of the logistics support areas such as the airport, so it is easy to deliver sea freight there, or bring air freight here. This is coupled with our international standards of operations and productivity.”

In addition to its geographical and logistical advantages, the location of Aqaba in Jordan as a country is also a bonus. “Jordan is considered to be one of the most politically stable and most secure countries in the Middle East,” explains Alrawashdeh.

“Moving cargo through Jordan is very safe and this is, as you can imagine, one of the most important considerations for any client.” ACT further ensures that its clients’ goods are well looked after through the efforts of its own security team, the terminal being ISPS-certified. “We have highly trained security personnel on site 24 hours a day, seven days a week, most of whom are either former military or former police officers. These teams are backed up with full CCTV and security control patrols.”

The terminal also takes safety very seriously. “It is the other side of the coin to security and we have a full strategy for this,” says Alrawashdeh. “Safety is important not just because it ensures the wellbeing of our personnel and our clients’ personnel, but because it also ensures the efficient running of

MAG Engineering and Contracting Since its inception in 2006 ACT has collaborated extensively

with

MAG

Engineering

and

Contracting. Works have included the operations, administration and workshop buildings as well as the development of the existing yards to accommodate RTG cranes. Following up on development of the 540 metre berth completed in 2007, MAG is currently working with BAM International on a 460 metre expansion which is due for completion in 2013.

MAG anticipates that these projects will serve to enhance ACT’s exceptional track record and is proud to join forces with the company in serving Jordan and improving port service in the region.

the terminal.” Strategies include differently marked bays for trucks and for cranes so as to avoid any accidents in the first place.

However, in case of emergency, ACT also has fire trucks and ambulances on site, all of which make it one of the safest container ports anywhere.

Alrawashdeh’s vision of the future for ACT is, as you would expect, closely linked to the vision of the commercial strategy, including the increase in capacity, the investment in new machinery and expansion of the site itself. While the immediate goal is to make it more flexible and efficient to existing clients, he also has a broader view of its place in the region. “Our final aim is for ACT to be a key transit hub for the Levant, especially Iraq,” he says. “This means that we are looking to double our total throughput and plans are already in place to achieve that. With our masterplan and commercial strategy, I believe that this is something we will achieve within the next five years.” www.act.com.jo BE

Transport & Logistics 75

Promot

gro

Israel’s Haifa Port is just about to make its Mendi Moscovitsh explains to Gay Sutton ho system will relieve congestion and markedly 76 Transport & Logistics

Haifa Port

ting

owth

new Carmel Container Terminal fully operational. ow the new terminal and new port management y increase productivity Transport & Logistics 77

Haifa Port

T

he sea is a major logistics lifeline for the state of Israel, lying as the country does on the east coast of the Mediterranean. And its busiest container port, the port of Haifa, has an illustrious past stretching back to Roman times. Located in a sheltered position at the north end of the country, Haifa handles some 50 per cent of all the nation’s imports and exports, while its main competitor, the Port of Ashdod, handles 43 per cent. Meanwhile the small port of Eilat located at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba accounts for just five per cent. The only private sea port in Israel, the Israel Shipyards Port operates nearby and accounts for the remaining sea traffic.

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216 Middle East

Haifa Port Competition is fierce, though. “We occupy a good position with regard to the east Mediterranean trade.

Our productivity is equal to that of the main ports of Europe. We have deep water quays and highly skilled workers,” explains head of Operational Development, Mendi Moscovitsh. “The only disadvantage we have is that we are located in the north of Israel while Ashdod is located in the centre where most of the commerce is done. Therefore we have to be much more productive than Ashdod in order to compete.”

To address this issue and maintain its position as Israel’s leading port, Haifa has been going through a significant period of expansion and development.

The long awaited new container terminal is now fully operational and a new container terminals IT management system has come online. Between them, these two improvements will dramatically increase the port’s operational efficiency and more than double its throughput capacity.

The new terminal is aptly named Carmel Container Terminal, after the mountain that shelters the city and port. It has two quaysides, the primary being 700 metres in length and the secondary measuring 250 metres, while the water alongside both is 15.5 metres deep. The aim is to operate at a productivity rate of 100 containers per crane hour or per ship hour, and to offer clients specific time windows for berthing.

The quays are equipped with six ship-to-shore cranes capable of serving the largest and most modern container ships. A new storage area has been built for the terminal, capable of storing 20,000 container TEUs at a time. The storage areas, meanwhile, are equipped with 12 rail mounted gantries.

Plans to develop the port date back to 1995, but it took more than 10 years simply to settle all the legal issues and obtain the necessary environmental and building permits—by which time congestion had become a feature of port life. The scope of the plans also evolved considerably over that time. “Originally we had planned to reclaim some 600 dunams [600,000 square metres] of land from the sea, but the first phase of expansion began in 2005 with the reclamation of about 250 dunams [250,000 square

Konecranes Israel Port Authority’s new Carmel container terminal positions the company’s Haifa Port as one of the most advanced in the world. Super Post-Panamax container ships can now dock at Carmel’s two quaysides, increasing throughput by up to one million TEUs annually. Carmel will have advanced container handling equipment including 12 Konecranes RMGs for the terminal’s container storage yard. The RMGs will stack 11 containers wide and five containers high. Konecranes has already delivered three RMGs to Ashdod Port and four RMGs to Haifa Port in 1995, and 24 RTGs to Ashdod Port in 2004.

metres] of land. Infrastructure construction work was completed by mid-2009 and cost around €200 million. And then we began building the cranes,” says Moscovitsh.

The original plan specified rubber-tyred gantry cranes (RTGs) to operate in the storage area. “We changed that specification to rail mounted gantries [RMGs] and this enables us to store 30 per cent more containers in the same area,” Moscovitsh explains. “The RMGs are also electric instead of diesel, therefore producing zero pollution; and they consume power only when in operation.”

The quay cranes and yard gantries are highly sophisticated pieces of kit. “Each crane is like a new baby. Each is different, and the computer inside each is like a small factory. They cost more than $10 million apiece, and had we not bought them during the recession the cost would have been much higher.” The work of constructing these cranes is therefore long and complex.

Those on the quayside are finished and have become gradually operational since October 2010, while the final two storage area cranes will become fully operational this year.

In addition to the new terminal, the Haifa

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Haifa Port

Port Company has made a significant investment in the very latest state-of-the-art container terminal management software. “We’ve chosen the Navis SPARCS N4 system, which is the Microsoft of the marine container terminals world. It will enable us to manage all our container terminals from the gate to the ship, including the storage area, container movements, ship loading and sailing away.”

The road to this selection, however, came via failed implementation of a competing product, and this taught the company a considerable amount about container terminals operating system software implementation. “We began gradually implementing the new system on 21 October 2010 and slowly handed over from the old system to the new one.

The two ran together for a while, each responsible for 50 per cent of the port throughput,” he explains.

“By doing it in this way we could constantly check

ourselves and correct mistakes. And more importantly, we had time to educate all the marine communities in using the system, including staff working for the customs agencies, shipping and trucking companies.

We did not need to slow down our operations as we did it.”

The port company has also replaced all its yard tractors with new ones, which have a smaller environmental footprint than the models they supplant. “We looked at hybrid technology but it’s new and still has problems, so we will be switching to hybrids for the next generation of yard tractors.”

With the terminal fully operational, the focus of attention turned to increasing trade and throughput to utilise some of this new capacity and achieve a return on investment.

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Our productivity is equal to that of the main ports of Europe. We have deep water quays and highly skilled workers

84 Transport & Logistics

Haifa Port The challenges do not stop there, though. Two interesting issues are fast appearing on the horizon.

Firstly the Israeli government intends to privatise its three ports. “The first stage will probably take place this year, when the government plans to sell 15 per cent of the main ports’ Haifa and Ashdod governmental port holdings on the stock market,” Moscovitsh says. A year later a further 34 per cent will be sold to institutional investors, and then by 2020 the remaining 51 per cent will be sold.

This process may be delayed, though. An area of the port that currently handles containers’ break bulk and bulk materials has been designated in the National Outline Scheme as waterfront—in other words suitable for hotels, dwellings and mixed building. And the area is scheduled to be handed over to the city in July 2012. “However, this will not become waterfront until we have developed facilities to take over the operations handled by this part of the port,” Moscovitsh says. So there are interesting times ahead for Haifa Port, battles to be fought and decisions to make. One thing that is certain, though, is that the investments made over the past five years will play a significant role in promoting continued growth and maintaining Haifa’s position as Israel’s premier port. www.haifaport.co.il BE

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f

Ambitious

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Flinders ten port activity, in the ne explains

86 Transport & Logistics

Flinders Ports

for

owth

s Ports operates seven of South Australia’s ts, and with the recent boom in mining , has ambitious plans to treble its capacity ext few years, as CEO Vincent Tremaine s to Jane Bordenave

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F

linders Ports is the largest private port operator in South Australia, controlling seven of the state’s ten privately operated ports. It was founded as a consortium in 2001 and won the right to run the ports of Adelaide, Port Lincoln, Port Pirie, Thevenard, Wallaroo, Port Giles and Klein Point for 99 years in November 2001. The ports handle a wide range of cargo, making the company one of the most diverse in the country. Running the company is CEO Vincent Tremaine, who joined in January 2002.

Across all its ports, the business handles approximately 18 million tonnes of bulk cargo per year and in excess of 600,000 tonnes of break bulk. The products are diverse, ranging from grain to metal ores to fully manufactured cars and it is this diversity that has defined Flinders Ports as an organisation. “Although we’re a state-based operation, we compete at a national level,” explains Tremaine. “While in theory we have local competition in the form of the three other local cargo ports, in practice our main rival is actually Darwin, in the North for bulk and Melbourne for containers.”

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Flinders Ports

Flinders Ports The reasons for this are simple: the three remaining ports are either small in comparison to those run by Flinders and particularly in comparison to Adelaide, or they are run mainly or exclusively to move the cargo of the organisation that owns them. “One of the ports is owned and run by the oil and gas company Santos Ltd and it deals exclusively with transportation of their liquid bulk cargo. Another is owned by One Steel and deals solely with its iron ore exports. So you can see that we are the only business in South Australia offering full spectrum capabilities to virtually all industries wishing to transport their goods by sea.”

In order to compete at this level, Flinders Ports has had to be proactive in every aspect of business.

“One of the key differentiators between us and our competition is our knowledge of the transport chain from mine or farm right to the wharf, or vice versa,” says Tremaine. “We are taking more and more interest

in this and have recently added a logistics division to our organisation. This allows us to go out and talk directly to the miners and the farmers or anyone who may wish to use our facilities and discuss with them

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how best to move their cargo.” This expertise allows the company to approach potential clients and offer them advice and assistance that many others in this field cannot.

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94 Transport & Logistics

Flinders Ports This is particularly useful not just when talking to organisations based in South Australia, but also those in the middle of the country. “Australia is a big country and South Australia is a big state. We have a fairly low population, but there are a lot of cargoproducing businesses throughout, particularly arable farming and mining. Because of its size, those in the north of the state, i.e. the centre of the country, really have the choice of where they want to take their business, as the distance to any of the major ports, including Adelaide, is to all intents and purposes the same. This also applies to potential customers who may fall outside of state boundaries, but are in the same situation in terms of distance from our ports and those of our competitors.� Therefore an intimate knowledge of and ability to advise on

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Transport & Logistics 95

Flinders Ports

goods transportation by both road and rail is a vital tool in the pursuit of new business.

When it comes to business opportunities, for cargo ports, South Australia really is the place to be. “We are on the brink of a major mining boom,” says Tremaine.

“There are approximately 10 billion tonnes of iron ore deposits here that we know of and there could be anywhere up to ten times that amount in total lying under the South Australian soil. So we are currently in talks with 10 different mines in different stages of development and trying to work out how we can help them to get their cargo out of the state and to their customers.”

This presents Flinders Ports with a huge opportunity for growth, but it also brings its own challenges – namely having the capacity to be able to facilitate this export. “We are already exporting a small amount of iron ore for one customer but if we want this side of our business to expand, we have to increase our capabilities.” The main project currently under way is the development of an iron ore export facility at Port Bonython. “There are geotechnical, environmental and demand studies either underway or about to commence, but our plan is to construct a 3km long jetty going out to 20m depth of water. It will have a 25 million tonne capacity, with a conveyer that will be able to carry 4,000 tonnes of cargo per hour, as well as storage.” The project represents an AU$700 million investment and Tremaine hopes that it will be

up and running by the end of 2015.

The future of Flinders Ports can be summed up in one word: growth. “There are a lot of mineral deposits in South Australia in addition to iron ore and in the last two years we have started handling the export of mineral sands through our ports, as well as zinc. We are also about to begin handling copper too. Virtually all of this mining activity has begun in the last two years and I have no doubt that growth in that sector will continue.” As a result of this, Flinders Ports is hoping to double its size. “We have AU$12 million infrastructure investment plan in place for Adelaide and we are going to purchase our own crane to enable us to better handle copper concentrate export. So in 2015, by the time Port Bonython comes online, we will have trebled our total capacity from 16 million tonnes to 50 million, and increased our revenue by 100 per cent.”

With the knowledge, expertise and confidence shown by Flinders Ports, it’s easy to forget the company is only 10 years old.

However by using these assets and offering customers real value added, you can be sure that it will be serving the South Australian import and export markets for many decades to come. www.flindersports.com.au BE

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98 Transport & Logistics

Colombo Dockyard

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Colombo Dockyard

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ri Lanka has fantastic advantages of geography. It commands the west and east coasts of its teeming neighbour India: sea traffic round the Indian subcontinent has to skirt its southern tip, as does the long haul bulk cargo, tanker and container traffic that plies between east and west. That gives Colombo, Sri Lanka’s commercial capital, a strategic advantage that can’t be taken away; but in recent years there has been a falling away in demand for the facilities at the port, and in particular Colombo Dockyard, despite its considerable expertise and excellent facilities.

It’s no secret that until recently Sri Lanka had been racked by internal strife for nearly 30 years. The conflict made shipowners wary of entering service arrangements with the dockyard as insurance premiums were raised, says Mangala P B Yapa, CEO and managing director of Colombo Dockyard.

That conflict was comprehensively resolved a couple of years ago, and the way finally laid open for Colombo to take its rightful place in the maritime service industry. “Sri Lanka is now one of the freest and least troublesome areas in the world to carry out ship repairs,” he claims.

The Colombo Dockyard Company is 35 years old, which means that it has operated for most of its life under war conditions—but it has still managed to grow consistently through that time, says Yapa. “That proves the operational efficiency, good management and competence of all the people involved. If they are given the opportunity to perform in a free environment following the war you can just imagine what we can achieve!” The fact that a controlling share in the business belongs to Onomichi Dockyard Company of Japan

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is another help, he adds. “We have a peopleoriented environment, and operate Japanese principles like kaizen. But we are not trying to recreate what Japan has done so much as to learn from them and work out what we can do in Sri Lanka with similar thinking.”

Colombo Dockyard employs 1,300 people, supplementing them with contracted labour as needed. Of these, 500 have been trained in shipbuilding at Onomichi—shipbuilding is an important activity at the dock, though until 2005 it built only for the local market.

“In 2005 we decided to take advantage of the boom in shipbuilding and go out to external markets. Now we have the capacity to build vessels of 100 metres and more in length. We can deliver four vessels a year and we are working to increase that to six.”

In October 2010 the dockyard delivered the second of two passenger/freight vessels for the Indian government. And last year it also started work on the first of two 68 metre anchor handling tug supply vessels for Samoa. Highly technical and specialised ships like these are increasingly required in support of oilfield operations, and they can now be ordered with confidence and at a very competitive price compared with dockyards in other parts of the world, he says. “We have built nearly 10 vessels since we started in 2005, including two passenger vessels, four anchor handling tug cum supply vessels, two multipurpose supply vessels and two ROV platform support vessels.”

The dockyard is also to deliver two high powered anchor handling tug cum supply vessels with 150T bollard pull capacity to Singapore owners, while three more improved versions of ROV/platform support vessels with oil recovery facilities—an improved version of the ‘R’ class that the dockyard has already built and delivered—are being constructed.

Colombo has four dry docks ranging

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from 107 to 263 metres in length; however, much of the traffic to Colombo these days is made up of container ships. These ships normally dry dock at their destination ports either in Europe or the Far East, says Yapa. “Colombo is not a terminal port, so they put in here either laden or half full. But we recently launched our Afloat Repair unit to provide all the engine room, electrical and electronic, piping and deck work—anything at all for which you don’t need a dry dock.”

These container vessels call at Colombo every two weeks or so, he continues. “We can have components waiting and install them at the next visit. We can even put repair personnel on board so the repairs can be carried out while the vessel is on the way to its next port of call. The advantage is that we have a duty free facility so all these things happen without attracting any custom duty, and that includes spare parts. An owner who has a fleet of container vessels plying to Colombo can keep his spare parts stored at Colombo Dockyard without paying any custom duty.”

The dockyard is in partnership with OEM service providers: for example, Wärtsilä has its own service company in Colombo which is mainly catering for the power generation sector. Caterpillar has its own service agency, as do MAN B&W, ABB, Cummins, Hydrex and Yanmar. For example, if a ship’s Wärtsilä turbocharger requires balancing the dockyard will remove it from the ship, send it to the Wärtsilä factory where it will be tuned and balanced then re-install it.

“The Wärtsilä guy will come and commission it, and the ship can depart with minimum delay.”

No longer a risky place to carry out such repairs, Colombo is now seen as a better bet than rival yards in the Middle East, which following the unrest of recent months might now be perceived as being less stable than Sri Lanka—or indeed Singapore, which is becoming very expensive and is having skills problems. Most of the work done in the Singapore yards is carried out by contract labour, often underpaid in defiance of Singapore’s strict labour regulations.

Quality has been seen to suffer as a result, he says.

Colombo Dockyard

Sri Lanka is now one of the freest and least troublesome areas in the world to carry out ship repairs

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Colombo Dockyard Circumstances have come together to provide a real opportunity for Colombo, Yapa concludes. “Being a developing economy means our labour and management costs will be lower than either Europe or the Far East. We have competent, directly employed people who can go on board and do the job but it is not just a question of manpower. We have a sophisticated IT system; our dockyard systems are ISO certified so we can offer a fully integrated stock management system so the owners will see how their stock is moving; and we can come to long term service agreements so there is no need for a superintendent on location constantly negotiating each job.�

The odyssey of excellence continues... www.cdl.lk BE

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Greatship (India) Limited

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108 October 2011

Greatship (India) Limited

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s ubsidiary of the Great Eastern Shipping Company Limited, Greatship (India) Limited (GIL) commenced operations in 2006 and has quickly achieved a position as a leading offshore service provider to operators in the energy exploration and production business.

The company operates a fleet of jack-up rigs and marine offshore support vessels including subsea activities, which provide support to the offshore oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) activities of its clients.

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Chase Resource is a Supply Chain and Fulfilment Company based out of Singapore and Houston servicing Global Oil & Gas (O & G) Companies.

Chase Resource has been working with leading Shipyards and Drilling Contractors in their new built programs and also supporting their existing operations in terms of equipments and essential spares. The company operates a 24 x 7 help desk to service and support O & G clients.

Along with Tube-Mac Industries (www. tube-mac.com), Chase Resource has been promoting NON-WELD Piping Technology used extensively in the Petrochemicals and Offshore Industry. NON-WELD Piping is fundamentally a clean system used mainly on Hydraulic piping that is used in conjunction with equipments.

The key benefits apart from being a clean and reliable system, it saves a lot of man-hours leading to substantial savings during installations.

Tube-Mac Industries is a leader in NON-WELD Technology and able to provide design, engineering, and complete turn-key installation services out of Chase Resource’s fabrication facility in Singapore.

Chase Resource Management compliments Greatship Global on the rapid strides it has taken to expand it’s Offshore business and on the Safety standards adopted.

Chase Resource Management Pte. Ltd. 33 UBI Avenue 3 #08-54, Vertex. Singapore 408868

Tel: +65 6324 5033 Fax: +65 6324 5034 Email: info@chaseresource.com

www.chaseresource.com

Greatship (India) Limited Headquartered in Mumbai, India, Greatship Group is headed by chairman Bharat K Sheth and managing director Ravi K Sheth, who together have three decades of experience in the shipping industry. Currently, a substantial part of the Group operations work takes place offshore India, and also in South East Asia where the oil industry is booming, fuelled by a supportive government and growing domestic demand on the part of an energy-hungry population. The farsightedness of the management to only acquire technologically superior assets with the highest priority for safety and environmental protection has resulted in the Greatship Group being a partner of choice for providing services in offshore E&P activities.

GIL intends to use its domestic success as a springboard to achieve a much bigger impact on the global stage. The company has already established a network of offices that take in Australia and Singapore with an operational reach that has extended to projects in South East Asia, Mexico, South Africa, the North Sea, Brazil and the Middle East.

GIL separates its business into three distinct business verticals: Drilling Services, Offshore Logistics and Subsea Solutions, which can be used singly or as an integrated package. The quality of the overall service offering is illustrated by the high level of accreditation achieved: GIL holds the ISO 9001:2008, ISO14001:2004 and OHSAS 18001:2007.

“With our young and technologically advanced, state-of–the-art fleet, we are confident of making great strides in the Indian and global marketplace,” reiterates Rajiv Saxena, GIL’s associate vice president (Marketing).

Drilling services are provided by GIL or through its wholly owned subsidiary, Greatship Global Energy Services (GGES), which was incorporated in 2006.

GGES owns two modern K-FELS Mod V B 350 foot IC jack-up rigs. Both of these rigs—Greatdrill Chetna and Greatdrill Chitra—which were delivered in 2009, are state-of-the-art cyber based rigs, built to incorporate the very latest drilling technology, equipment and systems. They are suitable for

Chase Resource Management Chase Resource Management, based out of Singapore and Houston, is a supply chain and fulfilment company providing 24 x 7 service and support to oil & gas (O&G) clients, mainly operators and drilling contractors. Out of our Singapore and Houston facilities, we are able to provide supply chain solutions that meet the demanding requirements of our clients worldwide. Chase Resource adopts ‘quick to reach’ and ‘track fast’ solutions to have critical equipments and essential spares reach the ‘backto-front’ operations of oil & gas customers. Chase Resource is managed by skilled professionals from the oil & gas industry with vast years of experience in operations in O&G fields.

deployment in 350 foot water depth, equipped with 15000 PSI BOP stack and are capable of drilling HPHT wells up to drilling depths of 30,000 feet in most parts of the world.

Continuing with its expansion plan, Greatship will take delivery of its third state-of-the-art 350 foot IC jack-up rig of Letourneau Super 116 E design, which is currently under construction with Lamprell Energy and due for delivery in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Offshore logistics services are provided by a fleet of modern vessels which incorporate the best technology to be found anywhere in the world. This is a key facet of GIL’s strategy to achieve pre-eminence in the sector.

Leveraging technology as a competitive advantage begins with the procurement of quality vessels and equipment; and GIL has sought out the best shipbuilding yards in the world as partners in its supply chain.

GIL and its subsidiaries currently own and operate four PSVs, seven AHTSVs, three MPSSVs and three ROVSVs. A further seven vessels are awaiting delivery to ensure that the fleet remains at the cutting edge of the

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industry. A young fleet which is maintained in pristine condition is a pre-requisite for GIL to achieve its mission to be the ‘Partner of Choice’. Over the next 18 months, the company will take possession of two MSVs built in India, three ROVSVs from Sri Lanka and two 150 TBP AHTSVs from Singapore.

Built in Norway, Indonesia, Singapore, India and Sri Lanka, all vessels are constructed to the highest standards of safety and performance and conform to all IMO regulations. These vessels perform in some of the harshest operating environments in the world and they play a critical role in operational safety and the effective functioning of exploration and production projects. The Greatship Group has the distinction of owning one of the youngest fleet in India and South Asia.

Vessels are tasked with transporting a wide range of materials and equipment, as well as personnel to and from offshore oil and gas installations. Some of the vessels also feature anchor handling and towing capabilities and are used in transportation, relocation and positioning of offshore drilling rigs.

Vessels used in this area of work include the UT755 designed platform support vessels which have deck space of more than 600 square metres, along with highly flexible positioning and fire fighting capabilities which add to the versatility of the vessels.

The anchor handling tug supply vessels include the MOSS 501 and KCM/Q441 (D) design, which features an 80 ton bollard pull as well as Conan-Wu designed vessels with a 150 ton bollard pull. With a deck space ranging from 400 to 600 square metres, these DP II, FiFi I anchor handlers have the

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flexibility to also provide supply services, which is a significant value add to clients. Similarly, the underconstruction 150 ton bollard pull AHTSV will be capable of performing offshore construction activities such as piling, trenching and well abandonment.

Earlier this year, GIL took possession of Greatship Rashi, a platform/ROV support vessel, from Colombo Dockyard, Sri Lanka. The vessel has been specially fitted out for supporting two work class ROVs. It has a 35 ton deep sea winch and A-frame and a 10 ton offshore crane; and has been built according to the new SPS Code 2008 along with the Environmental Protection and Crew Comfort notations of Lloyd’s Register of Shipping.

Greatship Subsea Solutions Singapore Pte Limited (GSS) and Greatship Subsea Solutions Australia Pty Limited (GSA) are more recent subsidiaries which were created in 2010 to provide a truly integrated service offering. GSS and GSA focus on providing innovative, fit-for-purpose, cost-effective subsea solutions. The companies aim to carry out life-of-field subsea support tasks including construction and decommissioning support, IMR, and geotechnical, geophysical and well construction services.

Along with ROVs, survey equipment and subsea engineering, the companies also have access to a fleet of DP2 multi-role subsea support vessels.

GIL believes that technologically superior assets which would cater to current as well as future oil and gas markets with a focus on safety and quality of services would be the winning combination. The last three years have seen a three-fold increase in the Group’s turnover which is testament to Greatship’s performance—and the industry seems to agree. Now, the ongoing pressure on energy supplies across the world and the demand for quality service providers can only further increase Greatship’s market share. www.greatshipglobal.com BE

Greatship (India) Limited

An upwar

trajec

In less than five years, IMPERIAL Air Cargo has share in overnight express airfreight services in 114 Transport & Logistics

IMPERIAL Air Cargo

rd

ctory

captured around 50 per cent of the market n South Africa. Ben Sansom reports

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IMPERIAL Air Cargo

IMPERIAL

Air Cargo is a specialist in overnight express airfreight services within South Africa, and operates as part of the Integrated Services division of IMPERIAL Logistics, alongside other companies such as e-Logics, IMPERIAL Security Services, Megafreight, Paltrack, Pragma, Volition and IMPERIAL On-line.

The history of IMPERIAL Air Cargo says a great deal about the changing market landscape in South Africa, and the ability of companies in the private sector to take on the large governmentrun institutions, competing in the same space. More than that, IMPERIAL Air Cargo has developed a thriving business exploiting opportunities in this expanding marketplace.

All of this has been achieved in a remarkably short period of time. The company was launched less than five years ago as a joint venture between IMPERIAL Holdings—the parent company of IMPERIAL Logistics—and Comair, which operates the local and regional services for British Airways in South Africa, as well as a low-cost airline, Kulula.com. IMPERIAL holds a 70 per cent interest in the venture and Comair owns the remaining 30 per cent.

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IMPERIAL Air Cargo

Perhaps the most interesting factor of the joint venture is that it was originally launched as a project to test the feasibility of competing in the regional air cargo market sector against the cargo division of the national air carrier South African Airways.

The company began operating in August 2006 and the experiment has proved very successful. In just under five years, IMPERIAL Air Cargo has cornered an approximate 50 per cent share of the internal South African overnight air cargo market. Moreover, it has made this impressive achievement against a backdrop of global economic recession, with shrinking markets and associated risks.

When operations began in 2006, however, the domestic market was expanding rapidly, growing at a rate of 10 per cent per annum.

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IMPERIAL Air Cargo The strategy was to operate scheduled overnight domestic services between the major regional airports with an initial targeted market share of 25 per cent and growing this to a 45 per cent share of this market segment.

IMPERIAL Air Cargo’s business model was to outsource all the warehousing, cargo handling and other activities to trusted subcontractors, and to lease the aircraft and crews that would operate the service. Over the intervening years, IMPERIAL Air Cargo has established a reputation for quality service, reliability and attention to detail.

“IMPERIAL Air Cargo management team and staff have a strong focus on being involved, having transparent communication and client relationships and operational excellence as key drivers,” says Muriel Sahd, MD of IMPERIAL Air Cargo. Today, it operates as a dedicated freighter service provider into the domestic and regional cargo markets. The company works from a head office in Kempton Park, Johannesburg, and has six branches across South Africa, located at the airports of Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth and at two road feeder destination warehouses located in East London and George.

By 2009, however, the business had grown to such an extent that a strategic decision was made to bring all the warehousing, administration and cargo handling under the control of the company.

Today, IMPERIAL Air Cargo employs some 68 staff across its branches and headquarters, and has implemented a series of internal processes by which it is able to provide reliable, cost effective and flexible overnight air freight solutions. Dedicated well-trained staff, empowered to make decisions, are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to answer questions, provide information and fulfil service requirements.

The company currently operates via a leased air fleet of three aircraft consisting of a B737-300F, along with a B737-200 and a B727-200. The B737-200 can typically carry up to seven pallets or containers on its main deck which has a capacity of 2,760 cubic feet, in addition

to which the lower forward compartment has a capacity of 370 cubic feet. The low aft compartment has a capacity of 1,505 cubic feet. Meanwhile, the B727-200 can carry up to 12 pallets on its main deck, which equates to a capacity of 6,357 cubic feet. Its lower forward compartment can house a load of 710 cubic feet and the lower aft compartment 815 cubic feet.

In common with its parent company, and with many others operating in South Africa, IMPERIAL Air Cargo believes that its future success and sustainability are interlinked with promoting the goals of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE). Made fully operational in 2008, the scheme was instigated by the South African government in 2004 and designed specifically to distribute wealth across as broad a spectrum of South African society as possible.

In November 2009 the B-BBEE certification agency—NERA, or the National Empowerment Rating Agency—verified IMPERIAL Air Cargo and the other companies within IMPERIAL Logistics as Status Four Contributors, in a ranking that has eight levels, the highest being level one. The company also scored very well in other areas, and qualified as a value-adding supplier with an enhanced procurement recognition level of 125 per cent.

Now that the business is well established, IMPERIAL Air Cargo has set its sights on giving back to the local communities. In March 2011 it launched a series of corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes in the cities of Johannesburg, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban. “We apply a hands-on approach to nurture sustainable community development,” the company said. Staff are expected to embrace a strong self-development focus, by undertaking projects that make a difference in the lives of local communities, whether that is education in nature, or providing food and warm clothes for the winter months.

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IMPERIAL Air Cargo Among the most recent beneficiaries of the scheme are the Tsoaranang Children’s Home in Finetown, Johannesburg which has received new shoes, warm jackets and food for its orphans. Other projects include the Eludini Home for the disabled in Danoon, Capetown, the Casa Caritas Home for the disabled in Johannesburg, Ethelbert Children’s Home in Durban and Emmanual Haven Pre-Primary in Port Elizabeth. All of these beneficiaries have received items and equipment that they have identified as a requirement to make a change in their day-to-day lives.

IMPERIAL Air Cargo has achieved a great deal in less than five years in operation, “Going forward, we will focus on expanding our service offering to our customers in terms of more value added services, as well as new services,” says Sahd. And with the global economic situation improving rapidly, the future certainly looks very bright. www.impair.co.za BE

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Flying

Steve Hartley, executive director of private av Group, talks to Jayne Alverca about the comp asset value and the flight experience in the M 124 Transport & Logistics

Empire Aviation Group

ghigh

viation specialist Empire Aviation pany’s approach to maximizing Middle East and beyond Transport & Logistics 125

Empire Aviation Group

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ased in Dubai, Empire Aviation Group stands apart as the operator and manager of the Middle East’s largest fleet of corporate and private jets. As well as aircraft sales, the company provides aircraft charter and management services with a focus on high quality luxury and corporate travel throughout the Middle East and the rest of the world.

Executive director Steve Hartley is very clear about the company’s mission.

“The purchase of an aircraft, whether for private or corporate purposes, represents a very significant investment. Our entire operation is geared towards managing and maximizing the value of that asset on behalf of our clients in the most professional and efficient way possible,” he states.

Managing the aircraft asset properly ensures that its value is protected, leveraged and maintained during the years of ownership. “Historically, aircraft have either maintained their original purchase price or in some cases even appreciated in value but without the effective management we provide, this would not be the case. We can also help customers to charter their aircraft and so offset some of the costs of ownership,” he explains.

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Empire Aviation Group

For this reason, he is clear that despite Empire Aviation’s wealth of experience, owning as opposed to operating and managing a fleet could never be an option. “If we had our own aircraft we would inevitably be competing with our customers as charter requests would naturally be directed to our own aircraft first,” he adds.

“For similar reasons we do not offer a direct maintenance service, although we do have an extremely skilled division of maintenance engineers who measure cost against quality control and oversee all maintenance contracts. If we were to offer that service directly, customers could never be certain that they were getting value for money whereas with our third party arrangement, they know we will search out the best supplier. As it stands we can use our expertise to save our customers a great deal of money. For example, Jet Aviation is a preferred supplier, but for the benefit of owners, we also work with a number of other maintenance

providers and we regularly put maintenance contracts out to tender.”

Hartley sees the company’s reputation for fairness and sound business ethics as the cornerstone of its success. “Something that sets us apart in this business is that we operate a completely transparent cost structure. Of course, we exist to make a profit, but it has to be a fair profit and we are very happy for all our customers to have access to this information. Transparency is critical to us. Our aim is to create a win-win situation for everyone, but it is imperative that our customers understand we will always treat them fairly.”

All aircraft meet the extensive safety, training, and inspection requirements required by the General Civil Aviation Authority of the United Arab Emirates, but this is merely a starting point. The Empire Aviation business model

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Empire Aviation Group

stresses providing customers with an unsurpassed travel experience, whether it be in terms of security, comfort, flight personnel or catering.

Pilots and crew undergo a rigorous recruitment process—all training is directly supervised by Empire Aviation—and no detail is spared in the search for an incomparable service proposition. For example, an agreement has just been signed to become the first operator in the Middle East of the Vigiplane security system—a completely new concept in aircraft security. The system comprises five day and night cameras in a special composite sealed container which provides high quality pictures and infrared projectors. It is unique, because it is completely independent from the aircraft’s own systems and thus requires no special aircraft certification.

Another agreement that breaks new ground has been reached with global catering services provider Private Flight Global to restructure the catering management operations for the entire fleet.

A specially customized version of Private Flight’s online system enables flight personnel to offer the highest level of personalized service with the flexibility to create tailored menus, track customer preferences and ensure a faster response to VIP requests. As well as enhancing the customer experience, the partnership will give Empire Aviation better oversight and control of the catering function, greater cost efficiency and more streamlined administration.

For customers whose requirements centre predominantly on pleasure, the luxury travel division of the company takes the service proposition even further. Empire Aviation has now joined forces with Taj Hotels Resorts & Palaces, one of Asia’s most exclusive luxury hotel groups, to create a special portfolio of travel packages, all of which include a private jet.

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We can help customers to charter their aircraft and so offset some of the costs of ownership

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Empire Aviation Group

So far, the business model has worked extremely well in Dubai. Hartley points out that since its inception, the company has typically grown its revenues by a heady 100 per cent per annum. “We are very proud of our achievements to date. Even last year which was one of the worst in aviation history, we still managed to increase turnover by 25 per cent,” he adds.

Empire Aviation is now in readiness to replicate its model further afield. “We are already working with Indian customers operating out of Dubai, so it is a logical extension of those relationships to establish a direct presence in India. We now have a branch in Mumbai. There is tremendous growth potential in India and Asia generally, but no professional management companies,” he says. Empire Aviation is also considering other

geographical options in the Far East but he is reluctant to be drawn on details, as these plans are still at an early stage.

While Hartley sees the composition of the fleet evolving in line with the growing acceptance of aircraft ownership as a business tool, he is adamant that the basic formula with its focus on transparent financial procedures will not change. “There is an old adage that stresses: stick to what you know you do well. We want to preserve all the benefits to customers that we can offer as a wholly independent management company with no possible conflicts of interest. Our model is well received and respected and we have nothing to gain from competing with our customers.” www.empire.aero BE

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Setting

sta

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Paul Craig talks to Vincent Kielty abou forged a reputation for excellence in a 134 Transport & Logistics

Aviance Ghana

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ut how a local Ghanaian company has challenging marketplace

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stablished in 1994, Aviance Ghana provides a range of ground handling services at Kotoka International Airport in Ghana. The company provides services to its customer airlines that include an executive lounge for first and business class travellers, passenger check-in and baggage handling, loading and unloading of cargo from freight flights and a cargo warehouse operation for all import and export needs.

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Aviance Ghana

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Aviance Ghana

Aviation is a tough market; airlines continue to face pressures from spiralling fuel costs and the impact of events such as ash clouds and the ever-present threat of international terrorism. At the same time, the industry structure is being transformed to reflect the continued change in passenger expectations— all factors that have combined to make ground handling an innovative yet competitive and price conscious industry.

Aviance Ghana monitors its progress through its Safety Management System (SMS) that requires quarterly internal audits against pre-set key performance indicators. Although it is based in Ghana, the company is judged by international standards, since it works with flag carriers such as British Airways, United Airlines, SAA and Emirates, as well as cargo airlines such as Cargolux. “It is our responsibility to provide a reliable and punctual service for passenger and cargo airlines alike,” explains managing director Paul Craig. “Our business success rests on providing

high quality, time-critical transportation for large numbers of people and their baggage and cargo, professionally, safely and with a high degree of customer service.”

Aviance Ghana forms part of the fabric of Kotoka International Airport, so its primary duty lies in assisting the airlines to fulfil their commitment to their passengers—whether they are business travellers, families returning from summer holidays, or companies, NGOs or individuals awaiting the urgent delivery of cargo. Effective partnership is a vital ingredient in the success of any business, maintains Craig: “We work closely with our airline customers, the airport operators and other airport-based businesses to keep operations running smoothly.”

With this in mind, it has always been a high priority for the company to minimise the number of delays that can be attributed to

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Aviance Ghana

its performance, as these have a significant impact on its airline customers, their passengers and the airport in which it operates. To address this, Craig and his team have developed a ‘Service Excellence’ programme— ‘Team Aviance’—which aims to provide customers with a dedicated service operating to international standards.

Aviance Ghana is a member of the Aviance Alliance, the first ever alliance of airport service providers.

Created in 1999 to provide airlines with a co-operative alternative to the existing global handlers, it presently has 10 members operating at more than 100 airport locations, and is represented across four continents. The alliance stands for consistent service delivery and safety to nurture brand confidence, with membership granted only after benchmarking and audits have been approved.

Furthermore, the airlines recognise the alliance as being a byword for quality and professionalism.

What Craig terms the ‘Aviance Difference’ is its ability to work with airlines at an international level, identifying innovative services that afford them a value-added experience. By so doing, the company has been able to create a reputation for service excellence, leading the market in Ghana. All Aviance Alliance members share best practice among the other members, helping to improve standards and benchmark themselves against industry best practice.

The alliance has gained experience of the African market through the operations of Aviance Ghana, Aviance NAHCO and Bid Air, building an international reputation for providing a consistent, quality-driven service accepted as the ‘best of Africa’. As one of the key alliance partners for Africa, Aviance Ghana is now keen to expand the alliance coverage into more African countries.

Aviance Ghana understands that its reputation relies on its employees; and a range of employee benefits helps it to recruit, retain and motivate staff. The company also strives to develop its staff from within, employing local people and offering them a career with real opportunities for growth and personal development. Within its workforce of over 600 people, Aviance Ghana only employs two expatriates.

Craig also believes that a good employer must also provide a safe working environment. The health and safety of employees is therefore a major priority, not only for the

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Aviance Ghana

wellbeing of its people but also because this determines Aviance Ghana’s operational efficiency. “We are proud of our record in this area as we aim to establish a safety culture in which individual employees are able to raise issues and concerns. In order to achieve this, we work closely with our unions and audit our performance on a regular basis,” states Craig.

Ultimately, a business is only as good as its staff, hence employee welfare forms a major focus of Aviance Ghana’s ‘Responsibility’ programme.

The company also commits to investing approximately $1 million each year in new equipment to improve its efficiency and help reduce its carbon footprint. This need to keep investing is recognised by the Aviance Ghana shareholders as a key ingredient to long-term success.

The concept of service excellence acknowledges

that the customer has a choice. Craig says that Aviance endeavours to co-operate with all partners by focusing on service in order to further improve quality. For example, this means giving every single passenger undivided attention each and every single time they are greeted by an Aviance employee. Even though the average check-in process takes only a few minutes, Craig remains convinced of the fact that the company can still make a lasting and good impression. One of the aims of the company’s continual training programme is to promote natural talent and underscore this with expert knowledge and skill, enabling Craig and his team to provide ‘the Aviance Difference’. www.avianceghana.com BE

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144 Transport & Logistics

National Airports Corporation Limited of Zambia

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146 Transport & Logistics

National Airports Corporation Limited of Zambia

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ambia is a country driven by two thriving industries. The primary revenue generator is the copper mining industry, which is based in the famed Copperbelt region. Having suffered many decades of slow decline, its fortunes have changed over the past five years and today it is in full expansion mode, fed by the insatiable demand for copper from the rapidly expanding Chinese economy. The country’s second main revenue earner, tourism, is also undergoing serious growth. Having displayed only a temporary dip during the global economic crisis, it has resumed its strong upward trend and continues to draw increasing numbers of people keen to experience the country’s stunning landscapes and wildlife.

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National Airports Corporation Limited of Zambia Most visitors and workers arriving in the country enter via the airport of Lusaka, the country’s capital.

The expansion in mining and tourism has been reflected in the passenger figures, which have been increasing at a rate of 10 per cent year-on-year. And the growth has also been felt by the regional airports that supply these flourishing industries.

The country’s four primary airports are run by the National Airports Corporation Limited (NACL) of Zambia. “We were established in 1989 by an act of parliament, with a mandate to provide air navigation across the nation and airport services at the four designated international airports,” explains the director of airports services, Prince Chintimbwe. “Last year we handled just under 1.09 million passengers, 65 per cent of whom travelled via Lusaka airport.”

Lusaka airport, the international gateway to Zambia, is NACL’s flagship airport. The three remaining airports within its remit are Livingstone,

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National Airports Corporation Limited of Zambia which services the tourist destination of Victoria Falls, Mfuwe which provides a similar service for the South Luangwa National Park, and Ndola which lies in the heart of the Copperbelt province and is the route of access for the mining industry.

“Being a landlocked country, the most direct route of entry into Zambia is by air,” Chintimbwe says. “So the airport is the first and last thing people see when they come to and leave the country. We want the experience to be pleasing, and to leave an impression that lingers on.”

Responding to the combination of significant growth and the need to provide a suitable customer experience, NACL has invested $725,000 in grant aid from the US Trade and Development Agency to create a masterplan for the development of all four airports up to 2029, an exercise that was concluded just a couple of months ago.

“We have already implemented one of the major recommendations through the work we have been doing at Livingstone, which is predominantly a tourist destination. Our intention here is to attract and handle long haul tourist flights, and we are already well advanced towards that goal.”

Livingstone airport received attention as far back as 2007 when some €10 million from the European Union was spent rehabilitating and extending the runway from 2.3 to three kilometres. However, it is the construction of a new terminal that is expected to transform it into an international tourist destination. “We’re handling this in a phased approach,” Chintimbwe continues. “Phase I began in August last year and includes the construction and equipping of the concourse area and departure lounge, and this will go straight into operation when it’s completed in April next year. Phase II will then start immediately with the construction of the arrivals part of the international terminal.”

The new terminal will be furnished with the very latest technology from cargo and baggage handling through to passenger processing and security systems.

Once construction is completed, the current terminal, which lacked sufficient passenger waiting and handling areas and commercial space for international use, will be retained for internal flights. The entire project, terminal and aircraft manoeuvring pavements, is expected to cost around $95 million and will boost capacity at the airport to over 200,000 passengers a year, a huge step up from the 30,000 handled in 2001.

With the development masterplan in place, similar upgrades and construction projects are planned for the other three airports and work is currently being done to secure the necessary funding. Lusaka, of course, is the nation’s international gateway and the plans here are on a much larger scale. Designs are already completed for the construction of a new terminal capable of handling over two million passengers a year. Estimated to cost around $196 million, the work will also include expansion of the apron facilities.

Although these improvements are NACL’s top priority, the vision for the future of the airport is much more ambitious. “The airport sits on 1,950 hectares of land, of which only 170 hectares is developed, so we have the capacity to do quite a bit more too. We will shortly be tackling things like car parking, and we would then like to build travel hotels here.”

From the aesthetic perspective, considerable thought has gone into designing the airports to represent the region in which they are located. “All our airports will carry a theme,” Chintimbwe explains. “Livingstone, for example, is themed around the Victoria Falls and we would like to put a representation of the falls into the new terminal, although we haven’t finalised this element of the design yet

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Last year we handled just under 1.09 million passengers, 65 per cen of whom travelled via Lusaka airpor 152 Transport & Logistics

d n nt a rt

National Airports Corporation Limited of Zambia

and we might make minor changes to it nearer the time. We will have to see what the cost implications will be. However, outside the current terminal we have statues of David Livingstone and his two African cohorts who were with him at the time he discovered Livingstone. We intend to move those statues to the new terminal.”

From the strategic perspective, the short term aim is to begin work on Lusaka airport as quickly as possible, handling the construction in one single operation rather than in phases, and then to move on and improve and update Ndola and Mfuwe airports by constructing new terminals and improving the

aircraft manoeuvring areas in a similar way.

“All our current infrastructure predates our independence,” Chintimbwe points out. “So in the short term we are working to raise the cash as quickly as possible, then we will begin building these projects either this year or next year.”

Once the work is completed, it will equip Zambia to fully develop its blossoming tourist trade, and to provide comfortable and attractive travel facilities for the many people arriving and departing with the mining industry. www.nacl.co.zm BE

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154 Transport & Logistics

Miami International Airport

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Miami International Airport

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y the end of 2012, Miami International Airport (MIA) will have been transformed by completion of the North Terminal Development Program. MIA, which is operated by the Miami-Dade Aviation Department, is the largest US gateway to Latin America and the Caribbean and is one of the leading international passenger and freight airports in the world. 96 different carriers are involved in shifting over two billion tons of freight annually and ensuring the safe travel of almost forty million passengers.

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Miami International Airport MIA also has a reputation for aesthetics to live up to. Cited within the industry as one of the six most beautiful airports in America and among the top 15 in the world, it is imperative that any new development enhances the environment of calm and tranquility that its operators have sought to cultivate.

“This has been a huge redevelopment project which is costing in the region of $3 billion,” states Juan Carlos Arteaga, who has held overall responsibility for the program since March 2006.

The most significant challenge of his career to date has involved expanding and renovating five distinct concourses which have been remodeled into a stateof-the-art, 1.3-mile-long linear terminal.

Today, only three gates remain to be opened in the 50-gate “super concourse,” which is used by American Airlines as its hub for Latin America and the Caribbean with over 300 daily flights. One of the most significant features of the new concourse is its dual-functionality with the ability to adapt to either domestic or international travellers. The new ease with which people can move has greatly improved efficiency and the passenger experience and is seen as one of the key benefits of the redevelopment.

To give some idea of the scale of the NTD program, Arteaga points out that the new North Terminal accounts for approximately half of the total built space of almost eight million square feet at MIA and holds 50 out of a total of 130 departure gates. Luckily Arteaga enjoys managing complexity and one of the most challenging aspects of the program has been ensuring that the 24/7 construction operation did not impact on the safety or comfort of passengers.

Throughout the duration of the program it has been business as usual at the airport.

“I am extremely proud of the fact that the majority of this program has achieved every single milestone that has been set over the past five years,” he declares. Delivery of the program has been long awaited. “It originally began back in 2001, but was beset by many problems in its early stages.

The program I inherited was over budget and far behind schedule and the biggest difficulties were encountered at the outset, getting it back on track.

Lea+Elliott “The opening of the Skytrain has helped make MIA a world-class airport.”

Skytrain is the world’s newest airport APM. The Skytrain decreases walking time 70% for domestic connecting passengers and 34% for international connecting travelers. Skytrain operates in a pinched-loop configuration with four, 4-car trains at approximately 120-second headways. Serving four stations during peak hours of operation, the system can carry nearly 9,000 passengers per hour per direction.

As the APM consultant, Lea+Elliott provided planning, specification development, procurement support, design review, and manufacturing and construction oversight services to Miami Dade Aviation Department.

Lea+Elliott is currently the APM consultant for the new MIA Mover that will connect the Airport to the new Miami Intermodal Center.

But since then, it has been a success story all the way,” he adds.

To help in the task, he has drawn on the expertise of over a hundred architects, engineers, planners and schedulers. “When I took over the management of the program, we instigated a lot of contractor outreach workshops. We wanted a fresh start and a fresh approach with much more emphasis on communication and partnership working,” he says.

The main contractor has been a ParsonsOdebrecht Joint Venture which was awarded the biggest single contract worth over $1 billion. Sequeira & Gavarrete Inc., a Heery International Company, also played a key role in enabling the smooth integration of design and construction elements of the program. “Collaboration and team work have been key to avoiding many problems between designers and builders which can affect complex projects such as this and our contractors have done an excellent job in

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ensuring the smooth day to day running of the project,” he adds.

Arteaga has presided over many discrete achievements to reach this point. Most recently, the Automated People Mover, or the Skytrain as it is commonly known, became

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operational in September 2010. MDAD along with its APM consultant, Lea+Elliott Inc, have successfully delivered this critical component of the program.

The Skytrain rapidly moves passengers between four conveniently located stations on the roof of the mile-long concourse. It is a spectacular experience for travellers which dramatically reduces walking time and has greatly improved the flow of people, permanently solving the passenger congestion problem which used to mar the smooth running of MIA. The stations for the APM system were built by Parsons-Odebrecht; and there are five four-car trains which were manufactured, built and installed by Sumitomo Corporation of America and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The Skytrain has the capacity to transport 9,000 passengers per hour. “It is an amazing feat of engineering which has had 99.7 percent availability since it opened and we have had extremely positive feedback from users,” Arteaga adds.

Miami International Airport Siemens Industry has been the driving force behind the new $210 million gate delivery baggage handling system. This is the largest system of its kind in the US and consists of over 10 miles of conveyor belts.

“The system takes luggage from the check-in point directly to the makeup unit device closest to the departing plane and incorporates a number of very sophisticated security measures. There are a total of 25 explosion detection system devices (EDS) and five distinct security matrices to pass through,” he explains. The inherent complexities associated with the delivery of this extremely large system have been extremely challenging to manage and engineer.

Now, there is just the new Federal Inspection Services area to be completed where international passengers check-in through immigration and customs. This will extend across 400,000 square feet and include 72 service lanes with a total capacity to process 3,600 international passengers per hour.

The design also accommodates an eightlane security check point.

Arteaga is confident that this too will be completed to schedule. “We have just eight months left to go before the contractors leave and we will have completed every single phase of the building construction on time and within budget. That is the contribution I would most like to be remembered for,” he concludes.

Now the accolades are flowing in. The American Institute of Architects has lauded the NTD program director with an award; and the NTD Program also received the 2010 Best Vertical Transportation Award by Southeast Construction & Engineering News Record.

Other aviation developers are also taking a keen interest and Arteaga hopes this example of his work will encourage and inspire others. http://www.miami-airport.com/about_us.asp BE

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Qantas

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G

od made his presence felt in the Pacific region over the last year. His acts included severe flooding and Cyclone Yasi in Queensland, the Christchurch earthquake, and the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. In June 2011 an ash cloud from Chile’s Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano caused widespread disruption to Australian airspace, forcing the cancellation of thousands of Qantas and Jetstar (the company’s low-cost brand) flights. Nevertheless, he didn’t have it in too badly for Australia’s national carrier which came out of the period in profit, and with turnover across all its operations up by eight per cent.

Acts of god by their nature will happen, and though you can’t plan for them, if you can build resilience into your business model as Qantas does, you will come back a lot faster. Being ready for any eventuality is part of the job done

by John Valastro, Qantas’ head of Environment, Resilience and Workplace Transformation. That’s quite a portfolio; but these disciplines do belong together, as he explains. “Resilience covers how we manage events that take us out of our business-as-usual operations—like natural disasters. Workplace transformation reflects how we leverage the latest technologies and thinking on how people can work together to create an optimal working environment for the world we operate in.”

In other words, resilience will enable people to maintain business continuity in unpredictable situations of the kind that the airline industry encounters all too frequently. As for the

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Qantas

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environment, surely that is something that any airline ought to keep quiet about? Not a bit of it, says Valastro. Let’s set the context: Qantas has just been named among the world’s most sustainable companies in global rankings compiled by Dow Jones—one of only two airlines listed on its World Sustainability Index.

The sustainability of an organisation today is about recognising the significant elements of environmental impact, he says. “Resilience plays strongly with that: you can’t be a resilient organisation if you don’t understand the principles of how to be sustainable—to be around for the long term. As a company Qantas has a 90-year history, and we want 90 more!” Actually, Qantas is the oldest airline in the world. Australia’s isolation from world population centres and its

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size dictate that air travel is its default mode.

Qantas has no option but to operate long routes.

“We know we are a large emitter,” confesses Valastro, “but this just makes it that much more important that we reduce our carbon footprint.

I’d like to think we are taking a leadership role in the industry.” The pressure is on. From January next year, all airlines flying to Europe will have to buy permits for the carbon dioxide they emit.

Qantas monitors its carbon emission data and shares that data with the EU, but it is taking many more proactive steps, too. “In the short term we are focusing on fuel conservation, efficient flying patterns, and more efficient aircraft. In the longer term we are going to be moving towards sustainable aviation fuel.” In conjunction with the Australian government, Qantas is on a long

Qantas

In the longer term we are going to be moving towards sustainable aviation fuel term journey to identify the potential pathways to supporting the development of a domestic sustainable aviation fuel industry, but in the shorter term the company is looking at a variety of options including using algae, food scraps, grass and tree cuttings, and agricultural and industrial waste as a biofuel feedstock for its aircraft.

Meanwhile, it has adopted the industry target of an average 1.5 per cent annual improvement in fuel efficiency through to 2020.

There is no single answer to reducing carbon emissions, stresses Valastro. “Fuel is our single

biggest cost, so managing that cost has always been a business priority. There are a lot of different ways of doing that so we are rolling out a comprehensive set of measures.� One of those is negotiating with air service navigation providers to improve airspace inefficiencies which impact the industry’s overall fuel efficiency. Basically, getting aeroplanes down and back up again, without stacking them in complicated holding patterns, would make a big difference in both fuel efficiency and safety.

If fuel is the biggest cost, the aircraft that burn

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Qantas it are the biggest contributors to sustainability, profitability and environmental performance.

Qantas has 10 Airbus A380-800s in operation and a further 10 on order, making it the largest adopter of this superjumbo. In terms of cost per passenger, large planes are the best option, he says. So last year Qantas announced that it would receive the first of 50 Boeing 787 Dreamliners in 2012/13, in a phased two-year programme to replace its existing 767 aircraft. It is also looking closely at Airbus’s initiative to bring in more fuel efficient engines like CFM International’s LEAP-X and Pratt & Whitney’s PurePower PW1000G for its A319, A320 and A321—the A320neo.

It is a question of matching the right aircraft with the right route, he says. These large planes are important in positioning the airline for the needs of the 21st century markets too, since

Fuel is our single biggest cost, so managing that cost has always been a business priority they offer a remarkable flying experience and Qantas has made every effort to lead the way in in-flight entertainment, too. It is about to launch a pilot programme based on the iPad2, which will be issued to passengers as a way of accessing movies and games. The iPad route could open the door for increased flexibility with in-flight entertainment content, Valastro believes.

Flexibility is perhaps just another word for resilience. It is an attitude rather than a business plan that shows itself in every corner of the group’s activities—in the proposed adoption of cloud-based platforms that will give secure access to business-critical data via smartphones, for example, or in last year’s acquisition of Perth-based Network Aviation to give Qantas access to the specialised but growing market for transporting mining and oil personnel. Network

Aviation’s Embraer and Fokker aircraft boosted the total fleet to 283 aircraft.

Valastro’s job is spread widely across these activities, but the disciplines he oversees are drawn together in one exciting project, the $150 million renewal of the Qantas ‘campus’ at Sydney Airport. Due for completion by the end of 2013, the new campus will ‘recycle’ suitable existing buildings, equipping them with stateof-the-art environmental and technological performance and using its own trigeneration or CCHP (combined cooling, heating and power) plant. “Trigeneration allows us to generate carbon efficient power that reduces our carbon footprint and also allows us to operate more freely from the grid, which improves our resilience as an organisation,” he concludes. www.qantas.com.au BE

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170 Transport & Logistics

Coega Development

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A

s the rest of the world wakes up to Africa, the word Coega is becoming increasingly familiar. It is not an acronym as people might suspect but a local name for the river that runs through South Africa’s fast growing industrial zone, linked to its newest deepwater port Ngqura (confusingly exactly the same word as Coega, in a different transliteration meaning sweet water). The Coega Industrial Development Zone (IDZ) covers 110 square kilometres, 16 kilometres north of Port Elizabeth and is administered by the state-owned Coega Development Corporation (CDC), formed in 1999 to develop and operate the IDZ. The vision behind Coega was to develop clusters of industrial development, attract overseas investment, stimulate exports and incubate advanced technologies and muchneeded skills for the benefit of South Africa and the entire continent. Its clearest advantage lies in its geography, says CDC’s acting executive manager for Business Development, Christopher Mashigo. “Our investors look very positively on the fact that Ngqura is so strategically placed vis-à-vis the growing markets of both East and West Africa, just nine sailing days from South America, and within reach of the major ports of Europe, India and the Far East.” Ngqura, he adds, has grown in just two years to compete for the position of South Africa’s third largest container port, thanks to its ability to accept post-Panamax vessels and effectively trans-ship containers on smaller ships to other African destinations.

The IDZ is divided into 14 industrial clusters

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Coega Development

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Introduction The Camdekon/Carifro/Aurecon/Sigodi Joint Venture (CCAS JV) was appointed in 2008 by the Coega Development Corporation for the planning, design, procurement, implementation and commissioning of roads, stormwater, rail, water, return effluent, sewer, telecommunications and electrical infrastructure to serve the ZONE 6 Cluster in the Coega Industrial Development Zone (IDZ) situated in Port Elizabeth, SA.

Tel: 041 - 365 1974 Fax: 041 - 365 2175 Cell: 072 2272 191 e-mail: pe@camdekonpe.co.za

The Zone 6 is 1000 ha in size and earmarked for petro-chemical and heavy industry. Roads and services cost is estimated at R 1 billion. It provides for multi-billion industrial developments with Customs Control secured areas dedicated for export orientated manufactoring.

Manager: Andre Scheepers Pr Eng

P.O. Box 34810, Newton Park, Port Elizabeth, 6055

The CCAS JV is proud to provide world class state of the art engineering services to the CDC for this Development.

Camdekon Engineers cc (ISO 9001) (ISO 9001)INNOVATIVE, LEADING, QUALITY ENGINEERING Camdekon is the Lead Consultant for the CCAS JV and the Engineers for water and return effluent for the Zone 6 project, but also specialises in the fields of roads, stormwater, sewage, management systems and GIS.

Tel: 041 - 392 9800 Fax: 041 - 392 9880 Cell: 082 903 9033 e-mail: davef@carifro.com www.carifro.com P.O. Box 35091, Newton Park, Port Elizabeth, 6055 Manager: David Frost Pr Eng

Carifro Consulting Engineers We are leading Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. We also specialize in ICT Design, Green Buildings and Building Management Systems. For the third year running we have achieved a SANAS certified Level One B-BBEE rating and are also ISO 9001:2008 certified.

Aurecon

Aurecon is responsible for all geometrical road and storm water designs in the CCAS JV. Aurecon provides engineering, management and specialist technical services. Our transport sector combines expertise across engineering, financial modelling and legal systems to support excellence in the planning, design, construction, management and delivery of transportation systems.

SMM SMM are the Sewer design Engineers for the CCAS JV. Furthermore, we are also involved in a diverse array of Civil Engineering projects across SA for clientele ranging from Private Sector, Government to Municipalities.

Tel: 041 - 503 3900 Fax: 086 600 4037 Cell: 082 446 6905 e-mail: christo.beukes@aurecongroup.com www.aurecongroup.com P.O. Box 5328, Port Elizabeth, 6065 Manager: Christo Beukes Pr Tech Eng

Tel: 041 - 360 7012 Fax: 086 616 1624 Cell: 078 869 5501 e-mail: dmunyoro@gmail.com www.smmdc.com P.O. Box 12046, Centrahill, Port Elizabeth, 6006 Manager: Darlington Munyoro Pr Tech Eng

Coega Development to enable synergy between complementary operations and sectors. More than 24 companies have already established operations on the site—so far they have been mainly South African and Europe-based businesses. The Nelson Mandela Bay Logistics Park, one of the IDZ’s greatest success stories to date, is already home to leading multinationals such as Benteler from Germany, Faurecia from France, Grupo Antolin from Spain and Rehau from Germany.

At Coega IDZ, infrastructure is in place, and ready for international tenants to move in, says Hennie van der Kolf, CDC’s executive manager of Infrastructure Development. “All that is

We are looking for at least one major investor to come into each sector

Camdekon/Carifro/Aurecon/ Sigodi JV The JV)

Camdekon/Carifro/Aurecon/Sigodi provides

innovative,

world-class,

JV

(CCAS

state-of-the-

art engineering consulting services to the Coega Development Corporation for the planning, design, procurement, implementation and commissioning of roads, rail, storm water, water, return effluent, sewers, telecommunications and electricity for the Zone 6 area (1000 ha) within the Coega IDZ. The Zone 6 is earmarked for petro-chemical and heavy industry and provides for multi-billion investments.

The infrastructure is designed in accordance with bestpractice world-class design guidelines and quality control is in accordance with ISO 9001.

The CCAS JV is proud to be associated with the Coega Development Corporation.

needed now is to sort out the optimisation of the synergistic potential relationships within the automotive sector—there is enough space to expand and accommodate second and third tier suppliers around the OEMs who come in. We are looking for at least one major investor to come into each sector.”

One major automotive investor CDC has secured is China’s FAW. It will be a $100 million commercial vehicle plant that will produce 5,000 trucks a year to meet increasing domestic and regional demand. For the time being it will be an assembly plant, but one that will act as a catalyst for a fully-integrated automotive cluster of the IDZ, says van der Kolf. “It has been spatially configured for organic growth from an assembly plant to a fully integrated vehicle and component manufacturing complex. FAW is looking to have a more integrated facility where they create a platform for vehicle and truck assembly but

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Coega Development also the associated supplier development. The next wave of development would be to create a supplier park as they increase the amount of local content.”

This is a model that Mashigo would like to see reproduced in other sectors. “With one major auto manufacturer and one major component manufacturer you are then able to spawn the development of a cluster that is fully integrated, with maximum synergies from manufacturing right through to logistics. We are keen to develop clusters in each sector, and also exploit the synergies between clusters within the IDZ.”

Another rapidly developing cluster is forming around renewable energy FAW’s plans don’t end with truck manufacturing. It is China’s third largest vehicle manufacturer, selling 2.25 million vehicles in 2010. Once the truck plant is established, it plans to move onto a second phase by 2014, turning out 30,000 passenger cars a year.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Isuzu Trucks is evaluating the possibility of building an assembly plant at Coega (though other sites are also under consideration), which would make vehicles destined for South Africa, Malawi and Zambia.

With existing local companies, including Volkswagen, laying off workers in response to the global dip in demand for high end vehicles, the timing could be ideal—many such workers could be absorbed by the confirmed and potential new factories at Coega.

Another rapidly developing cluster is forming around renewable energy, and here again Mashigo expects to attract Chinese investors particularly in solar energy component manufacturers following the influx of European renewable energy developers such as EAB of Germany, Electrawinds of Belgium, Universal Wind of Sweden and Innowind of France. “We

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Sirlah CONSTRUCTION

Sirlah Construction are proud to be associated with Coega for the past seven years

Contact us at: wildfire393@gmail.com or 0027 414511122

Coega Development

The IDZ is attracting Chinese OEMs that are in the top 10 of solar energy component manufacturers worldwide have secured the developers and it is a logical next step to pursue component manufacturers.

In the main, the component manufacturers being attracted are both for wind and solar energy technologies and are from Europe, China and Korea. Interestingly, the IDZ is attracting Chinese OEMs that are in the top 10 of solar energy component manufacturers worldwide.�

He explains that the activity on renewable energy generation is split between on-grid equipment, from the towers and the turbines to the blades and other components, and off-grid capacity custom-built for the many parts of Africa where the lack of network infrastructure demands standalone, electricity-in-a-box/off grid solutions.

Historically, South Africa has failed to get the full value out of its mineral resources. Exporting raw ore allows other countries to get the value added by beneficiation, so the R4.2 billion construction of a high-carbon ferromanganese smelter at Coega by Kalagadi Manganese will aid the local economy as well as bringing new jobs and skills to the IDZ. The plant, announced in May this year, will be one of the largest of its kind in the world. A second smelter may also be on the table and soon it could be a race of who produces the first ingot.

It’s a classic win-win situation benefiting Coega, Ngqura and the manganese industry. According to van der Kolf, the plant is again a catalyst that

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I think one of South Africa’s biggest challenges today is employment creation, particularly for young people will stimulate ancillary activity, this time around logistics and materials handling. It will bring in 1,000 construction jobs and 400 permanent ones.

“Just like the skills development that follows the move from assembly to full manufacturing in automotive or wind turbines, the skills that will be developed around manganese processing will be a major spin-off for us,” he says.

Hot on the heels of the announcement of the manganese smelter came the decision by Coega Dairy, a consortium of 13 commercial farmers, to launch an energy efficient state-of-the-art dairy processing plant on the IDZ. The company will invest R175 million over four years to create a facility that will consume 50 per cent less water, energy and chemicals and produce only

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a third of the effluent of any South African UHT processing plant. “Once again, the advent of food processing industries will draw in a group of technical support and maintenance activities and associated skills,” van der Kolf emphasises.

Each of the growing sectors will rely on human capital, and it’s not enough to simply create jobs, Mashigo believes. “I think one of South Africa’s biggest challenges today is employment creation, particularly for young people.” While engineering industries have to recruit and train the appropriate crafts and trades people, business process outsourcing (BPO) can be a route to career development for the bright but inexperienced school leaver, he believes.

“This is a sector that employs the ‘structurally

Coega Development

unemployable’—that is the 18 to 25 year olds who may have educational qualifications but no experience, and can’t easily be absorbed by the job market. I’m really glad to be able to say that Coega has broken into it.”

He is referring to the take-up by Africa’s leading medical insurance group (details to be announced after the official launch on 1 Transport & Logistics) of the zone’s state-of-the-art, 16,000 square metre call centre building. “They already have 150 agents, to which they are adding up to 40 a month—they plan to reach 400 by 2013.”

A milk processing plant, and even the 1,500 jobs that can be accommodated in the BPO centre, may not look as impressive as the establishment of a full-scale automotive park

but each new business that moves into Coega becomes an organic part of the IDZ vision. In response to the size of targeted investments, Mashigo says: “Developing an IDZ is a bit like playing cricket—you are not going to hit a lot of sixes but a succession of twos and threes will eventually win the game. Take the dairy: it is a modest investment by value but it does create a significant number of jobs, directly and indirectly. You are giving people the opportunity to move up the value chain— farmers becoming industrialists. We do pride ourselves for having played a part in that process while at the same time creating industrial and safeguarding hundreds of rural jobs.” www.coega.com BE

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WearCheck

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W

earCheck is the pre-eminent oil condition monitoring service in Africa, processing more than six hundred thousand samples each year. The company works with any business that uses machinery lubricated, heated or cooled by oil—this takes in the power generation, mining, earthmoving, industrial, transport, shipping, aviation and electrical industries, as well as general manufacturing.

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WearCheck

WearCheck

Managing director Neil Robinson likes to draw an analogy with a medical check on the human body to explain the importance of the service that WearCheck offers. “When we analyse an oil sample, it is not dissimilar to looking at a blood sample. A mine of information is revealed into the deeper workings and condition of the machine as well as the condition of the oil itself. The presence of chrome, for example, is a strong indicator

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WearCheck of a problem with the pistons; tin and copper can indicate problems with bearings; and silicon and aluminium together can indicate dirt or dust in the oil. We can then advise the operator that if they address this problem at the next service or sooner if the problem is severe, an expensive failure may be avoided.

If no action is taken, then a failure and loss of productivity will almost certainly occur.�

The cost implications of plant breakdown can be enormous, especially if it is a critical piece of plant, such as a main power transformer or shovel in open cast operation on a mining site. The harsh environmental conditions in which many industrial operations take place exacerbate the risk of technical failure at some point and long lead times are typically required to get technical support or if parts have to be flown in from another part of the world. Growing numbers of companies have planned or preventative maintenance schedules that include oil

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condition monitoring, but it is not always easy to secure a quality service from an accredited laboratory.

WearCheck is the only oil analysis company in Africa to hold both the ISO 9001 quality certification and the ISO 14001 certification for its environmental management programme.

The company is currently implementing the ISO 17025 laboratory centric quality management programme into its fuel and transformer oil laboratory and its Indian operation.

“Testing an oil sample is not that difficult,” Robinson continues. “It is as simple as buying the necessary instrumentation, and there are a number of unaccredited laboratories which have done precisely that. However, we excel in three areas that set our testing apart.

Firstly, we have an extremely well entrenched and rigorously applied quality management

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system, which ensures that all the results leaving our laboratories are both accurate and reproducible.

“Secondly, there is the issue of interpretation or diagnosis of the analytical data coming from the laboratories,” he continues. “Here in South Africa for example, we have a dedicated team of six engineers to look at the information and then take these decisions. They are incredibly skilled in identifying not only problems, but the remedial action that is required. This is a real challenge because there may be dozens of different manufacturers for a single category of equipment and each will have a different wear or oil profile. We are very fortunate to have two of our technicians who have each diagnosed over one million samples from different machines from all different manufacturers. Only an operation on our scale can develop this sort of expertise and we can stream information to our technicians via the internet from anywhere on the planet,” he states.

WearCheck “Thirdly, we have an extremely sophisticated system to manage the stream of data generated.

Our IT infrastructure is unparalleled and we have our own in-house software writers. This is important because each sample can generate hundreds of variables according to the type of machine and its manufacturer. The analytical profile carried out on that particular sample and all of this data must be related back to a single sample number and machine component. Then there is the question of to whom and how we convey the results. Our service is very

flexible and it might be by SMS, phone, emailed pdf, our own supplied database or by offering access to the information online through our website.”

Perhaps most impressive of all is that customers typically receive a full report not only of the results of the analysis, but also on the implications for their machinery, within 24 hours. Maintaining these short lead times is a critical element of the overall service offering. “Our laboratory equipment is extremely sophisticated and if we experience an instrument breakdown, it is potentially very serious as support is often not readily available. As a result, we tend to buy the same types of instruments from the same manufacturers and over the years we have learned to manage and maintain these instruments often better than the service providers themselves. If something does go wrong, we will invariably understand the cause and know how to fix it quickly,” he adds.

WearCheck already has an extensive network of

seven laboratories across southern Africa, including Isando in Gauteng, Pinetown in KwaZulu-Natal, Middelburg, and Lumwana mine in Zambia, which is operated on behalf of a third party. In December 2011, another laboratory will become operational in Kitwe, Zambia which is wholly owned and operated by WearCheck. Testing is already up and running in Dubai and will soon commence in India.

However, it is the African opportunity that particularly appeals to Robinson; and he is keen to expand the reach of the business deeper into the continent. WearCheck already has a 60 per cent share of the market in South Africa and with such a large share, it is difficult to grow further. “For a company like ours, which is based in South Africa and already has a clear footprint, Africa is the continent of the future. There is growing political stability and a widespread mining and commodities boom and we can add a lot of value to these operations if we can contribute to an increase in machine uptime,” he explains.

He believes it is much more cost-effective to undertake regular oil monitoring than it is to experience machine failure and then wait for expensive repairs, particularly for those in difficult-to-reach locations, which is often the case in Africa. However, for equipment based in remote geographical locations, the logistics of just getting samples to analysts can also present a major challenge. “In Africa, we have the great advantage of relative proximity as well as familiarity with all the legal and customs processes,” he adds.

“We are known as a growing quality business which makes a continuous investment in the latest testing technology. That, combined with our track record in South Africa, makes us ideally placed to extend our service to many more locations during the years to come,” he concludes.www.wearcheck.co.za BE

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