Reason for this call-out was the baptism of the new barge ship ‘Newford’, operated by iBarge, joint venture of Van Moer Logistics.
“The logistic sector is the most important division for branches like chemistry, building, retail, telecom and many more. It’s in our DNA and logistics are the future”, words of the CCO himself.
This statement was illustrated with a few numbers.
The fleet of trucks travel 93.000 km on a daily basis. The fourth inland terminal at Blue Gate will take its place in the portfolio of Van Moer Logistics, next to Vilvoorde, Bornem and Hoboken (Umicore).
Together with the firm Buermans, they handled 10 million tonnes in 2016, equal to 9.000 barges – 34 barges daily.
Crossdock activities , inland terminals and trucks represent a handled volume of 80.000 tonnes a day.
“These are numbers that speak for themselves and even break records.
But unfortunately we also break other records. 2016 was the year of congestion and traffic jams, and there is no improvement in sight.”
Commitment
“How are we planning to develop logistics even more in the next decades? How do we make sure that this unique world leading Port can still use her trumps within the competitive market?
This is something we have to think about as the Antwerp Port community, ”Dennie Lockefeer said Looking at the newly baptised Newford.
Big industrial players are afraid of risks, and that’s where we want to make the difference. We offer a combination of barges and trucks.
And this concept would be even more successful if logistic players work more closely together. Logistics service providers, shipping lines, terminals…
We all need each other to offer an alternative way of transportation that is profitable and durable.
“The Newford has a terminal potential of 3.200 m2 on board, this is capacity that can be used for other loads if we are able to discharge the containers in a faster pace.”
He also wondered how the detention- and demurrage costs could be lowered.
Let us not only build the biggest, but also the most efficient and durable Port of the world.”
iBarge
iBarge was created in 2015 from bargeoperator MCC. The same year it launched together with Mexico Natie the intraport shuttle LeftBank Solutions.
This service still exists, due to the relocation of the terminals to the Left Bank.
With the addition of the Newford, iBarge now counts four ships. The new barge has a capacity of 208 TEU and will operate together with ‘Stanford’ within the Port and the Vilvoorde – Antwerp connection.
Barge ‘Oxford’ with a capacity of 421 TEU operates between Antwerpen – Neuss. Barge ‘Lucia’ has a capacity of 135 TEU and can be expanded with a pushed barge.
‘Newford’ is 110m long and almost 12m wide, equipped with low-emission engines (CCR2-norm) and will transport IMO and reefer containers.
“We currently transport 52.000 TEU on a yearly basis and are expecting this volume to increase with 30% to 80.000 TEU or even 100.000 TEU. “
According to CEO, Olivier De Smedt. “With ‘Newford’ we have an important expansion of the fleet and this way iBarge is ready to handle the expected growth.”
