Month: November 2019

Fraport AG and Swissport Cargo Services Deutschland GmbH today laid the foundation stone for Swissport’s new airfreight facility at Frankfurt Airport (FRA), marking another milestone in the future development of FRA as an airfreight location.

The new building at CargoCity South will expand Swissport’s handling capacities by almost 50 percent, says the team. “The property meets every requirement for state-of-the-art airfreight handling. The warehouse concept includes a material handling system that allows containers and pallets to be automatically stored in and removed from the warehouse,” said a spokesperson. “Swissport is expanding its range of special temperature storage for customers from the pharmaceutical industry. The new cargo centre will be fitted out in accordance with the strict IATA criteria and will be CEIV Pharma-certified after going into operation.”

The roof of the freight hall will also be home to the first large-scale photovoltaic system at Frankfurt Airport. It will generate 1,550,000 kilowatt hours of electricity yearly – an amount that would power more than 450 four-person households for an entire year. With this move, Fraport is increasing its focus on the use of independently generated renewable energy to cover the electricity requirements of its home-base airport in Frankfurt.

Almost 50 percent of Germany’s airfreight volume is handled at Frankfurt Airport – over two million metric tons in 2018.

Facts and figures on the new air cargo warehouse:
• Capacity: over 200,000 metric tons per year
• Storage space: 17,000 square metres
• Office and communal space: 2,400 square metres
• Outside/manoeuvring space: 12,500 square metres
• Temperature zones in the pharma centre:
o 1,300 square metres (15–25°C)
o 280 square metres (2–8°C)
• 31 docks for trucks/vans, including five truck docks for ULD handling

Foundation Stone Laid for Swissport Air Cargo Warehouse at Frankfurt Airport’s CargoCity South. (from left: Mike Flörke, Division Manager at Goldbeck, Felix Kreutel, Senior Vice President of Real Estate and Properties at Fraport AG, Karl-Heinz-Dietrich, Senior Executive Vice President Retail and Properties at Fraport AG, Willy Ruf, Senior Vice President Central & Eastern Europe von Swissport)

Konecranes has launched Lifetime Advantage, a long-term commitment to improving the safety, productivity and endurance of lift trucks around the globe. Ongoing support across each truck’s lifecycle benefits customers with consulting, training, spare parts, upgrades and much more – everything needed to keep lift trucks running efficiently in the unique conditions of each customer’s world.

With Lifetime Advantage, Konecranes aims to show its dedication to outstanding quality, uptime and productivity, so that each customer can advance its own business in the ways that matter most. It means continuous support, from the initial offer throughout the entire lifecycle of one lift truck or a whole fleet, with the aim of achieving a higher level of performance.

Konecranes believes that maximizing uptime is the result of decisions already made at the offering stage. This means making smart choices when it comes to such options as energy-efficient Ecolifting, safety enhancement and Smart Connected Lift Trucks digital services. What is decided together with customers will shape their experience in terms of equipment performance. Additionally, the pace of digitalization promises to revolutionize maintenance practices and create exciting new advances for operational efficiency.

Meanwhile, after delivery Lifetime Advantage continues through upgrades and retrofits, Konecranes’ genuine spare parts, business services, digital solutions and education, all making upkeep of the trucks easier and supporting a longer lifetime and more efficient maintenance.

As part of this commitment, Konecranes is now launching the first of several upgrade packages, containing themed solutions that can be retrofitted to customers’ existing Konecranes lift trucks. These packages are not meant to service the trucks but improve them with updated technology.

“From the start, it was obvious to us what should be the first upgrade package: safety,” says Johan Kårhammer, Global Spare Parts Operations Manager at Konecranes Lift Trucks. “We’ve always cared deeply about improving safety in the workplace, and we believe that these additional features will be of great use to customers who want to address safety risks in their operations but are not sure where to start. In the near future, we’ll be releasing more types of upgrade packages and solutions to advance existing trucks and fleets.”

Six safety upgrades have so far been developed to address common operational risks, such as blind spots, yard staff working in the same space as moving trucks, engine overheating, impaired drivers and more. A reverse camera, reverse warning alarm, fire suppression system and ignition alcolock are just some of the solutions that address these problems. Each one is a simple addition to existing trucks, greatly improving everyday work safety to make sure that everyone returns home safely at the end of every shift.

The Konecranes global distributor network will play a key role in implementing the Lifetime Advantage commitment.

“Located in over 100 countries around the world, our distributors are local faces who can be there to help customers address their daily challenges, improve current operations and provide support whenever and wherever something unexpected happens,” says Patrik Lundbäck, Director and Head of Sales and Distribution at Konecranes Lift Trucks.

“They play a big part in the Konecranes Lifetime Advantage. This commitment is full of initiatives in very different service areas, but they all have one unique aim: to support customers to maximize their uptime and extend the lifecycle of their lift trucks as much as possible,” Lundbäck said.

Rohe Solutions, a Finnish company, is a joint venture between Hamina Energy and Alexela Energy, which sells natural gas and liquefied natural gas. Offering LNG services based on the needs of industry, heavy cargo transport and seafaring, ranging from LNG deliveries to turnkey solutions, Rohe works with the best in business in each field of industry.

Hamina Energy and Alexela, operating together as Hamina LNG Ltd, are the forces behind the Hamina LNG Terminal joint venture, a 30 000 cubic metre LNG storage tank being built at the Port of Hamina, Finland. As building is progressing according to schedule, the Terminal will be finished in the beginning of August 2020, and commercial operations will commence in the beginning of 2021.

Rohe Solutions provides LNG for the needs of industry in the township of Lieksa.

LNG is brought to the plant in separate tank containers on trailers and the containers are placed on ConFoot container legs to wait for being used.

There are two 45 cubic metre tanks present at the same time while a third tank is being filled.

The use of ConFoot container legs requires a very low level of investment, and with the container legs the LNG tank containers operate also as a logistical solution.

Mika Simola, Technical Manager of Rohe Solutions: “The starting point of the solution planning was to eliminate all separate container handling methods – e.g. reach stackers – from the container unloading area. These would have been expensive investments, and they would have required a large operational area compared with the container handling method chosen.

Working in the LNG container unloading area is now very flexible and can take place without any intermediate steps when a new container is brought to the area.

We have used ConFoot container legs for over a year now, and they have proven to be an effective and cost-efficient solution.”

ConFoot designs and manufactures patented, detachable shipping container legs that require only one person for operation.

With each leg weighing under 25 kilos, ConFoot container legs are lightweight, low-cost and have a long lifespan.
ConFoot container legs are the only portable container handling solution in the world.

The new ConFoot CF model with a capacity of 34 tons was introduced in the summer of 2019, offering extended range of use for tank container operators in particular.

Following recent news that insolvency in the manufacturing sector is at a five-year high, a leading materials handling expert in the UK is urging businesses to look beyond Brexit and examine the other factors fuelling today’s manufacturing woes. Midland Pallet Trucks, a provider of hand pallet trucks, manual stacker trucks, and lift platforms, believes that while Brexit is undoubtedly playing a part, there are other issues currently affecting manufacturing that are being overlooked due to politics.

Midland Pallet Trucks is speaking up following research by Moore, a global accountancy firm which has recently announced that insolvency amongst manufacturing businesses in the UK has risen by 7 percent in just 12 months, bringing the figure to 1,466; the highest since 2014. The report cites Brexit uncertainty and a reluctance for European businesses to partner with UK-based manufacturers as prime reasons. Midland Pallet Trucks is ready to throw another potential reason into the mix.

According to statistics published by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE), 1.4 million workers believe that they are suffering from a work-related illness, whether caused directly by their role or exacerbated by the job and, in total, more than 580,000 people were injured at work during the 2018/2019 period. Additionally, manufacturing has one of the highest rates of fatality, second only to agriculture, forestry, and fishing.

“Absolutely we must consider how the possibility and the long drawn out process of Brexit is impacting the manufacturing industry, but it is irresponsible to be looking at Brexit as the sole cause of the problem when there is very clearly another factor in play here” says Midland Pallet Trucks Managing Director Phil Chesworth. “Occupational injuries are on the rise, and my opinion is that the state of the manufacturing industry wouldn’t look nearly as dire if we were to focus efforts on improving workplace safety and employee wellbeing through the implementation of improved handling equipment and greater provision of training to minimise absences

Brexit has certainly had an impact on the manufacturing industry, with some UK organisations believing they have been cut out of the supply chain due to the potential for shipping delays and tariffs that could increases costs in a no-deal Brexit.

However, production cannot be overlooked as a major concern. Health & Safety Practitioner reports that workplace illnesses are on the rise, with sick-related absences standing at 2.3% last year, up from 2.2% in 2017, with the average worker taking 5.3 days sick leave per year. This figure is higher for those in manual roles, with manual workers taking 6.8 days on average compared to 3.9 days for non-manual job roles.