Month: January 2020

Agility, a leading global logistics provider, and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, announced at Davos this week a partnership that will strengthen the delivery of essential services to refugees in Malaysia, in particular for vulnerable communities living away from the country’s capital.

The partnership, announced at the World Economic Forum, includes a $100,000 donation from Agility. UNHCR will use the funds to establish pilot programs in Johor and Penang, Malaysia, to bring critically needed services to more than 12,000 refugees, including refugee card renewal, access to essential information related to protection, and to receive counselling on available services.

There are some 178,000 refugees registered with UNHCR in Malaysia. Agility’s donation will allow UNHCR to further extend support to more than 12,000 refugees, most of them Rohingyas from Myanmar. With local engagement and support, Agility and UNHCR will eliminate the need for vulnerable refugees to travel 300+ kilometres from their homes to Kuala Lumpur to have access to vital services, including refugee card renewal.

H.R.H. Prince Jaime de Bourbon de Parme, Senior Advisor for Private Sector Partnerships, UNHCR, said, “Agility’s contribution is an important demonstration of solidarity from the Kuwait private sector and one that will improve the safety and well-being of thousands of refugees in Malaysia, a country that has a long history of hosting displaced populations. The global size and scale of displacement requires us to go beyond the business as usual approach and I am confident that Agility’s gesture will inspire the private sector to upscale its support to refugees.”

France-based pharma logistics specialist EHDH says it wishes to acquire Movianto from Owens & Minor (NYSE: OMI). This transaction would create the European leader in transport and logistics services dedicated to the pharmaceutical sector, it says. Stéphane Baudry (above), Chairman and CEO of EHDH, will remain the group’s majority shareholder.

The proposed transaction fits with the strategy and vision of both groups, said EHDH in a statement. “Thanks to this structuring acquisition, EHDH would be able to leverage Movianto’s geographical coverage, reputation and resources to offer the first ‘one-stop-shop’ logistics solution throughout Europe. Selling Movianto would also allows Owens & Minor to focus on its core value proposition.”

Stéphane Baudry, CEO of EHDH said: “The quality of operations, the solid reputation and the values of Movianto are perfectly consistent with EHDH. This opportunity comes at a key moment in our development and in response to market demand for a single contact to handle all logistics and transport services at European level.” The contemplated transaction is subject to ordinary closing conditions, regulatory approvals and mandatory works council discussions. Once this process has been completed, the transaction is expected to be completed in the first half of 2020.”

The latest analysis by the property consulting company Realogis on the letting volume of storage, logistics and production space in the Greater Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region* confirms the downward trend that started at the beginning of the year. While take-up was already down 13% year-on-year at the end of the first half of 2019 (H1 2019: 262,200 sqm, H1 2018: 300,000 sqm), 454,000 sqm of space was brokered by all market participants in the year as a whole (-36%). Consequently, the market delivered its worst result in the last five years, and also fell 22% short of the five-year average of 578,800 sqm.

“In the years leading up to 2019, the Rhine-Main region saw very high levels of construction of large spaces with direct letting,” comments Adriano Borgia, Managing Director of Realogis Immobilien Frankfurt GmbH. “However, the decline in the result last year should not be overstated for the time being. Companies with large space requirements will locate in the outskirts in future, i.e. in peripheral locations 50 km or more outside the core region of Frankfurt.”

“The Rhine-Main South region again posted the strongest letting activity in the reporting period, although the figure was approx. 200,000 sqm less than in the previous year,” says Irina Lysenko, research analyst at the Realogis Group. At approx. 234,264 sqm, Offenbach, Gross-Gerau, Darmstadt and Bergstrasse accounted for more than half the space brokered.

The regions with the next highest take-up were Rhine-Main East (19%, 86,260 sqm), Mainz/Wiesbaden (approx. 10%; 46,310 sqm) and Frankfurt (around 8%; 34,500 sqm). “Rhine-Main North” (27,240 sqm) and “Rhine-Main West” (25,424 sqm) each had a share of around 6% of market activity in 2019.

Total take-up in 2019 was dominated by units of 5,000 sqm or more (64%, 290,560 sqm), with a focus on the 7,500 sqm and under segment. Demand for units up to 20,000 sqm was also strong.

Konecranes has signed contracts with Yilport for the delivery of Automated RTG systems to three of Yilport’s European container terminals, two in Portugal and one in Sweden.

Yilport has global ambitions to become a top-ten global operator of container terminals. This investment in three Konecranes Automated RTG systems, each with six Konecranes ARTGs operated under a supervised operation concept, is a major step towards achieving those ambitions, it says. The systems will be built as extensions to the container yards of Yilport’s Gävle container terminal in Sweden and the Liscont and Leixões terminals in Portugal. Each system will have four Remote Operating Stations (ROSs).

Robert Yuksel Yildirim, President and CEO of Yildirim Group, which owns Yilport, said: “Konecranes have a very solid and good reputation for their reliable, automated e-RTG cranes. Since 6 of these e-RTG cranes are going to be used in Sweden and 12 in Portugal, we believe Konecranes’ technical support will be key in our decision to choose Konecranes.”

The 18 Konecranes ARTGs on order are fully electric machines powered by busbar systems. They are 16-wheel machines stacking
1-over-6 high and 7 containers + truck lane wide in Gävle and Liscont, and 6 containers + truck lane wide in Leixões. They will be equipped with the Konecranes Active Load Control (ALC) system, which eliminates container sway and enables highly productive automated operation. They will also be equipped with a suite of smart features under the supervised operation concept.