the main cities,” says technical manager Cédric Demares from Kalmar Maghreb. The Port of Casablanca concentrates on import and export cargo handling, while Tangier is an important east–west passenger and cargo gateway between Africa and Europe with several regular ferry routes that cross The Strait of Gibraltar. A high speed train connection is being constructed to link Casablanca and Tangier. When it is completed, scheduled for 2015, it will become the first high speed rail connection in Africa and will cut the travel time between the two cities by half.
We chose Kalmar Care because of their proven reliability and ability to react.”
A close partnership
“In Casablanca we dedicate 100 percent of our time to client service operations, such as, preventive and corrective maintenance from our own workshop,” explains Eduardo Prat. Kalmar has other workshops located near its clients in other Moroccan port cities, such as, Tangier and Agadir, and Kalmar Mahgreb dispatches highly skilled technicians to other countries like Benin, Ghana and Tunisia. Céderic Demares has 15 years experience with cargo handling solutions. He worked previously with Cargotec in the Indian Ocean region, in Madagascar and Mauritius planning and installing technologically advanced cargo handling solutions. He has been with Kalmar in Casablanca since 2011. “We have several maintenance contracts with our main customers which requires a daily presence of our technical people. In this way, we can best respond to our clients’ needs and requests,” says Demares. The service contracts cover all basic cargo handling equipment from different manufacturers. “We also have some industrial projects starting up in Morocco, such as, the Renault Dacia factory in Tangier,” says Demares.
A reputation for excellence Kalmar Maghreb provides services in Casablanca for two major port operators, Somaport and Marsa Maroc. Somaport is part of Terminal Link SA, a subsidiary of the French shipping giant CMA CGM. Somaport operates two terminals, one for containers and one for general and bulk cargo.
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The container terminal has an annual output of 300,000 TEU and the general cargo terminal handles more than one million service units. Somaport uses ship-to-shore (STS) cranes, rubber-tyred gantry (RTG) cranes and terminal tractors as well as forklift trucks. To keep them running Somaport chose Kalmar as a partner with a full service contract that includes 24/7 technical support. “We chose Kalmar Care because of Kalmar’s proven reliability and ability to react,” says Somaport General Manager Christophe Cassange. Somaport works in three shifts. Their container terminal closes only during the night shift on Sundays and on some national holidays. This constant workload means that well-planned and wellexecuted maintenance and minimal machinery downtime are key factors to business success. “There is a lack of skilled technicians in the Casablanca area, so an important factor for our cooperation with Kalmar is their technical expertise,” explains Cassange. Another major port operator, Marsa Maroc, also relies on Kalmar with a full service contract. Marsa operates in nine ports in Morocco, and in Casablanca they have terminals for container and RoRo traffic, as well as ore and multipurpose terminals. In Casablanca alone, Marsa handles annual container traffic of over 600,000 TEU. Marsa also won a new contract for the Tanger-Med phase 2 container terminal. Kalmar provides Marsa with a dedicated technical team that works around the clock to keep their straddle carriers, terminal tractors, forklifts and other machinery in perfect condition.
Gaining ground in Algeria In the Maghreb region, Kalmar was recently awarded an order for 25 reachstackers with the Algerian port procurement company, Groupement D’Interêt Commun Des Entreprises Portuaires (GICEP). These new Kalmar reachstackers will be operating in five major ports in Algeria, from Annaba to Ghazaouet starting from December 2013. Productivity and high performance equipment were important factors for the Algerian port operator. “But we were particularly impressed with the strength of their locally based service team,” says Saidi Mabrouk, General manager at GICEP. “Our business is expanding and we need to have a partner that can deliver high performance equipment and provide us with round the clock back-up. That’s exactly what we get from Remora. We look forward to receiving the equipment as soon as possible and integrating them into our fleet,” he adds.