INDUSTRY
INDUSTRY
Outokumpu Stainless BV Terneuzen is part of parent company Outokumpu Group in Tornio, Finalnd. The location in Zeeland creates an ideal base for the supply and removal of stainless steel products. Over the years, the site has increasingly developed from a purely manufacturing company to a logistics hub for the parent company in Finland.
Strategic transport location
With approximately 150 direct employees and added flexible employees that perform transport activities and the unloading of ships and transport, Outokumpu is a pillar of industry in Zeeland. Efficient transport of stainless steel is essential and for large quantities, water transport is the ideal option. Therefore, Outokumpu’s location on the Ghent-Terneuzen canal is extremely important. In addition to the water connection, there is also direct rail and congestion free road access streamlining the supply to Western Europe. Transport of the finished product to the customer takes place via trucks, ships, trains, containers and intermodal (combined rail and road transport). Collaboration with numerous partners, logistics (transport companies, shipping companies, container companies) is also an essential aspect of transport efficiency. Outokumpu has a significant storage for equipment at automated high-bay warehouses ready for shipment and to meet the demand for ‘just-in-time’ delivery. The logistics of transporting stainless steel from Finland to the Netherlands is effective. Ships sails from Tornio to the Terneuzen site with processed stainless steel onboard, which is unloaded and distributed to customers. The vessel then returns to Finland with scrap metal, raw materials and commodities necessary for the production of stainless steel. “Our location in the Terneuzen port area is key as we are dependent on ship supply and receive 3-4 shipments from Finland each week. An additional added value is the calmness in comparison to larger ports such as Antwerp and Rotterdam,” states Frank de Meijer, Vice President of Terneuzen Operations. Due to their prime location, Outokumpu offers extremely fast delivery, in most cases between 24 and 48 hours.
FRANK DE MEIJER OUTOKUMPU’S VICE PRESIDENT
Future on track
Moving forward there are items on Outokumpu’s wish list that they hope to see developed. Continuous improvement of production processes is one of the major concerns at Outokumpu. This includes striving for maximum effectiveness in all areas, such as safety, quality, productivity and logistics. An important part of the improvement process in relation to logistics is to achieving both a high production reliability as well as delivery reliability To help in this vision of improving reliability De Meijer comments, “For the future, long-term infrastructure developments must remain on the agenda for the region. We have witnessed the success of this topic with the new lock in Terneuzen and the doubling of the north-south road connection.”
ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF SCHERP! FOTOGRAFIE
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Regarding progress achieved thus far De Meijer says, “We have developed substantially in terms of volume, and the region needs
PHOTO COURTESY OF SCHERP! FOTOGRAFIE
to sustain and enhance this growth. By rail transport, we estimate that we remove 10,000 trucks off the roads annually, however, we believe this quantity could greatly increase. Therefore, we have for many years supported the realisation of a new railway line from the Axel Plain (Axelse Vlakte) to Zelzate, Belgium,” states De Meijer. “We hope that developments within rail transport will follow suit and increase this mode of transport.” Zeeland Seaports, in cooperation with the port of Ghent, are preparing for a new lock in the port of Terneuzen. This new lock will improve the access to both ports for seagoing vessels and will also ensure a smooth transit of inland vessels between the Netherlands, Belgium and France. And the cooperation that Outokumpu has experienced with Zeeland Seaports has also been valuable. “The dialogue with Zeeland Seaports is open and accessible. Essentially the added value that Zeeland Seaports offers to us as a customer, we would like to translate on to our own customers. For both short and long term issues, we always find that Zeeland Seaports provides a constructive listening ear with the aim to jointly find solutions,” states De Meijer. Through such open dialogue and realisation of solutions and developments, Outokumpu is able achieve their goal of reliability in the production and logistics of stainless steel products. I. WWW.OUTOKUMPU.COM
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