chemical logistics SPECIAL ISSUE • STORCK PUBLISHING ...

chemical logistics 

SPECIAL ISSUE • STORCK PUBLISHING • HAMBURG 2009 

PARTNERSHIPS: 

Examples of Integration 

and Collaboration 

A Supplement of Storck Publishing 2009 

BEST PRACTICES: 

Safety, Security and 

Driver Communication 

MAGIC WORDS: 

Responsible Care 

and Green Logistics

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and cost competitiveness in combination with an excellent Health and Safety performance. 

The development of comprehensive freight management solutions and state of the art warehousing 

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For detailed information 

please call for our electronic 

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More than you think 

�� +��

EDITORIAL 

chemical logistics 2009 

Uwe Heins 

Chief Editor 

Supply 

Chain Reaction 

There are just a few examples of supply chain 

collaboration in chemical industries. Primarily, this 

is due to the fact that most leading managers on the 

producing side still disagree in sharing whatever 

with a logistics service provider, a competitor, the public or 

whoever. They just keep ruling everyone. 

Then, there are those who cautiously try out one or the 

other service project, do some small-scale co-operation, 

but feel there is no big gain from that. 

Finally, there are those in chemical industry who ask 

their favoured LSPs to make proposals for optimized 

logistics processes or who at least are open for 

suggestions. 

There indeed are examples of collaboration in chemical 

industry. Horizontal collaboration between producers and 

Logistics Service Providers (LSPs) exist, but very few is 

published on the subject. It is however recognized that 

innovative LSPs may act as key drivers in this field. By 

providing added-value services, which go far beyond pure 

transport, they initiate vertical collaboration as a precursor 

to greater horizontal collaboration. 

The European Petrochemical Association (EPCA) and 

the European Chemical Transport Association (ECTA) do a 

significant job in promoting these seminal goals. This 

present brochure shall serve as another pacemaker in the 

right direction and show that supply chain optimization 

has only just begun. 

BULK LOGISTICS 

Your expert partner! 

High performance, flexibility, safety, fi rstclass 

equipment and a worldwide presence: 

HOYER logistics isn’t just transportation 

from A to B – it’s logistics from A to Z for: 

bulk transports (liquid) 

filling and blending 

dangerous goods storage 

transhipment terminals 

on-site logistics and outsourcing 

Chemicals 

Food 

Gas 

Petrol 

Custom-made logistics solutions for the 

chemical, mineral oil, gas and foodstuff 

industries. Benefit from our international 

network. 

HOYER GmbH Internationale Fachspedition 

Wendenstraße 414 - 424 20537 Hamburg 

Phone +49 40 21044 - 0 Fax +49 40 21044 - 246 

www.hoyer-group.com hoyer@hoyer-group.com 

3

CONTENTS 

Depressed demand for chemicals and fleet oversupply 

has increased competition in coastal 

trades. Ethylene Carriers are much better off. 

page 8 

BEST PRACTICES 

12 A Key to Profitability 

The Cefic Responsible Care 

Program for ecological and 

economical sustainability 

14 Responsible Action pays off 

Talke’s experiences with 

operations according to 

Responsible Care principles 

16 Reaching Common Goals 

ECTA members intensely 

strive to make business 

safer and more profitable 

20 Green Operations 

Interview: Michael Kubenz 

about Green Logistics and 

sustainability 

22 Talk to me ... 

Den Hartogh continuously 

introduces most modern 

technology for safety gains 

This is a special issue in English language 

and integral part of the October issue 2009 

of the German magazine gefährliche ladung. 

Safety 

Listening to LSP proposals for optimizing the 

supply chain will in most cases result in cost 

savings and safer procedures. 

page 26 

COLLABORATION 

24 Green Field, blue Sky 

Agility and the Schmidt 

Group build up logistics 

services in the Middle East 

25 Tanking up liquid Energy 

Wincanton and Chevron are 

partners in fuel distribution 

26 Mammoth Project is on Course 

Bertschi is lead logistics 

provider (LLP) for a new 

project of LyondellBasell 

MARKET TRENDS 

5 Managing the Supply Chain 

A report on present logistics 

trends and strategies 

IMPRINT 

Verlagsgruppe Hüthig Jehle Rehm GmbH 

Storck Verlag Hamburg 

Striepenweg 31, 21147 Hamburg/Germany 

Tel: 040/7 97 13-01 

Fax: 040/7 97 13-101 

Internet: www.gelaweb.de 

Editor: 

Uwe Heins -130 

eMail: uh@storck-verlag.de 

Intermodal liquid bulk logistics for hazardous chemicals 

Rail transport is ecologically worthwhile not 

alone on long trips. Intelligent logistics offer 

advantages even with local transports. 

page 28 

OPERATIONS 

8 The long, slow Road to Recovery 

A market survey on 

chemical tanker shipping 

10 Ethylene Carrier Fleet Surge 

LPG carriers are enjoying 

demand for their services 

28 Practical even on the short Legs 

Chemion’s innovative and 

intelligent logistics on rails 

30 Flexibility on Rails 

Interview on ChemOil’s 

network capabilities 

Advertising: 

Horst Hamann -120 

eMail: hh@storck-verlag.de 

Sales: 

Dagmar Schwemmler -161 

eMail: vertrieb@storck-verlag.de 

Production: 

Storck Druckerei GmbH & Co. KG, Hamburg 

eMail: vormann@storck-druckerei.de 

Place of Delivery and Jurisdiction: Heidelberg 

www.InterBulkGroup.com 

4 chemical logistics 2009

The results of the study show 

that globalization remains 

one of the dominant megatrends 

in the logistics world, 

affecting companies in all sectors 

of the manufacturing, commerce 

and service industries. 

New competitors and the 

increasing price of raw materials 

forced companies to relocate production 

facilities or build new 

ones. Commodities in particular 

are being moved closer to the raw 

materials or cheaper sources of 

energy. To meet rising worldwide 

demand, producers are constructing 

integrated sites in those locations, 

which have significantly 

more capacity than the facilities in 

Europe. The final processing 

steps are carried out as close to 

the customer as possible, increasing 

the complexity of logistics 

operations between the sites. 

Rising costs for distribution 

The proportion of raw materials, 

intermediates and final products 

which are on the move has risen 

dramatically. The European 

Chemical Industry Council 

(CEFIC) estimates that chemical 

industry is currently shipping 

around 1.5 billion mt of goods a 

year. This is equivalent to 5 % of 

total freight volumes in the EU, 

and the routes tend to be longer. 

The goods travel 50 % further by 

road and 80 % further by rail 

compared to average freight 

shipments in the EU. 

The heavy volume of traffic in 

Europe is already impeding shipment 

of chemical goods in 

Europe, and the situation is likely 

to get worse over the next ten 

years when freight volumes are 

expected to increase by 50 %. 

Rising raw material and energy 

prices, the environmental impact, 

major bottlenecks in the transportation 

network and relocation 

of production facilities to countries 

in the East are increasing the 

pressure on the supply chain. 

Transportation and inventory 

costs are rising, and logistics is 

becoming a crucial competitive 

factor in the chemical industry 

despite the fact that its importance 

is often underestimated. 


Managing the Supply Chain 

Intermodal transportation 

for cost reduction 

Experts estimate that logistics 

costs amount to around 10 % of 

turnover. These costs can be broken 

down into freight, warehousing, 

handling, management and 

administrative costs. According 

to a study which was conducted 

jointly by CEFIC and EPA (US 

Environmental Protection 

Agency), logistics and supply 

chain operations in the chemical 

industry cost up to 60 billion 

Euros. A significant portion of this 

money is spent on freight transportation. 

A range of collaborative activities 

can be undertaken to drive 

down these costs. In the past, 

logistics and supply chain activities 

have been capacity driven for 

the most part. Improved planning, 

increased visibility and more reli- 

able scheduling could drastically 

reduce the need for „firefighting”. 

Alliances could reduce the number 

of shipments and avoid costly 

empty runs. Experts estimate that 

15 - 30 % of freight transportation 

capacity is unused, because there 

is no load on the return trip. 

Intermodal strategies, i.e. the 

combination of different carriers 

(truck, train, aircraft, ship), can 

increase the efficiency of bulk 

freight transportation. A CEFIC 

study indicates that companies 

could save 10 Euros per mt or 

more. Other strategies include 

collaboration between customers 

and suppliers (vertical collaboration), 

which increases utilization 

of transportation capacity. 

Cooperation between multiple 

consignors (horizontal collaboration) 

using the same service 

provider is another option. 

MARKET TRENDS 

TRENDS IN SCM – The Universities of Applied Sciences in Berlin and Darmstadt 

joined forces in 2008 to conduct a study called „Logistics Trends and Strategies 

– Evolving Global Networks”. This is the relating Trend Report No. 9. 

Storage and Distribution 

of chemical 

products and intermediates 

should be 

handled by those 

with a core competence 

in this 

business – 

the Logistics Service 

Providers. 

5

MARKET TRENDS 

A customer might 

ship bulk goods in 

large containers to an 

IBC (intermediate 

bulk container) 

manufacturer which 

not only packages 

the bulk goods in the 

right IBCs but also 

takes responsibility 

for labeling, batch 

management, transportation, 

quality 

assurance and 

customs/shipping 

administration. 

These strategies also make an 

active contribution to environmental 

protection and resource 

conservation, and this is something 

which freight forwarders 

that handle chemical goods are 

quick to point out. In October 

2008 CEFIC signed an agreement 

with ECTA (European Chemical 

Transport Association) to extend 

the chemical industry’s Responsible 

Care Initiative to the freight 

transportation sector (see page 

12). Many companies have 

already initiated specific programs 

to reduce CO 2 emissions in 

their shipping operations including 

a reduction in the number of 

shipments, driver training to cut 

fuel consumption and replacement 

of older vehicles. 

The chemical industry has also 

not yet embraced enhanced service 

models. Most producers only 

take advantage of the actual 

freight forwarding services which 

logistics companies can provide. 

These service providers could 

also perform other activities such 

as distribution planning, billing, 

warehousing and processing of 

returns. In the supply chain of the 

future, they could take responsibility 

for the entire coordination, 

organization and optimization of 

the logistics business process 

throughout the value chain. 

Many chemical companies are 

building up flexible, adaptable 

value chains or networks which 

are tailored to the needs of the 

international marketplace. The 

emphasis is on uncompromising 

customer focus and the optimization 

of production and distribution 

processes based on comprehensive 

planning for all stages of 

the value-add process. 

Managing the flows 

In corporate networks which typically 

include procurement, production, 

distribution and customer 

stages, fluctuations in the 

production rate tend to rise as the 

distance between the value-add 

stage and the customer increases. 

The chemical industry, where 

commodities are at the end of the 

supply chain, is a good example. 

Flexible production is needed to 

cope with large fluctuations. 

This however is difficult to 

achieve in the chemical industry. 

With continuous production, a lot 

of effort is involved in changing 

over to new products. Even minor 

fluctuations in demand result in 

enormous differences at the production 

and procurement end. 

Merely increasing the efficiency 

of production systems without 

giving due consideration to what 

is happening upstream and 

downstream simply makes matters 

worse. The only way to avoid 

the bullwhip effect is to implement 

multi-site planning and 

process coordination. In the final 

analysis however, the goal of 

seamlessly integrating the various 

stages of the supply chain 

must be to maximize customer 

satisfaction and minimize cost. 

Emphasis on customer needs 

So far, noticeable improvement 

has been limited to certain segments 

of the supply chain, resulting 

for example in faster capacity 

adjustment, reduced inventory 

levels and increased flexibility. 

However, there is still plenty of 

potential that could be exploited. 

The tendency to use system utilization 

rather than delivery performance 

as a management metric 

is one example, and that can 

be a costly mistake. SMEs (small 

and medium sized enterprises) 

which produce fine chemicals as 

well as the giants of the industry 

are going to have to increase their 

focus on customer needs. Most 

chemical products are tailored to 

customer requirements (e.g. 

automotive paint and polymers 

which are used in construction 

chemicals), and they have to be 

delivered just in time. 

There is no single supply chain 

which is shared by all customers. 

Dedicated supply chains are 

required for different products or 

customers, and this creates the 

need for varying service levels 

which are targeted at specific 

product and customer segments. 

For instance for customer A, quality 

might be the overriding consideration 

which takes precedence 

over the delivery schedule, 

whereas customer B might 

demand just-in-time delivery. 

Alternative modes of transportation, 

different inventory levels 

and decentralized warehousing 

are a possible solution. As a side 

effect, a profit maximization 

analysis on each customer/product 

segment will quickly reveal 

which service is delivering the 

best return. However, purchasing, 

sales and production cannot 

always reach a consensus on the 

optimum supply chain strategy. 

Sales generally concentrates on 

volumes, whereas production is 

more focused on utilization. 


The need for 

collaborative strategies 

Enhanced supply chain strategies 

such as Supply Chain Event 

Management (SCEM), Supply 

Chain Collaboration (SCC) and 

Transport Management are likely 

to become increasingly attractive 

in the future. Collaboration with 

third parties can make an important 

contribution to improved 

competitiveness in the supply 

chain, and it offers new ways of 

exploiting cost reduction and efficiency 

improvement opportunities. 

Specific cooperation models 

can take the form of CPFR (Collaborative 

Planning, Forecast & 

Replenishment) or VMI (Vendor 

Managed Inventory). 

With the latter approach, the 

supplier autonomously manages 

replenishment logistics, eliminating 

one stage in the warehousing 

process, reducing administrative 

overhead and cutting lead times. 

There is a closer relationship with 

the supplier, and it is not simply 

terminated when times get tough. 

This type of arrangement presupposes 

an exchange of planning or 

inventory data to ensure that production 

rhythms remain in sync. 

Suppliers are aware of their customers’ 

inventory levels and can 

adjust their production plans 

accordingly. Shorter lead times 

and improved delivery performance 

can be a real asset during 

the new customer acquisition 

process, and it can also promote 

active customer involvement in 

the business relationship. Successful 

collaborative relationships 

already exist in the chemical 

industry, for example between 

PE/PP producers and companies 

that make fine chemicals. 

Supply Chain Event Management 

(SCEM) is also attracting 

considerable attention. It is not 

enough to simply produce and 

store raw materials and finished 

products. These goods also have 

to be transported and managed. 

The process includes packaging 

and shipping, selection of the 

freight forwarder, receiving at the 

customer site, transmission of 

receipt confirmation to the sender 

and billing. 

Supply Chain Event Management 

solutions provide a mechanism 

for ensuring dependable, 

on-time delivery performance. 

Timely information can be provided 

to the customer if delays 

occur. The responsible individuals 

are notified when problems 

arise, giving them the opportunity 

to react when, for example, two 

products cannot be shipped 

together for safety reasons, there 

is a shortage of packing material, 

a freight forwarder has sent the 

goods to the wrong destination or 

the distribution facilities are overloaded. 

Putting an early warning 

system in place to identify and 

correct deviations from plan 

reduces reaction time in the logistics 

chain. The system can initiate 

corrective action based on predefined 

rules, minimizing the need 

for manual intervention in standard 

business operations. Parameters 

can include standard metrics 

such as delivery performance 

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Cross carrier forwarding with tank containers 

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Rail logistics company with main focus on 

transport of hazardous goods 

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as well as company-specific metrics 

such as the number of containers 

that are delayed in customer 

clearance or frequent 

changes of customer orders. 

Before companies can optimize 

the supplier-customer relationship, 

they must be firmly in 

control of their own material and 

information flows. Process transparency, 

accurate data, high-precision 

process modeling and a 

functioning IT environment are 

only a few of the things that have 

to be in place before companies 

embark on an enhancement of 

the supply chain management. 

Outlook 

The turbulence in the world market 

is making it more apparent 

than ever how well companies 

are able to cope with market 

uncertainty. Are they firmly in 

control of the business process 

and have they fully understood 

the mutual supplier-customer 

relationship? 

Supply chain management 

strategies help companies to 

identify, diagnose and solve 

glitches before they develop into 

costly problems. To deliver efficient 

service to its customers, a 

company needs real time information 

about problems in the 

supply chain. The primary purpose 

of SCM strategies is to 

reduce throughput times, boost 

efficiency and improve delivery 

performance. However, users are 

also better prepared to take 

appropriate action during periods 

of market fluctuation. ■ 

MARKET TRENDS 

Largest privately owned wagon fleet in Europe 

www.vtg.com 

7

MARKET TRENDS 

Increasing Middle 

East petrochemical 

exports are a bright 

spot, boosting 

chemical tanker 

tonne-mile figures. 

The long, slow Road to Recovery 

CHEMICAL TANKERS – One year ago experienced chemical tanker operators suspected 

that the overheating market was about to turn. However, no one envis- 

aged the scale of the impending collapse. BY MIKE CORKHILL 

Mike Corkhill is a 

technical journalist 

and consultant 

specialised in oil, 

gas and chemical 

transport, including 

tanker shipping and 

chemical logistics. 

A qualified Naval 

Architect, he has 

written books on 

LNG, LPG, chemical 

and product tankers 

and is currently the 

Editor of both LNG 

World Shipping and 

LPG World Shipping. 

The outlook for both coastal 

and deepsea chemical 

tankers is uncertain, as the 

global chemical industry struggles 

to cope with the effects of the 

economic recession and the credit 

crunch. The market for the less 

sophisticated, coated deepsea 

chemical tankers is particularly 

depressed due to the heavy 

reliance of such ships on the 

movement of clean petroleum 

products, vegetable oils, ethanol 

and commodity chemicals as spot 

and short-term cargoes. The 

freight rates commanded by 

smaller stainless steel ships 

engaged in regional distribution 

activities are also much reduced, 

due to high levels of competition 

in the sector. 

COA stability 

The demand for deepsea chemical 

parcel tankers is somewhat 

healthier, not least because of the 

importance of contracts of 

affreightment (COAs) in this seg- 

ment. Shippers of speciality 

chemicals in the stainless steel 

cargo tanks of the parcel tankers 

need to be assured of the ability to 

deliver their products on time and 

on specification more than shippers 

of commodity chemicals. In 

general chemical producers have 

renewed their 2009 COAs with 

parcel tanker operators at rates 

and volumes which are only marginally 

below those of 2008. 

Nevertheless, even deepsea 

parcel tankers are suffering in the 

current market, as a result of the 

number of new ships being delivered 

this year, the depressed spot 

freight rates, the reduced 

demand for chemicals and the 

faltering performance of the leading 

economies worldwide. While 

the continuing robustness of Chinese 

industrial activity holds the 

promise of improving business 

levels, consumer confidence in 

the US and Europe has evaporated 

and is unlikely to recover for at 

least another two years. 

Stolt experience 

Stolt Tankers and Terminals, 

which operates a worldwide fleet 

of 150 chemical tankers, comprising 

80 coastal and inland vessels 

and 70 coated deepsea tankers 

and sophisticated parcel carriers, 

reports a 25 % decrease in operating 

revenue during the first half 

of 2009 compared to the same 

period a year earlier, down to US$ 

491.3 million from US$ 659.1 million 

in 2008. At the same time the 

company reports an operating 

loss of US$ 800,000 for the first six 

months of 2009, compared to an 

operating profit of US$ 66.9 million 

in the first half of 2008. 

Stolt attributes the declines in 

revenues and profits to lower 

deepsea and regional freight volumes, 

as demand plunged in 

December 2008 and January 

2009, and a drop in spot market 

freight rates of as much as 27 % in 

the first quarter of 2009. Other 

factors contributing to the sharp 

fall in chemical movements were 

inventory destocking and the 

absence of credit to fund trade. 

Stolt’s overall fleet activity in 

terms of trading days decreased 

by 12.7 per cent in the first half of 

2009 compared with the same 

period last year. The decline 

reflects, amongst other things, 

the various defensive measures 

adopted by the company in the 

face of the recession, including 


the scrapping of nine chemical 

tankers, the sale of one vessel, 

the net return of five time-chartered 

ships and the withdrawal of 

three time-chartered ships by 

other partners in the joint services 

operated by the company. 

The cost decreases in 2009 for 

Stolt, in terms of lower ship fuel 

charges, decreased port charges 

and lower time charter costs following 

the redelivery of the timechartered 

vessels, was partly offset 

by bunker fuel hedging losses 

of US$ 32.5 million in the first six 

months of 2009. The high hedging 

losses were caused by the 

dramatic fall in oil prices in summer 

2008. 

On the positive side 

Looking to the future, chemical 

tanker owners and operators 

have identified a number of positive 

developments. First, the 

recession has accelerated a trend 

that was already becoming 

apparent in recent years. A number 

of new petrochemical production 

complexes have been 

commissioned in the Middle East 

as governments in the region 

have sought to add value to their 

cheap and plentiful oil and gas 

resources by using them as feedstock 

in new downstream petrochemical 

plants. 

The availability of new supplies 

of competitively priced 

petrochemicals in the Middle 

East plus the recent start-up of 

new, world-scale petrochemical 

complexes in China have forced 

the closure of older, less efficient 

plants in the US and Europe. 

These developments are also 

altering the traditional chemical 

tanker trade routes. For shipowners 

the net effect of the growing 

volume of Middle East exports 

and continued strong demand in 


China translates into increased 

tonne-mile figures and additional 

employment opportunities for 

their ships. 

Furthermore, owners of chemical 

tankers are negotiating with 

shippers with the aim of further 

increasing the share of COA coverage 

within their overall business 

portfolios. More COAs of 

longer duration enhance the ability 

of ship operators to plan ahead 

based on assured cash flows at 

acceptable levels. For their part 

in these negotiations, shippers 

have to weigh up the advantages 

offered by the current low freight 

rates in the spot market against 

the current volatility in the tanker 

trades and the planning difficulties 

associated with securing 

ships to deliver their cargoes at 

short notice. 

Fleet oversupply 

Unfortunately for shipowners 

there are a comparatively large 

number of new chemical tankers 

currently on order, the majority of 

which will be delivered by the 

middle of 2010. This new tonnage 

will act to delay any recovery in 

the shipping market. However, 

on the plus side, because no new 

chemical tanker has been 

ordered in the last 12 months, 

fleet oversupply will begin to 

decline from the second half of 

2010 onwards. 

Experienced operators of 

chemical tanker fleets also 

employ other strategies to help 

minimise the impact of a market 

collapse. For example, by maintaining 

a mix of owned and timechartered 

ships, operators can 

facilitate a quicker balancing of 

fleet supply and demand and the 

spreading of asset risks. Ships are 

chartered during periods of high 

demand and redelivered during 

Flexibility 

Intermodal dry bulk logistics for minerals 

periods of soft demand. Also, by 

operating a fleet with a balanced 

age profile, older ships can be 

removed from service and 

scrapped when demand is soft or 

be put through life extension programmes 

during periods of 

strong demand. 

Although the extent of the 

chemical tanker market collapse 

in 2008 caught all shipowners by 

surprise, many of the more experienced 

operators were becoming 

suspicious of the overheating 

economic activity during the 

course of last year. They were in 

the process of strengthening their 

defensive fleet management 

strategies when the crash 

occurred. 

Long road back 

Given the depth of the worldwide 

economic downturn, the chemical 

tanker freight markets have 

held up reasonably well. The 

rates negotiated for COA 

renewals in the first half of 2009, 

for example, were only marginally 

down on last year’s. Furthermore, 

the spot freight rates, 

which plunged so dramatically at 

the end of 2008, have also recovered 

to a considerable extent for 

speciality chemicals. However, 

the spot rates for commodity 

chemicals still remain significantly 

below 2008 levels. 

Going forward into 2010, 

chemical tanker owners expect a 

continued improvement in the 

speciality and commodity chemical 

markets, albeit at a relatively 

slow and weak pace. Owing to 

uncertainties about how 

economies will rebound and 

future consumer preferences, 

shipowners do not expect a 

strong recovery in the chemical 

tanker market for at least another 

two years. ■ 

MARKET TRENDS 


9

MARKET TRENDS 

Thetagas - one of the 

three new 9,000 m 3 

ethylene carriers for 

the Unigas pool from 

the STX yard in 

Korea. 

Ethylene Carrier Fleet Surge 

ETHYLENE TRANSPORT – Unlike the many other currently 

expanding sectors of the world shipping fleet, ethylene carriers 

are enjoying a healthy demand for their services. BY MIKE CORKHILL 

The transport of ethylene by 

sea in bulk has been one of 

the fastest growing segments 

of the liquefied gas shipping business 

in recent years. Spurred by 

the promise of greatly increased 

exports of ethylene from the Middle 

East, most of the leading operators 

of semi-pressurised/fully 

refrigerated (semi-ref) gas carriers 

have been adding new, specialist 

liquefied ethylene gas carriers 

(LEGCs) to their fleets in 

recent years. Able to carry ethylene 

at temperatures as low as - 

104 °C as well as a range of other 

petrochemical gas and LPG cargoes, 

LEGCs are amongst the 

most sophisticated and flexible of 

the semi-ref gas carriers. 

Ethylene is a key building 

block in petrochemical manufacture 

and Middle East oil and gas 

producers have been keen to add 

value to their precious hydrocarbons 

by building downstream 

processing plants in their own 

countries, including ethylene 

production facilities. 

Mitigating market factors 

Although the demand for LEGCs, 

like that for other types of gas carrier, 

has suffered during 2009 due 

to the global economic recession, 

LEGCs have been less badly hit. 

Following a slump in demand for 

petrochemical gases in late 2008 

and early 2009, the shipment of 

petrochemical gases began to 

pick up again in spring 2009. 

Competitively priced Middle 

East ethylene has attracted buyer 

interest in Asia while the growing 

popularity of low inventories and 

just-in-time deliveries at a time of 

product price volatility has resulted 

in a growing number of longhaul 

spot voyages, mainly for the 

transport of large parcels of butadiene, 

propylene and vinyl chloride 

monomer (VCM) from North 

West Europe, the US Gulf and 

Brazil on long voyages to destinations 

in Asia. 

Shippers of ethylene tend to 

favour contract of affreightment 

(COA) arrangements and 

shipowners with strong COA 

portfolios are particularly well 

placed to weather the storm during 

times of market recession. 

Throughout 2009 LEGC owners 

report that they have been able to 

renegotiate their COA contracts 

with shippers at or near last year’s 

levels. In contrast, freight rates for 

spot cargoes are down significantly 

on the levels that pertained 

in the market in early 2008. 

Enter Lauritzen Kosan 

Amongst the ship operators that 

have made major investments in 

LEGCs in recent years are Lauritzen 

Kosan, GasChem-Gasmare, 

Navigator Gas, Unigas and 

Eitzen. Lauritzen Kosan of 

Copenhagen has made a dramatic 

entry onto the world ethylene 

stage as a result of orders for a 

series of 10 new 8,000 m 3 ships at 

the Sekwang yard in Korea and 

the acquisition of three 9,000 m 3 

newbuilding resales. 

When the order for the Sekwang 

ships was placed in 2004, 

they were the largest gas carriers 

and the first LEGCs ever contracted 

by Lauritzen Kosan. The 

10 newbuildings are named the 

Isabella Kosan-class after the first 

ship in the series, which was 

delivered in 2007. The construction 

program is now nearing completion 

and all the vessels will be 

in service by the end of 2009. 

The Isabella Kosan-class 

LEGCs are the first gas carriers 

designed to comply with the 

International Maritime Organization’s 

(IMO) Green Passport concept 

and the CLEANSHIP class 

notation for pollution prevention. 

Another technical innovation on 

these ships is the use of deckmounted, 

easily exchanged intermodal 

tank containers for change 

of cargo grade operations, as 

opposed to the fixed deck tanks 

normally fitted for this purpose. 

Both 20-foot and 40-foot intermodal 

pressure vessel tanks are 


utilised for gassing up the ship’s 

main cargo tanks with LPG while 

40-foot cryogenic tank containers 

are provided for ethylene. 

This arrangement enables a 

vessel’s deck tank composition to 

be adjusted to suit its commercial 

trade. The combination of tank 

containers also enables a complete 

change of atmosphere in 

the ship’s cargo tanks without the 

need to vent any product into the 

atmosphere or to call at a shore 

terminal. 

In addition, the Isabella 

Kosan-class LEGCs have two 

separate compressor shelters as 

opposed to the single, central 

compressor shelter fitted on other 

semi-ref gas carriers. Besides 

providing redundancy, the twoshelter 

configuration enables the 

length of the cargo piping on the 

ship to be shortened, thus reducing 

heat ingress and pressure drop 

during cooling operations and 

considerably reducing energy. 

The current GasChem-Gasmare 

pool of 32 gas carriers in the 

4-17,000 m 3 range has a total 

capacity of 217,000 m 3 . There are 

a further 13 ships on order, aggregating 

117,000 m 3 and due for 

delivery in 2009 and 2010. The 13 

newbuildings comprise not only 

ships that will serve as like-forlike 

replacements for older vessels 

in the fleet but also four 

handy-size ethylene/LPG carriers 

of 17,000 m 3 . The 17,000 m 3 

ethylene carriers will have a 

greater lifting capacity than the 

fleet’s earlier vessels of his type 

and are being provided to meet 

market needs for larger LEGCs 

offering improved economies of 

scale. 

Navigator Gas is currently 

adding three new 20,750 m 3 semiref 

LPG carriers to its fleet of five 

22,000 m 3 LEGCs. The first two 

ships have now been completed 


by Hyundai Mipo Dockyard in 

Korea while the third vessel will 

be delivered in October this year. 

The five Navigator LEGCs are at 

the upper end of the size range 

for semi-ref gas carriers. 

Such benefits were evidenced 

in summer 2008 when Navigator 

Gas ships successfully lifted two 

12,000-tonne cargoes of ethylene 

in Houston for South American 

destinations. The two cargoes 

were the largest parcels of ethylene 

ever transported by sea and 

on both occasions the cargoes 

were delivered to two separate 

South American discharge ports. 

The delivery of six new LEGCs 

– comprising three of 9,000 m 3 and 

three of 10,000 m 3 – over the last 18 

months has completed the latest 

phase in the ongoing fleet renewal 

programme of the United Gas 

Carriers (Unigas) pool of ships. 

The newbuildings have boosted 

the Unigas fleet to 29 vessels, 14 of 

which are able to carry ethylene. 

All the Unigas vessels delivered 

since 2000 have nitrogen plants 

and the latest six LEGCs also have 

a deck tank to facilitate change of 

grade operations. 

J.B. Ugland has effectively 

become the fourth member of the 

Unigas pool with the contribution 

of three 10,000 m 3 LEGCs to the 

fleet in 2008. Built by the INP 

yard in Korea, the ships are the 

largest vessels in the Unigas fleet. 

The other pool partners are Othello 

Shipping of Copenhagen, the 

Schulte Group of Hamburg and 

Sloman Neptun of Bremen. 

Following a decision in 2008 

by Eitzen Gas and Norgas to halt 

the operation of their LEGC pool, 

Eitzen and Solvang agreed to 

continue their cooperative ethylene 

carrier venture. This has now 

been formalised as a pool 

arrangement under the Eitzen 

Solvang Ethylene (ESE) banner. 

Solvang supplies five ships to the 

pool and Eitzen Gas 12 ships in 

the 8-12,000 m 3 size range. 

Eitzen Gas recently secured a 

COA for ESE with Qatar Petrochemical 

Company (QAPCO) 

whereby pool ships will transport 

from 50,000 to 110,000 tonnes of 

QAPCO’s ethylene to overseas 

markets during the course of 

2009. Eitzen Gas ships have carried 

substantial volumes of ethylene 

on behalf of QAPCO in 

recent years. QAPCO’s ethylene 

exports have overtaken imports 

as the result of the commissioning 

of a new ethylene plant at the end 

of 2007. ■ 

�� 

MARKET TRENDS 

Helena Kosan – 

one of the Isabella 

Kosan-class ethylene 

carriers – displays 

the distinctive deck 

tank containers, 

double compressor 

shelter and modular 

nitrogen plant that 

characterise these 

ships. 

�� 

�� 

�� 

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11


A Key to Profitability 

RESPONSIBLE CARE – Especially in rough economic times the real wholeheartedness 

of all parties involved for the safety of products and their transport 

becomes evident. Positively, sustainability is profitable. BY BERNHARD THIER 

Bernhard Thier (43) 

acts as Manager 


with CEFIC in 

Brussels. He started 

his professional 

career as a communications 

expert with 

BASF Ludwigshafen. 

Responsible Care is the 

chemical industry’s commitment 

to sustainable development, 

i.e. a development that 

aims to meet human needs while 

preserving the environment so 

that these needs can be met not 

only in the present, but also for 

future generations. For the chemical 

industry and its partners in 

distribution, transport and logistics 

this means continuously 

improving its health, safety and 

environmental performance and 

going beyond regulative standards. 

Equally important is 

reporting openly on achievements 

and shortcomings and listening, 

engaging and working 

with the public to understand and 

address its concerns and expectations. 

This sounds like a lot of 

trouble and expenses for a company, 

but the opposite is the case: 

Effective protection from harm, 

fewer accidents and a more efficient 

use of resources are key cost 

saving factors. Indeed, Responsible 

Care is the key to sustainable 

and profitable business of our 

industry. 

Tellingly, the beginning was 

marked by a serious transport 

accident: On November 10, 1979, 

a cargo train loaded with industrial 

gases and chemicals 

derailed in Mississauga, Canada. 

Several tank cars filled with 

propane exploded, which also 

affected a tank filled with chlorine 

gas. With the threat of a chlorine 

release into the atmosphere, 

more than 200,000 people were 

evacuated as a precaution – at the 

time the most extensive evacuation 

in peacetime worldwide. 

This was the trigger for the Canadian 

Chemical Producers Association 

(CCPA) to develop a new 

initiative which was eventually 

named Responsible Care (RC). In 

1985, shortly after the catastrophe 

in Bhopal, India, CCPA started 

its Responsible Care programme 

which became mandatory 

for all its members. 

Simple Guidelines 

Six core principles have been the 

cornerstones of Responsible Care 

since then: 

◆ Continuously improve the 

environmental, health and safety 

knowledge and performance of 

our technologies, processes and 

products over their life cycles so 

as to avoid harm to people and 

the environment. 

◆ Use resources efficiently and 

minimize waste. 

◆ Report openly on performance, 

achievements and shortcomings. 

◆ Listen, engage and work with 

people to understand and 

address their concerns and 

expectations. 

◆ Cooperate with governments 

and organisations in the development 

and implementation of 

effective regulations and standards, 

and to meet or go beyond 

them. 

◆ Provide help and advice to foster 

the responsible management 

of chemicals by all those who 

manage and use them along the 

product chain. 

After its adoption in the USA 

(1987), Responsible Care was 

also introduced in the early 

1990’s in Europe, South America 

and Asia. So far, Responsible 

Care has been adopted by 53 

countries in all parts of the world. 

Important new countries and 

regions such as China and the 

Gulf states are currently prepar- 

ing their membership. In 2006 the 

International Council of Chemical 

Associations, ICCA, launched 

the Responsible Care Global 

Charter which puts the initiative 

on a new footing; the Charter 

extends Responsible Care in 

three dimensions: 

Geographic: Responsible Care is 

now a global initiative headed by 

ICCA. Globally operating companies 

can implement Responsible 

Care also in those countries 

where there has not (yet) been 

established a national RC programme. 

Scope: Besides the core activities 

on environmental, health and 

safety performance inside industrial 

production sites, the Charter 

includes/addresses new important 

challenges of Sustainable 

Development, notably the safe 

management of chemicals 

throughout the value chain 

(Product Stewardship), climate 

change, the life-cycle analysis 

approach and increased transparency. 

Value Chain: The Charter also 

aims to extend Responsible Care 

through the value chain of the 

chemical industry and involve all 

partner sectors. 

Finally, the Charter aims to 

harmonize all existing 

national/regional Responsible 

Care programmes. The Global 

Charter has not only been signed 

by all national member associations 

of the ICCA; its goals are 

also strongly supported by multinational 

companies. To date 

CEOs of more than 80 % of the 

largest chemical companies 

worldwide have testified their 

commitment to the Responsible 

Care Global Charter by a personal 

declaration of support. 

To the well known symbol of 

molecule and guarding hands 

underneath which constitute the 

logo of Responsible Care the 

ICCA has recently added a motto: 

„Responsible Care – Our Commitment 

to Sustainability“. This 

extension of the logo is a visual 

pointer to the broadened assignment 

of the initiative as laid out in 

the Charter. In May 2009 the 

global chemical industry present- 


ed the progress made in implementing 

its Responsible Care 

Global Charter and Global Product 

Strategy at the 2nd international 

conference on chemicals 

management hosted by the UN 

Environmental Programme in 

Geneva. 

En Route to a Brand Product 

However, Responsible Care is 

more than a voluntary initiative to 

continuously improve our performance: 

Responsible Care is 

also a protected trademark. The 

use of the Responsible Care logo 

is reserved for companies that are 

implementing the principles of 

Responsible Care and actively 

participate in a Responsible Care 

programme. According to a pan 

European study commissioned by 

Cefic, public awareness of 

Responsible Care in 2008 – and 

thus the current value of the 

trademark – is five times higher 

than in the early 1990s. Thanks to 

the appeal of the brand, Responsible 

Care is a clear corporate 

model more and more companies 

are adopting. 

Strengthening the brand is an 

important aspect of the Responsible 

Care activities of Cefic and its 

member and partner associations. 

Part of the job is also to promote 

best practice examples and 

to align the multitude of national 

programmes. We continuously 

develop Responsible Care, e.g. 

by revising and extending the 

indicators we use to regularly 

measure our industry’s performance. 

An important element of 


Responsible Care in Europe is the 

partnership with the trade unions 

of our industry sector. Under the 

umbrella of the European Social 

Dialogue initiated by the EU 

Commission, trade unions and 

employer groups have been 

cooperating on concrete Responsible 

Care projects since 2003. 

In November 2008 Cefic and 

the European chemical trade 

union association, EMCEF, in 

cooperation with other partners 

have launched „prisme 2 “, a project 

to better involve small and 

medium sized enterprises in 

Responsible Care. More than 90 

percent of all European chemical 

companies are SMEs. The EU has 

included this project in its programme 

on Corporate Social 

Responsibility in SMEs. Six countries 

are participating in prisme 2 : 

the Czech Republic, Germany, 

Greece, the Slovak Republic, 

Spain and the UK. 

Cefic also pursues cooperation 

on Responsible Care with the 

partner sectors of the chemical 

industry. For ten years now, Cefic 

has been working with the European 

Chemical Distributors Association, 

FECC, to implement 

Responsible Care in this sector. In 

October 2008 Cefic signed a 

Responsible Care agreement 

with the European Chemical 

Transport Association, ECTA. 

Based on this agreement, ECTA 

started its own Responsible Care 

programme in February 2009 

which has been taken up by an 

increasing number of transport 

companies. ECTA’s Responsible 

Care programme is one of the key 

topics of this year’s European 

Responsible Care Conference on 

October 21-23 in Prague. ■ 

Photo: BASF 



also means, that the 

same standards for 

safety, environmental 

and health protection 

apply worldwide for 

the production of 

chemical substances. 

13


Responsible Action pays off 

RESPONSIBLE CARE – Utilizing the Responsible Care principles, participants in 

the chemicals supply chain automatically safeguard people’s health and the 

environment. And soon collect the dividends on their commitment. BY ANDREAS RIEM 

Klaus Wessing (42) is 

Director Operations 

of TALKE Logistic 

Services in Huerth. 

The Responsible Care programme 

initiated by the 

Canadian Chemical Producers 

Association (CCPA) in 1985 is 

now open to logistics service 

providers in the chemical and 

petrochemical industry. Participation 

in the Responsible Care 

programme was for many years 

only open to manufacturers and 

distributors in the industry, but 

this situation changed at the end 

of 2008. 

The umbrella organisation 

ECTA (European Chemical 

Transport Association), then met 

in Manchester (UK) to sign the 

declaration of support for 

Responsible Care, thus opening 

the way for ECTA members to 

also become actively involved in 

the Responsible Care programme. 

On February 13, 2009, 

to mark ECTA’s 10. birthday, 

nineteen logistics providers 

signed the Declaration of Support 

for the Responsible Care Global 

Charter in Barcelona. 

Through the implementation 

of Responsible Care, more wants 

to be achieved: more safety, more 

quality and more environmental 

and health protection. To many, 

this may sound like just more 

costs. 

As a chemical logistics company, 

TALKE Logistic Services also 

had to address the implications of 

Responsible Care. Would the 

effort be worthwhile to be able to 

talk at eye level with the chemical 

and petrochemical industry, 

or to provide better public reporting 

of the progress made? 

The earlier one reacts, 

the sooner he benefits 

TALKE Logistic Services, a company 

that has already played a 

pioneer role with the early introduction 

of ISO certification and 

SQAS assessments, did not take 

long to make up their mind. Certification, 

assessments and training 

programmes such as BBS 

(Behaviour Based Safety) and KPI 

evaluations for the regular 

appraisal and constant improvement 

of performance, have been 

successfully used for many years. 

The implementation of Responsible 

Care therefore raised no controversial 

issues and the additional 

costs were correspondingly 

minimal. 

Klaus Wessing, Director Transport 

Division, took on the role of 

Responsible Care Coordinator at 

TALKE: „On close inspection, 

Responsible Care does not 

involve any fundamental 

changes for TALKE. The standards 

for ourselves and our output 

had already been set at a very 

high level – certainly well above 

the industry norm. This commitment 

is now paying dividends.“ 

One of TALKE’s concrete initiatives, 

which will contribute to 

more than just improving the 

company’s ‘green’ credentials, 

includes investing only in the 

latest generation of vehicles. 

The first vehicles with modern 

AdBlue technology were 

ordered back in 2005, and today 

almost the entire TALKE fleet is 

made up of Euro 5 class vehicles. 

Higher acquisition costs are offset 

during the vehicle’s working 

life cycle through tax relief and 

savings on toll charges. 

Further measures include the 

installation of district heating for 

warm water and heating at the 

cleaning plant in Huerth, and 

the natural recycling of rainwater 

through filtration trenches as 

well as use of recovered water 

for cleaning forklift trucks and 

vehicles. 

Besides investments in modern 

technology, spending on safety 

measures also brings financial 

advantages. Newly designed fall 

protection work platforms in the 

TALKE cleaning plant in Stade 

enable employees to work more 

freely and effectively. In addition 

to the safety benefits, productivity 

at the facility has also been significantly 

increased. 

Importance of Human Factor 

In Responsible Care, as in all systems, 

the human factor must not 

be underestimated. Modern tech- 


nology, such as obstacle detection 

and collision avoidance, cannot 

be effective if drivers do not how 

to use it. 

For this reason, it is important 

to give employees thorough and 

timely training, stresses Wessing: 

„Obviously, it is simply not 

enough just to purchase modern 

vehicles. Only a well-trained 

driver can use his skills to cut 

back on fuel consumption and 

thereby produce lower emissions 

– and through good road sense 

and anticipation keep himself out 

of dangerous situations. So that is 

one more good reason for our 

commitment to education and 

advanced training for our 

employees in the transport fleet. 

Behaviour Based Safety is a very 

important aspect for us too. Here, 

drivers are given one-to-one, 

hands-on training focussing 

specifically on safety matters and 

also advanced training in routine 

operations.“ 

More than a management issue 

Personal involvement in Responsible 

Care by the employees at 

TALKE is actively encouraged. 

They can contribute their ideas to 

the company’s ‘MyIdea’ sugges- 


tion scheme that now considers 

suggestions not just from a commercial 

point of view. 

Wessing: „The Responsible 

Care initiative concerns each and 

every TALKE Group employee 

and is by no means simply a matter 

for management. It is not just 

family men in senior positions 

who have a personal interest in 

seeing their children grow up in 

an unspoiled world worth living 

in. One way in which all TALKE 

employees can make a contribution 

is to use the company’s 

‘MyIdea’ suggestion 

scheme. In the past, we 

have received some really 

good suggestions that 

at the time we saw 

‘merely’ as potential 

cost-saving measures. 

Now, with the implementation 

of Responsible 

Care, they are being 

seen in a quite different 

light.” 

Even though the foundations 

were laid early 

for TALKE’s activities in 

Responsible Care, there 

Integrity 

Intermodal dry bulk logistics for polymers 

is no room for complacency. „We 

will continue to refine our 

processes and to scrutinise even 

more closely the effect our work 

will have on future generations,“ 

says Klaus Wessing in conclusion. 

TALKE exemplifies that 

Responsible Care is not only an 

instrument for the long-term 

safeguarding of the human race 

and the environment, but that 

proactive companies can also 

reap benefits from working with 

Responsible Care. ■ 


Modern Euro 5 class 

vehicles (top), the 

rainwater filtration 

trench at the TALKE 

logistics centre in 

Schwarzheide (left) 

and the installation 

of district heating to 

heat the water in the 

TALKE cleaning plant 

in Hürth (right) are 

all examples of 

measures consistent 

with the Responsible 

Care approach. 


15


Reaching Common Goals 

INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION – ECTA, the European Chemical Transport Association, 

represents their members’ interests in discussions with both international regulatory 

bodies and major chemical producer associations since 1997. 

ECTA was formed to improve 

the standards of efficiency, 

safety, and quality as well as 

the environmental and social 

impacts of the transport and 

logistics of chemical goods in 

Europe. The organisation's mission 

is to develop best practices 

for the industry. It aims to reach 

this objective via 

◆ joint studies of scientific nature 

in co-operation of its members, 

other associations having related 

interests, authorities and institutions 

within Europe, be it at a 

regional, national, European or 

international level. 

◆ formation of working groups 

formed of representatives of 

transporters, logistics service 

providers and producers of chemical 

goods, with – where appropriate 

– the participation of 

authorities and institutions in 

order to develop best practices 

implying improvement in the 

transport and logistics of chemical 

goods in Europe. 

ECTA aims to provide the 

chemical transport industry with 

an authoritative voice at European 

level. Within that scope it 

ensures that the industry's views 

are effectively communicated to 

key audiences, authorities and 

institutions within Europe at 

regional, national, international 

and European level. It co-operates 

and participates in the dialogue 

between logistics service 

providers, the chemical industry, 

the authorities and the institutions 

to pro-actively improve the 

transport of chemical goods. 

The association informs its 

members as well as the aforesaid 

key audiences, authorities and 

institutions regularly on its activities 

and on the evolution of transport 

and logistics matters in 

Europe. Where appropriate and 

upon request, ECTA can provide 

advice and assistance to its members 

on European transport 

issues. It promotes initiatives 

which may be of interest to the 

transport of chemical goods in 

Europe. 

Continuous Improvement 

under Responsible Care 

At the Responsible Care Conference 

of CEFIC in Manchester on 

October 23, 2008, ECTA’s President 

Antonio Montero signed 

with Alain Perroy, Director General 

of CEFIC, the agreement by 

which ECTA will implement the 

Responsible Care (RC) principles 

into the European land transport 

industry. The ECTA members 

who commit to the Responsible 

Care principles and continuous 

improvement and who ensure 

key performance indicators 

�� 

reporting as requested by CEFIC 

(= KPI reporting) can now also 

proudly carrythe RC logo, the 

sign of recognition by the chemical 

industry in Europe of their 

contribution to a sustainable supply 

chain. The Responsible Care 

scheme by ECTA illustrates the 

importance for the Land Transport 

Service Providers who are 

ECTA members to integrate the 

same priorities as their stakeholders. 

The vision in the transport 

industry, shared by the shippers, 

is striving for the „zero accident” 

achievement. 

The RC implementation starts 

with a top-down roll-out in the 

transport company. The CEO 

himself commits to the principles 

under RC as it is done within the 

chemical industry (see the box). 

The CEO of the ECTA RC 

Company appoints a RC coordinator 

per company which ensures 

that the ECTA Secretariat has a 

single information contact within 

the Company who is also responsible 

for communication of KPIs. 

The implementation process of 

the European Responsible Care 

Scheme for transport companies 

is directly linked to SQAS, the 

Safety, Quality and Security 

Assessment Scheme created by 

CEFIC to which European Transport 

Companies submit on a voluntary 

basis. The ECTA RC 

scheme uses the existing SQAS 

reports of its RC member companies 

as a self assessment tool to 

support continuous improvement 

of health, safety, security and 

environmental impact of European 

land transport of chemical 

goods. 

ECTA applies its RC Scheme 

to its member companies in all 

European countries in the same 

and transparent manner, based 

on self assessment combined with 

objective and externally verified 

�� 

�� 

�� 

�� 

�� 

�� 


data on safety management and 

improvement processes as are 

found in the SQAS reports of 

these Responsible Care transport 

companies. 

Launch of the 

ECTA Responsible Care Scheme 

The ECTA member companies 

who apply for RC partnership 

give the ECTA Secretariat access 

to all of their SQAS reports. The 

Secretariat verifies whether the 

entry conditions are fulfilled and 

coordinates the signing of the 

CEO commitment and the agreement 

with ECTA on the RC 

Scheme. The ECTA member 

companies who enter the RC 

scheme agree to provide their 

annual improvement plans to the 

ECTA Secretariat. These annual 

improvement plans are to be 

evaluated by self assessment 

when being updated the following 

year. Certain improvements 

will also be confirmed by external 

assessment evolutions in 

SQAS. 

The RC Steering Team has 

established a guideline on the 

preparation of an improvement 

plan which was approved by the 

ECTA Board in its meeting of 

June 2009 upon which the ECTA 

Secretariat finalized the Responsible 

Care implementation guide 

and mailed it to all ECTA member 

companies and their RC Coordinators, 

together with a hard copy 

of the Report of the Barcelona 

Conference on Responsible Care. 

The second half of 2009 will be 

devoted to optimizing the reporting 

by the RC companies of the 

KPIs requested in the RC agreement 

signed with CEFIC. ECTA 

invests in a new website and 

database management allowing 

its RC members to report their 

information. 


Emergency response management 

by the RC transport companies 

is facilitated by the fact that 

the RC companies agree to share 

their emergency telephone numbers 

amongst RC Coordinators, 

thus encouraging voluntary 

arrangements between RC companies 

in this area. 

The CEFIC-ECTA Responsible 

Care Platform was created in 

May 2009. This platform constitutes 

the high level dialogue 

between ECTA and CEFIC on the 

future evolution of the RC Scheme. 

In June 2009 the CEFIC SQAS 

Executive Committee granted 

ECTA direct access to relevant RC 

companies’ SQAS reports in the 

CEFIC SQAS database. This facilitates 

the transmission of SQAS 

information by RC Companies to 

the ECTA Secretariat and shows 

the strong support of the chemical 

industry towards a successful and 

solid ECTA RC Scheme. 


February 13, 2009 in 

Barcelona: 

High spirits and quite 

some proudness over 

what has been 

accomplished so far: 

The first 19 signatories 

of the Responsible 

Care-Programme. 

Commitment by the CEO of a transport company joining Responsible Care 

I hereby declare my support to 

the ECTA Responsible Care 

Core Principles to: 

1. Continuously improve the 

environmental, health and 

safety performance of our 

transport operations of chemical 

goods so as to avoid harm 

to people and the environment. 

2. Ensure that proper care is 

taken to protect the safety and 

health of all people involved in 

our chemical transport operations. 

3. Minimize the environmental 

impact of our transport 

activities. 

4. Use resources and fuel 

efficiently and minimize 

waste. 

Durability 

5. Take adequate measures 

to ensure the security of our 

operations. 

6. Collect data and report 

openly on our performance, 

achievements and shortcomings. 

7. Listen, engage and work 

with people to understand and 

address their concerns and 

expectations. 

8. Cooperate with governments, 

international institutions, 

organizations and 

authorities in the development 

and implementation of 

effective regulations and 

standards to improve transport 

safety. 

9. Encourage the responsible 

management of all those who 

Intermodal liquid FlexıTanks for non-hazardous chemicals 

are involved in providing a 

service to us, in particular 

transport sub-contractors 

and cleaning stations. 

And I fully commit to the ECTA 

Responsible Care Program to: 

◆ continuously improve the 

environmental, health and 

safety performance of my 

company; 

◆ advance sustainable 

development; 

◆ champion and facilitate the 

appropriate extension of 

Responsible Care across the 

business value chain; 

◆ address stakeholder 

expectations in the continuing 

development of Responsible 

Care. 


17


New ECTA/CEFIC Guidelines 

ECTA Codes 

The guidelines for standardized 

coding of transport events reflect 

the first cause of any „event” 

occurring during transport which 

needs to be reported to the shipper. 

The revised guidelines are 

based on business-to-business 

connectivity between the chemical 

shipper and the transport 

service provider and these ECTA 

codes are designed to be incorporated 

in the automated reporting 

exchanged regularly with the 

shipper. 

This guideline was published 

in February 2009. With this text 

the 2002 ECTA codes were 

adapted to co-modality and to the 

IT technology evolutions while 

respecting their very practical 

structure. 

Guidelines for tipping equipment 

The guidelines for the transport 

of dry bulk cargo, to be discharged 

by tipping were published 

in April 2009 containing 

general specifications of tipping 

silo road tankers, pressurized 

silo/box containers, unpressurized 

dry bulk box containers and 

tipping chassis. Both Guidelines 

can be obtained by simple 

request to the ECTA Secretariat. 

Load securing 

Over the last two years the load 

securing calculation contained in 

the EN norm of lashings was 

placed under review by CEN and 

ECTA worked closely with 

CEFIC on this effort. ECTA also 

financially contributed to the 

elaboration by Mariterm, the 

Swedish experts in load securing, 

of alternative proposals to the calculation 

of load securing. 

At these meetings of the CEN 

group ECTA was represented by 

Andreas Zink, Director of LKW 

Walter and Vice President of 

ECTA, and by Bart van Rens, 

Manager at Ewals Cargo Care 

who also was acting representative 

for the Dutch standards 

office. 

CEFIC Issue Teams 

Weights and Dimensions 

Three ECTA member companies, 

Hoyer, Bertschi and Transport 

Gheys, have contributed to the 

elaboration of the CEFIC position 

paper on increased weight for 

transport during several meetings 

of the CEFIC Issue Team on 

Weights and Dimensions held in 

2008. On July 10, 2008 ECTA participated 

to the EU Commission 

DG TREN’s stakeholders meeting 

on weights and dimensions and 

ECTA also attended the Workshop 

on Weights and Dimensions, 

including the Gigaliner issue, 

organized by the EU Commission 

on June 24, 2009 in Brussels. The 

CEFIC position on weights and 

dimensions was sent to all ECTA 

member companies for information 

purposes and information 

was posted on the ECTA website 

on this topic. ECTA insists on a 

harmonized Euro wide approach 

of weights and dimensions under 

co-modal optimized conditions. 

Bruhn 

S P E D I T I O N 

Finland, Scandinavia, 

Ireland, Portugal, the 

Baltic States and Russia. 

Directly and safe via sea 

and via land! 

� General Cargo 

� Bulk-Containers 

� Tank-Containers 

Bruhn Spedition GmbH 

Phone 0049(0)451 4804-0 

Fax 0049(0)451 4804-910 

www.bruhnsped.com 

Lübeck · Antwerp · Hamina · Helsinki · Moscow · Oslo · Riga · St. Petersburg 


Cathy Demeestere, 

Secretary General of 

both EPCA and ECTA. 

Reducing the time spent by drivers 

at loading and unloading sites and 

on improving their treatment 

ECTA representation was ensured 

by ECTA member companies 

Bertschi, LKW Walter, Hoyer and 

Pañalon during the years 2008 

and 2009. The objective of this 

issue team is to edit a text with 

concrete examples that can be 

promoted as best practices and 

suggesting a number of actions. 

Equipment for liquid bulk 

A text was prepared on different 

loading and unloading schemes 

of liquids. Transport companies 


Den Hartogh Liquid Logistics and 

Wauters TankTransport were 

joined by ECTA representatives 

from Bertschi and Suttons Group 

and the CEFIC Issue team finalized 

a text which will soon be 

published. 

CEFIC/ECTA Logistics Workshops 

Sustainable Chemical Logistics 

in a changing Environment 

On November 13, 2008 ECTA 

cooperated closely with CEFIC to 

organize the CEFIC Logistics 

Workshop. No less than fifteen 

cases were presented by ECTA 

representatives in different discussion 

groups. 

The following ECTA companies 

gave their contribution: 

Suttons Group, De Rijke Group, 

Bertschi, LKW Walter, Ewals 

Cargo Care, Wauters TankTransport, 

Nijhof-Wassink, Bruhn 

Spedition, Norbert Dentressangle, 

Vos Logistics, Star Chemical 

Logistics, Haesaerts Intermodal, 

Den Hartogh Liquid Logistics, 

Interbulk Group, Van den Bosch 

Transporten. 

Risk Assessment for Drivers: 

„Healthy Workplaces“ campaign 

Within the context of its RC 

Annual Plan, ECTA organized a 

workshop on „Risk Assessment 

Sabrina Robba Toniutti of 

Hoyer Svizzera chairing a 

workshop on Responsible Care 

for drivers” in Barcelona in close 

cooperation with CEFIC and with 

the European Agency for Safety 

and Health at Work. 

ECTA was recognized as an 

official partner association in the 

„Healthy Workplaces” campaign 

of the EU-OSHA. This campaign 

aims at reducing work-related 

accidents and illnesses by promoting 

risk assessment as the 

first step to a sustainable prevention 

culture. 

This resulted in the publication 

of the report on „Risk Assessment 

for Drivers” and the organization 

of a follow-up expert day 

on this topic during the summer 

of 2009. ■ 

�� 


Rose-Marie Pype acts 

as ECTA Logistics 

Manager and 

definitely is the 

association’s 

heart and soul. 

ECTA meetings are 

not all about hard 

work in discussions 

groups – there is 

room left for networking 

and meeting 

colleagues. 

Lively discussion (l. to r.): Jacco 

van Holten (Den Hartogh), René 

Mayer (BTT) and Siegfried Ott 

(Karl Schmidt Spedition) 

�� 

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19


Green Operations 

SUSTAINABILITY – Interview about Green Logistics with Michael Kubenz, Managing 

Director of Kube & Kubenz and President of DSLV, the Association of German 

Freight Forwarders and Logistics Operators. 

? 

Mr. Kubenz, „green logistics” 

is the magic word of the 

moment for many companies in 

times of crisis. What do you as 

managing director of Kube & 

Kubenz understand by this term? 

! 

„Green logistics” generally 

describes environmentallyfriendly 

logistics processes, 

where resources are used carefully. 

The aim is to achieve a balance 

between economic and ecological 

efficiency. In addition, however, 

this term also expresses our 

responsibility towards the environment 

and society as a whole. 

The chemical sector has to face 

up to this responsibility in a special 

way. But I believe that the 

transport sector is also duty 

bound to act, because it causes 14 

percent of global carbon dioxide 

emissions. 

? 

What role does sustainability 

play in specific terms in your 

corporate culture? 

! 

Sustainability is not just a 

flowery expression at Kube 

& Kubenz. It forms part of our cor- 

porate concept and is lived out by 

our members of staff. It all starts 

with little things – for instance 

separating waste in the office – 

and even includes optimizing 

complete systems in order to 

keep any negative effects on the 

environment to a minimum. 

? 

You transport highly explosive 

chemicals and hazardous 

goods. This is a sensitive 

subject. How is this compatible 

with sustainability? 

! 

The chemicals industry and 

its service companies have 

been very aware of their special 

responsibility for a long time. In 

this sense, the sector has adopted 

a pioneer role when it comes to 

taking precautions. Kube & 

Kubenz was one of the first service 

companies to sign the 

„Responsible Care” voluntary 

agreement and submit to an 

extensive quality auditing 

process, what is known as SQAS. 

We regularly train our personnel 

and check our technical equipment 

in order to guarantee our 

service and quality. 

Many major companies have 

been trying to improve their 

image by adopting an environmentally 

sound corporate identity 

for some time. Are small and 

medium-sized enterprises now 

following suit? 

Small and medium-sized 

companies are not primarily 

concerned about their image, but 

more about customer requirements. 

Calls for green logistics 

from our customers are increasing 

all the time, because this not 

only makes the transport chain 

more ecological, but more costeffective 

too. 

But sustainability is definitely 

a cost factor. Can a company 

afford green logistics during a 

crisis? 

Profitability and protecting 

the environment do not compete 

against each other at Kube & 

Kubenz. Soft factors like sustainability 

provide competitive 

advantages both for customers 

and the service operator during 

any economic downturn. Investments 

pay off in the long term, 

not least because quality 

improves. So using resources 

carefully and acting in an energyefficient 

manner saves costs. One 

important example is an energysaving 

driving style, which 

reduces fuel consumption to a 

considerable degree. 

But your competitors are not 

sitting back either. How does 

20 chemical logistics 2009 

? 

! 

? 

! 

?

your company set itself apart 

from its competitors? 

! 

We use modern, energy-efficient 

vehicles, we have a 

modern, mixed fleet and most of 

these vehicles meet the Euro 5 

emission standards. We also train 

our drivers to be alert when driving 

and anticipating any problems; 

we also use fuel-efficient 

engine oil and tyres, which provide 

the least possible road resistance. 

We also aim to ensure that 

our vehicles are as full as possible 

and combine modes of transport 

in a sensible manner. 

? 

Would you dare to look into 

the crystal ball? Which green 

measures are you planning for 

the future at your company? 

! 

We will continue to try to 

lower fuel consumption in 

our fleet of vehicles and reduce 

CO 2 emissions. We shall be able 

to optimize current scheduling 

procedures by introducing new 

freight forwarding software and 

reduce the number of empty runs 

in our fleet of vehicles by providing 

detailed route planning. 

? 

How do you view the ongoing 

development of green 

logistics and sustainability within 

the chemical logistics sector in 

your role as President of the 

DSLV? 

! 

Its importance will continue 

to grow. In order to remain 

competitive, freight forwarding 

companies will have to continue 

to optimize and automate their 

logistics concepts. 

At the moment, the costs of road 

transport are falling to a certain 

extent. But this must not create a 

situation where traffic, which 


could be handled by alternative 

modes of transport – for example, 

using combined traffic on the railways 

– is moved back on to the 

Capability 

roads for cost reasons. This would 

undo the great success that we 

have enjoyed over the past few 

years. ■ 

On-site value added logistics services for liquid & dry bulk materials 


Michael Kubenz (52) 


21


Talk to me ... 

BEST PRACTICE – Den Hartogh Logistics are continuously innovating their pro- 

cedures and systems in order to make driving safer. BY MARK WARNER 

Den Hartogh Logistics has 

been using state of the art 

in-vehicle automation since 

1991. It is hard to remember the 

days when a driver had to actively 

phone his office from a phone 

booth to make contact with his 

planner or when his wages and 

expenses were paid after declaring 

them on a paper based system. 

We seem to take it for granted 

that in-vehicle automation has 

existed forever. 

What have we done with these 

systems during the past 18 years 

and more importantly what will 

we do in the next 18 years? 

Den Hartogh Logistics has had 

the following evolution with this 

technology: 

◆ Black-box, data-cartridge based 

units to record drivers hours and 

expenses for driver payments 

◆ Direct integration of Transport 

Management Systems 

◆ Order instructions and execution 

details via GSM-data 

◆ Order instructions and execution 

details, together with freetext 

via Qualcomm satellite communications 

and geographic 

positions with GPS. Real time 

tracking & tracing. Point of interest 

plotting with geo-fencing 

capabilities. 

◆ Connection with the vehicle’s 

motor management system via 

J1708 protocol to analyse the driver’s 

driving behaviour 

◆ Connection with the vehicle’s 

motor management system via 

FMS CANBUS protocol to 

analyse and enable an active 

driver coaching programme 

◆ This enhances the BBS 

(Behaviour Based Safety) training 

programme with objective & 

actual driving data 

◆ Individual driver training & 

coaching programme including 

benchmarks and goals for acceleration, 

braking, coasting, idling 

and fuel economy to support safer 

and efficient driving and optimum 

vehicle use 

◆ Real time connection between 

the vehicle’s electronic tachograph 

with planning department 

to monitor and manage the driver’s 

use and available hours. 

European working time directive 

is integrated and can be easily 

managed. 

◆ Over the air download of the 

driver’s tachograph card and storage 

to comply with European legislation. 

More Technology for more Safety 

Whilst much of the above functionality 

would have been 

unthinkable two decades ago, 

further in-vehicle technology 

which is becoming available now, 

will make the unavoidable carriage 

of chemicals by road even 

safer and the driver’s profession 

more enjoyable. 

Den Hartogh Logistics alphatested 

the latest Qualcomm invehicle 

technology (June 2009) 

and will continue to beta-test this 

and further develop this into full 

production. This is done to enable 

�� 

Den Hartogh Logistics to act at 

the absolute high-end of fleet 

operation and management. This 

can only be achieved at the leading 

edge by active use and feedback 

from the fleet operator to 

the technology developer. 

This latest generation of onboard 

unit comprises of a touch 

screen, colour display with text to 

speech synthesis support. This 

ensures an intuitive user interface 

in all languages. 

Den Hartogh is developing the 

following functionality together 

with its technology partners, 

including Qualcomm Enterprise 

Services Europe: 

◆ Anti-theft functionality, 

enabling vehicles to be remotely 

disabled 

Hardware Investment 

Den Hartogh Logistics has placed a 

number of orders for the further 

modernisation and expansion of its 

fleet of tanks . 

Agreements have been reached 

with Van Hool in Koningshooikt 

(Belgium) and Welfit Oddy in Port 

Elizabeth (South Africa) for the 

manufacturing of road-tanks and 

tank containers. 

50 road-tanks will be delivered 

by Van Hool starting from the 

beginning of 2010. This order is a 

further progression of the partnership 

in technical innovation and 

standardisation of road-tankers, 

which specifically has benefits for 

safety, the environment and network 

optimisation. 

200 tank containers are to be 

built by Welfit Oddy during the second 

half of 2009. 

These orders represent a total 

investment of 12 million Euro. 

This expansion of the tank container 

fleet will further support the 

development of Den Hartogh 

Logistics activities outside its 

European network. 

www.denhartogh.com 

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◆ Integration of the vehicle’s 

position and progress, with our 

Advanced Planning & Scheduling 

System (APS), together with 

traffic information systems data, 

allowing real-time Estimated 

Time of Arrival (ETA) re-adjustments 

and possible re-routing. 

Integration of Traffic Information 

services forecasts in the APS system’s 

planning. 

◆ Electronic tachograph vehicle 

data download over the air within 

the European legislation 

◆ Use of GPRS/UMTS when 

available and otherwise by satellite 

communication. Wi-Fi and 

blue tooth connectivity to enable 

the most cost effective communication 

method depending on the 

unit’s location. 

◆ Active use of the on-board 

navigation (which has been 

specifically designed for heavy 

vehicle use) with the vehicle sensors, 

alerting the driver if his 

actual driving style does not fit 

with the safest speed and style at 

that moment. E.g. if the driver is 

approaching a motorway exit too 

fast, then the system will alert 

him to revise his speed. If the 

vehicle is approaching a roundabout 

too fast, then similarly the 

system will alert him to revise his 

speed. In addition to these invehicle 

alerts, these instances 

will be sent back to the fleetoffice 

for training & coaching purposes. 

Depending on the trends 

and instances, this can take place 

sooner or later. 

◆ Real time connection of the 

office based fleet manager or 

planner with the vehicle’s eyemonitoring 

sensors, motion sensors 

and motor management system, 

to pro-actively alert for driver 

fatigue or illness. If necessary 

the vehicle can be remotely 

slowed down to force a driver to 

park-up and contact his manager 

to explain his situation. 

◆ Coupling of fool proof in-vehicle 

scanners to enable more efficient 

document-flow into the 

back-office systems and thereby 

facilitating immediate on-line 

document access. 

◆ Simple, tamper-proof in-vehicle 

printer to facilitate automated 


document-flow 

after order 

completion 

◆ Interactive 

driver questionnairescoupled 

to relevant 

preceding 

short instruction 

videos 

streamed from 

the office to the 

vehicle onboard 

unit: 

– Drivers 

returning to 

their driving 

duties on a 

Monday 

morning 

would need to 

answer a small number of questions 

getting him into the right 

frame of mind to get the working 

week started in a safe way. Only 

then would he be able to start 

the vehicle. 

– Drivers handling specific 

products or visiting certain sites, 

receive a short training video to 

renew their knowledge, followed 

by a short questionnaire. Following 

successful answering, the 

complete order instructions are 

sent to him. 

– The daily pre-driving checks 

are monitored with an interactive 

random set of questions to the 

driver. After successful completion, 

the instructions are sent to 

the driver 

– Other short and frequent training 

videos and animations, followed 

by interactive questionnaires 

for various purposes. 

◆ The total concept of the functions 

and services is to facilitate 

– Control & Compliance 

– Operation & Communication 

– Productivity & Performance 

– Safety & Security. 

In summary, the technology is 

available and Den Hartogh 

Logistics will drive its use forward 

within its fleet of owned and 

contracted vehicles in the coming 

years. This will not happen on its 

own and without effort. By actively 

participating in these developments, 

we will stay at the forefront 

of operational excellence.■ 


Driver’s first thing to 

do in the morning: 

Checking messages 

and answering a few 

questions, just to 

warm up. 

A wide range of data 

around each truck 

can be used for 

planning and support 

purposes by the fleet 

manager. 

23

COLLABORATION 

Green Field, blue Sky 

PARTNERSHIP – With petrochemical production capacity set to double in the 

Middle East by 2015 and much of this output targeted towards emerging mar- 

kets, one challenging link in the chain is now filled. BY PHILIP BROWITT 

Agility & Schmidt 

paint a ‘Collaborate 

Picture’ – Artist 

Impression of 

Borouge Shanghai 

Polymer Hub. 

Producers face many barriers 

to entry when breaking into 

or significantly increasing 

presence in emerging markets. 

Not least, as the subject of this 

article suggests, asset based supply 

chain infrastructure in the 

form of logistics platforms, gateways 

and distribution hubs. With 

the requirement for very specialist 

infrastructure, producers are 

presented with an exciting ‘green 

field’ opportunity and can now 

look to Agility as the right supplier 

to provide the supply chain 

infrastructure needed to support 

effective emerging market penetration. 

Benefits derived from 

releasing internal resource by 

outsourcing the design and operational 

detail to acknowledged 

experts allows producers to concentrate 

on production profiling 

and the delivery of commercial 

end market strategy and tactics. 

Eliminate Challenges 

Some producers have opted to 

build their own supply chain 

assets including gateways from 

the Middle East and distribution 

hubs in Asia. However, producers 

can now concentrate their 

resources on core manufacturing 

assets with a bright outlook as 

Agility’s chemical industry her- 

itage and ‘blue sky’ thinking 

delivers asset based supply chain 

infrastructure to facilitate polyolefine 

distribution in emerging 

markets supported by polymer 

handling technology partner 

Schmidt. In combination, Agility 

and Schmidt add more than technical 

and operational resource as 

other local cognisance and cultural 

barriers are taken in their 

collective stride. 

Agility as a leading global LSP 

is uniquely placed because of its 

established local presence in 

emerging markets, chemical supply 

chain specialty business group 

and secure financial position 

which is reinforced by a risk tolerant 

approach to the deployment of 

assets to support further growth in 

rapidly emerging markets. In combination 

with Schmidt as Europe’s 

largest bulk handling network 

operator with expertise in concept 

design, build management, hub 

operating schema and best practice, 

the groundwork is set to deliver 

a total infrastructure solution to 

producers growing their presence 

in markets such as China. 

In the Pipeline 

Presently, Agility and Schmidt 

are working on a number of 

emerging market infrastructure 

project opportunities across the 

globe supported by Agility’s network 

of more than 550 offices 

across 120 countries. The first 

polymer handling hub and compound 

manufacturing unit is currently 

under construction in 

Shanghai for Borouge a leading 

provider of innovative, value creating 

plastics solutions. Ground 

was broken in November 2008 

and the site is on schedule to be 

fully operational by early 2010. 

The 70,000 sqm facility, which 

will mainly serve the China market, 

will employ some 120 dedicated 

Agility (Schmidt-trained) 

staff and receive the polymer 

granules in bulk containers 

directly from the Borouge Middle 

East gateway situated at Ruwais 

in Abu Dhabi. 

A 30,000 sqm Compound 

Manufacturing Unit (CMU) will 

also be built for Borouge on the 

same site in Shanghai, producing 

50,000 tonnes of compounds each 

year for use in automotive, 

domestic appliance, power tool 

and electrical applications. When 

completed most of this compounded 

product will be for customers 

in the Shanghai area. 

Together Agility and Schmidt 

have brought down the barriers 

producers face as they seek to 

find new markets for their products 

in regions of the world without 

an established supply chain 

infrastructure footprint. Many 

new green field infrastructure 

projects are currently in the 

pipeline so producers and service 

providers alike can look forward 

to grazing on the grass of a green 

field under a blue sky. ■ 

www.agilitylogistics.com 


The pressures of low margins 

are driving a continual call 

for cost reduction and efficiency 

especially in the petroleum 

and energy sectors. This has 

created a renewed focus on supply 

chain issues. Consumer perception 

of ‘value for money’ 

depends on the quality of service 

received, and the efficiency of the 

supply chain therefore plays a 

major role. 

Chevron Corporation is one of 

the world’s leading integrated 

energy companies, with subsidiaries 

that conduct business 

worldwide. The company’s success 

is driven by the ingenuity 

and commitment of approximately 

62,000 employees who operate 

across the energy spectrum. 

Chevron explores for, produces 

and transports crude oil and natural 

gas; refines, markets and distributes 

transportation fuels and 

other energy products; manufactures 

and sells petrochemical 

products; generates power and 

produces geothermal energy; 

provides energy efficiency solutions; 

and develops the energy 

resources of the future, including 

biofuels and other renewables. 

With its expertise in the petroleum 

and energy sector across 

Europe, Wincanton manages 

operations for businesses such as 

BP Castrol, Texaco, Exxon, ConocoPhillips, 

Pace, TOTAL and 

Chevron in the UK, Germany, 

Poland and the Netherlands. 

The ability to add value 

to their customers’ 

operations has 


Tanking up liquid Energy 

made them market leader in fuel 

distribution in the UK and gained 

recognition for their uncompromising 

commitment to best practice 

in Health and Safety performance. 

Tom Hernandez, Regional 

Logistics General Manager for 

Chevron comments: „We have 

been working with Wincanton for 

nearly 17 years and have developed 

a strong partnership that 

delivers on every level. The systems 

that Wincanton has introduced 

and are now in place in the 

UK really stand out among some 

stellar competition and we look 

forward to continuing to develop 

the relationship further for years 

to come.” Last year alone, Wincanton 

transported over three billion 

litres of fuels and travelled 

almost 15 million kilometres for 

Chevron across in the UK without 

a single lost time injury. 

In the last years, Wincanton 

worked closely with Chevron to 

introduce a Loss Prevention System 

(LPS) that has now been fully 

implemented and embraced by 

Wincanton employees, with both 

companies seeing 

the 

benefits. Areas that were covered 

by the LPS were loading, unloading, 

safe defensive driving, pretrip 

inspections and ergonomics 

all of which helped to bring about 

the first rate safety record. 

Chevron also recognised Wincanton 

for its management of 

reports and the use of on-board 

computers to produce an 

accountability model for drivers. 

Areas of key focus included driver 

performance summaries, safety 

as well as efficiency. „This is a 

great achievement for the 221 

people that work on the contract, 

says Mark Legg, Business Unit 

Director of Wincanton. „We 

empower our drivers to take 

responsibility for their own work 

but at the same time they are 

encouraged to work with their 

colleagues to continuously 

improve our service to the customer. 

Wincanton continually 

evaluates this kind of best practice 

across the board, making 

sure we share successes as a company 

and apply them to the other 

sectors we operate in.” ■ 

COLLABORATION 

BEST PRACTICE – Chevron and Wincanton are longstanding partners when it 

comes to the distribution of hydrocarbon fuels. BY THOMAS LÖW 

Wincanton Profile 

Wincanton is a European leader in 

the design and delivery of 

advanced supply chain solutions, 

offering a broad spectrum of services 

that enable clients to optimise 

their logistics requirements at 

local, national or regional level. 

Wincanton employs 30,000 people 

across Europe, producing an 

annual turnover of over € 2.8 bn. 

Serving some of the world’s leading 

companies, Wincanton offers 

extensive experience in many market 

sectors, including automotive, 

chemicals, consumer goods, construction, 

defence, food service, 

high tech, industrial, energy & 

petroleum and retail. 

25

COLLABORATION 

Mammoth Project is on Course 

INTEGRATION – The pan-European bulk chemicals transporter Bertschi AG and 

its major customer LyondellBasell are breaking new ground with a complete 

logistics concept. BY WILF SEIFERT 

Bertschi’s tri-modal 

container terminal in 

Rotterdam-Botlek: 

It made a decisive 

contribution to 

increasing intermodal 

transport and 

reducing transport 

on the road. 

With their innovative, intermodal 

and environmentally 

sound work methods, 

combined with the capacities 

necessary for supporting 

major customers, the Swiss 

Bertschi AG, a specialist in the 

transport of bulk chemicals, has 

secured the contract for the most 

comprehensive pan-European 

logistics project of its kind. 

On the basis of a long term 

contract for the chemical products 

of the Dutch LyondellBasell 

Industries, an internationally 

leading chemicals corporation, 

Bertschi will distribute their liquid 

and gas products throughout 

Europe from loading points in 

Holland, France, the UK, Italy, 

Belgium and Germany. 

The contract encompasses 45 

different products with a total 

volume of 400,000 t annually. For 

efficiency reasons Bertschi cooperates 

with three strong partner 

companies in the operative 

implementation . However, distribution 

is only one of many 

aspects. 

As the Lead Logistics Provider 

(LLP), Bertschi bears overall 

responsibility for the Lyondell- 

Basell concept. The service package 

also includes the supply 

chain design, contract, transport, 

finance and IT management, as 

well as shipment tracking. 

Bertschi has installed a fivemember 

team for this purpose at 

its head office in Dürrenäsch and 

in Rotterdam. 

„We function at Lyondell- 

Basell like a one-stop shop, which 

provides many benefits for our 

client“, company head Dr. Hans- 

Jörg Bertschi specifies. „The key 

words are low logistics costs, 

increased service quality for their 

customers, ecological sustainability 

and the reduction of socalled 

CO 2 footprints.“ 

Christian Bart, 29, Bertschi’s 

LyondellBasell project manager, 

confirms: „Prior to our start as 

LLP at the beginning of 2009, this 

customer relied upon 15 different 

service providers at six locations. 

In the meantime, the entire 

process sequence is controlled by 

a Bertschi implant at the Rotterdam 

location.“ 

The LyondellBasell European 

chemical production plants are 

located in the Rotterdam area and 

Fos-sur-Mer, France. In careful 

preparation for the LLP project, 

Bertschi had invested a combined 

10 million Euros at both locations 

in the increasing of its hardware 

and software capacities. 

Bertschi’s container terminal 

in Rotterdam-Botlek serves as the 

platform for a shipping concept 

that favours rail transport for 

intermodal transportation. „This 

has made it possible for us to 

increase rail transport by 48 percent 

and to reduce road transport 

by 24 percent, says Bart. 

The tri-modal Botlek terminal 

has been in operation since 

August 2007. The rail length 

beneath its gantry crane, which 

spans 42.5 m and can lift up to 40 

t, is 1.32 km. 450 TEU (20’ equiv- 

The LLP Concept 

The LLP concept developed by 

Bertschi for LyondellBasell, which 

was implemented at the beginning 

of 2009, pursues three core objectives: 

◆ Reduced overall costs (consolidation 

and cooperation; exploitation 

of all synergies; reduction of 

fixed costs; continuous increases 

in productivity; outsourcing of 

order processing (to the LLP)). 

◆ Improving customer service 

(reduction of supply chain complexity; 

improved visibility, availability 

and delivery performance; 

implant as interface for customer 

service; containerisation to achieve 

greater flexibility of the supply 

chain). 

◆ Growing sustainability of the 

entire supply chain (concentration 

on pre-loading concepts; increasing 

the intermodal transport proportion; 

improvement of security 

through consolidation, control systems, 

etc.). 


alent unit) of tank containers containing 

hazardous goods (excluding 

those of classes 1 and 7) can 

be stored on the grounds. 

No simple Task 

Did Bertschi win the Lyondell- 

Basell invitation to tender with 

flying colours? „Not at all“, the 

52-year old CEO recapitulates. 

„The process lasted more than 18 

months in two phases. Lyondell- 

Basell first closely examined the 

offers of the applicants with 

respect to innovation and quality. 

After this only a handful 

remained.“ 

That Bertschi emerged as the 

winner is not least due to fundamental 

preconditions. This is 

because the number of those candidates 

equipped with the knowhow, 

specialist experience, facilities, 

equipment and capacities for 

the realisation of such a gigantic 

project is quite limited. 

Bertschi emphasizes that price 

was not the only decisive factor 

for the LyondellBasell decision in 

Novel Duisburg Hub 

The Duisburg Kombiterminal 

(DKT) company, part of the 

Bertschi Group, is currently building 

a rail/road handling terminal 

inside the Duisburg LogPort area. 

It has six rail tracks at 470 m in 

length each, as well as two traffic 

lanes and eight parking lanes for 

trucks beneath a gantry crane with 

a span of 65 m. 

DKT is investing 15 million EUR 

in the first stage with an annual 

handling capacity of 120,000 TEU; 

this should double following completion 

of the final expansion. With 

its storage capacity of 1,800 TEU, 

the complex is also suitable for 

container storage concepts. 

According to company head 

Hans-Jörg Bertschi, the terminal 

will be ready for operation in mid- 

December 2009 and „open to all 

customers and operators at 

attractive conditions“. In addition, 

he plans to provide added value 

logistics services for the chemical 

industry at areas neighbouring on 

the DKT. „In this way we create the 

first logistics hub for sustainable 

chemical distribution at the largest 

inland port in Europe.“ 


LyondellBasell Industries, with its head 

office in Rotterdam, is the third largest independent 

chemicals manufacturing corporation 

in the world. It controls more than 50 

production operations in 19 countries and 

markets its broad portfolio in more than 100 

countries. LyondellBasell holds approx. 

9,600 patents around the world. In 2008, the 

company, with some 15,000 employees, 

generated earnings to the amount of 50.7 

billion USD. Its vertically integrated plants 

enable the conversion of raw hydrocarbons 

in advanced applications. LyondellBasell 

defines itself as „a technology corporation 

that markets process technologies and catalytic 

converters“. 

its favour. Much more decisive 

were the innovative criteria and 

the more than two thirds increase 

in transport by rail and water 

(short sea), resulting in an annual 

CO 2 reduction of 2,200 t. 

Following the motto „Those 

who rest rust“, the Bertschi 

experts worked tirelessly on cost 

reductions for the customer – a 

goal to which they are obligated 

by contract. Considerable rationalisation 

potential slumbered at 

the various interfaces alone, 

Bertschi and Bart comment 

unanimously. 

LyondellBasell has complete 

confidence in the 

new LLP concept, especially 

considering that „we 

have been working together 

with Bertschi AG for 

more than ten years now, 

and respect their dedication, 

motivation and business 

success“, the LyondellBasell 

Director Supply 

Chain Europe wrote in a customer 

circular last December. 

„We believe we have 

taken a big step forward by 

nominating Bertschi as Lead 

Logistics Provider. The company 

is active in 20 European 

countries, has more than 

1,100 of its own trucks and 

owns or operates 15 terminals 

in Europe“, says the LyondellBasell 

Director, citing the 

reasons for the optimism of his 

corporation. 

Powerful Partners in the Concept 

LyondellBasell and its service 

providers agree that „our close 

cooperation is exemplary in its 

harmony“. Dr. Bertschi’s summary: 

„We are on course. Now, in 

accordance with our obligation, 

my people are continuously combing 

through the logistics processes 

for optimisation potential.“ ■ 

COLLABORATION 

The Bertschi Group, with its home in Dürrenäsch 

(Switzerland), is the European 

leader in combined transport of liquid and 

dry bulk chemicals. Its range of services 

includes project-specific logistics control. 

The family business (turnover in 2008: 450 

million EUR) employs 1,700 people at 28 

locations in 21 European companies, plus 

two staging posts in Russia. Bertschi’s 

mobile hardware consists of 1,100 of its own 

trucks and 13,000 tank and silo containers. 

The current modal split is comprised as follows: 

60 % rail/intermodal and 20 % road 

and water (short sea) respectively. Bertschi 

operates in a closely knit intermodal and 

partly tri-modal, pan-European network. 

Hans-Jörg Bertschi with one of his trucks in new CI. 

27

OPERATIONS 

Practical even on the short Legs 

RAILROAD– Innovative logistics solutions most likely will be a plus for economical 

efficiency and a cleaner environment. Chemion shows that rail transport is 

a good idea not only for long distance transports. BY ELMAR OCKENFELS 

Elmar Ockenfels, 

Business Analyst at 

Chemion Logistik. 

The topics of safety, high quality 

and environmental compatibility 

of services belong 

together – that is how Chemion 

Logistik, a specialist in dangerous 

goods handling, sees it. It is 

obvious: If the supply chain from 

transport to handling and finally 

to the storage of dangerous substances 

does not guarantee a continuous 

high quality and safety 

standard this may cause hazardous 

situations with negative 

impact on the environment. 

Hence, Chemion is convinced, 

dangerous goods logistics must 

be „green“ by definition and pay 

special attention to safety and 

environmental compatibility. 

In addition to this, the logistics 

service provider sees possibilities 

of generating a plus for the environment 

in developing logistics 

solutions for his customers and 

puts the following questions in 

the focus: How to develop railaffine 

concepts and how to shift 

freight from road to rail? How to 

organize overall processes at the 

site in a different way and, thus, 

make them more efficient and 

more cost-effective? 

Chemion is convinced: If 

processes are challenged and if 

one considers not only the individual 

process but also adjacent 

ones, it will be possible to develop 

innovative solutions resulting 

in a real added value from both 

the economic and the environmental 

point of view. 

Moving Goods by Rail 

Rail has advantages over road 

with respect to reliability and 

safety – even over short distances 

where it continues to be difficult 

for rail traffic to compete with 

road transports. The prejudice 

often persists that freight transports 

by rail cannot keep up with 

freight transports by road in 

terms of cost and flexibility. But if 

goods are moved on the basis of 

the cost structure of road transports 

and if regional transport 

services are combined with the 

provision of time-consuming 

services at the site rail transports 

can be organized even in regional 

traffic in a really attractive and 

cost-effective manner. 

Chemion implements the concept 

of an operative execution of 

rail transports supplemented by 

the offer of close-to-rail logistics 

services, such as, for example, the 

railway shuttle service on workdays 

between the CHEMPARK 

sites Leverkusen, Dormagen and 

Krefeld where regular rail traffic 

has been provided since 2004. 

Standard transports, which are 

operated a few times each day, 

connect the sites over a distance 

of about eighty kilometres with 

each other. As soon as the shuttle 

trains arrive in Krefeld, Leverkusen 

and Dormagen they are 

disassembled and the individual 

cars are moved in precise accordance 

with the loading schedule 

under the respective filling station 

and to the final customers’ 

loading stations. After loading 

the individual cars are weighed 

and moved in shunting units to 

the border of the site. Here, the 

outgoing goods are checked in 


accordance with the provisions of 

dangerous goods transport regulations 

and receive their shipping 

documents. 

The shuttle enables all companies 

at the sites to handle regular 

transports by rail, combine closeto-site 

logistics services with 

these transports and, thus, reduce 

the coordination efforts for these 

services. The great reliability of 

the rail shuttles also speaks in 

favour of rail transport. Tank cars 

are made available for loading 

within certain time frames and 

they arrive at their destination on 

schedule because unlike on the 

road there is no impact on the 

delivery time due to heavy traffic. 

Once there exists a time frame 

the customer can rely on the 

promised delivery and plan 

accordingly. The shuttle service 

between plants is also beneficial 

to the environment: It transports 

about 122,000 net tons per year 

and, thus, relieves the streets of 

the region by about 5,000 truck 

trips. 

In order to provide the customer 

with additional synergies 

from the shuttle service between 

sites Chemion has developed a 

regional concept involving other 

customers outside the sites as 

well: The three sites are integrated 

into a railway network allowing 

– beyond the shuttle - the execution 

of preceding or succeeding 

transports with the same 

equipment. The result is, for 

example, a direct connection with 

several stations in the Rhineland, 

Ruhr area and Sauerland where it 

is possible to add additional cars 

to the train or to separate individual 

cars from it in order to further 

transport them within the scope 

of a third-party deal. As a consequence, 

Chemion’s networking 

with other railway companies 

enables companies to increasing- 


ly use rail as a safe, efficient and 

eco-friendly mode of transport. 

Optimizing Overall Site Processes 

The individual services at the site 

are a decisive factor in ensuring 

the efficiency of the entire transport 

process. The final meters to 

the loading station of a company, 

loading and unloading as well as 

the expeditious handling are 

individual activities within the 

overall process of transport 

where Chemion sees potentials 

for optimization: Up to now, forwarding 

agents needed about 

three hours to load their truck, 

including the prescribed freight 

transport inspections and expeditious 

handling at the site gate as 

well as the loading of the truck at 

the customer’s loading station. If 

checking the drivers’ access 

papers at the site gate causes 

delays or if jams build up at the 

loading stations this will cause 

corresponding delays in the inplant 

processes. Yet, if the actual 

transport is decoupled before 

loading, delays can be avoided 

and cycle times can be reduced 

for the transport service provider. 

Chemion 

Chemion Logistik GmbH was 

founded in 2001 as an independent 

subsidiary of Bayer AG. Today, it is 

affiliated with Bayer Industry Services 

GmbH & Co. OHG. From its 

sites in Leverkusen, Dormagen, 

and Krefeld Chemion offers onesource 

logistic solutions tailored 

to the needs of the chemical industry 

and related sectors. With about 

1,000 staff, Chemion covers the 

entire range of logistic services 

from storage through transport to 

disposal. Other Chemion services 

include instructional training 

measures and the provision of special 

equipment and highly qualified 

technical personnel. 

That is why Chemion’s concept 

to optimize the loading 

process starts at the end of the 

transport at the site border at the 

truck parking area: Here, the 

service provider can take over the 

load unit from the forwarder, do 

the loading including the expedition 

for him and then return the 

load unit for transport to the forwarder 

at the truck parking area. 

Thus, the loading stations can be 

used around the clock and time 

frames can be extended so that 

delays and traffic jams during 

loading can be avoided. Since 

neither the driver nor the truck 

need to wait at the site during 

loading the forwarding agent will 

be free to make other arrangements 

for them. 

As a consequence, the coordination 

of the loading processes of 

numerous companies and forwarding 

agents by a single service 

provider results in a continuation 

of the loading processes and 

a reduction of the number of 

transports on the premises. ■ 

www.chemion.de 

�� 

OPERATIONS 

„How is my driving?“ 

– Safety thinking is 

inherent also in the 

shunting personnel. 

�� 

�� 

�� 

�� 

�� 

�� 

29

OPERATIONS 

Flexibility on Rails 

INTERVIEW – ChemOil Logistics have established a transport network for individual 

tank wagons and wagon sets together with a number of private European 

railway companies. 

Richard Seebacher, 

CEO of ChemOil Logistics 

AG in Basle, 

a subsidiary of the 

Swiss SBB Cargo 

? 

Mr. Seebacher – How is business 

at ChemOil Logistics 

during this recession? 

! 

Naturally we are also feeling 

the impact the crisis is having, 

but the oil industry hasn’t 

been affected as much as other 

industries. For instance, we are 

transporting vast quantities of oil 

for all leading companies such as 

Esso, Tamoil and BP, etc. 

? 

! 

How flexibly can you organise 

your shipments? 

In collaboration with our 

parent company – SBB 

Cargo – and numerous other private 

rail cargo companies, we 

established a Europe-wide network 

for wagons and wagon sets 

which serves almost all chemical 

parks in Germany, and which is 

flexible in its approach to satisfying 

customer’s requirements. In 

addition to that come our unit 

trains which we use to directly 

serve the large refineries in Italy, 

for instance. 

? 

The keyword here – Italy: a 

country you’ve been particularly 

active in recently? 

! 

Yes, ChemOil doesn’t just 

have its own local representative 

in Milan – rather, since the 

start of 2009 the three northern 

Italian crude oil refineries 

CavaTigozzi (Cremona), Sannazzaro 

and Frassine (Mantova) have 

been connected to our network 

and are being served directly 

from Switzerland with uninterrupted 

traction services. This now 

allows customers from the oil and 

chemical industry to directly 

reach four sites in northern Italy 

using direct transport concepts for 

unit trains and wagon sets – the 

fourth being Trecate which we’ve 

been serving for a long time now. 

But you offer your customers 

more than just the pure 

transport of dangerous goods? 

We see ourselves as a rail 

logistics company which differs 

from a pure rail freight company. 

For instance, we take care 

of end-to-end fleet management 

for our customers: from management 

and wagon overhauling to 

joint automation of order processes 

and accounting systems. Here, 

our tracking & tracing system 

plays a key role – this allows the 

precise location of wagons to be 

determined at any given time and 

we offer interfaces into our partners’ 

IT systems. 

Can you give us a specific 

example of such an integrated 

solution? 

Refined Benzene Heartcut 

(RBHC) is a refinery product 

which accumulates as waste at 

Trecate and which previously 

was transported to Rotterdam 

mostly in unit trains for further 

processing. To reduce costs for 

the customer, ChemOil developed 

a concept which uses a mixture 

of modes of transport as well 

as an adaptable tank farm. A 

direct transport route was found 

utilising the tank wagon round 

trips to Basle-Birsfelden. Two 

tanks are available at the destination 

which have a capacity of 

2,500 tonnes – enabling the tank 

wagons to achieve faster roundtrip 

times as the train only needs 

to travel as far as Basle. The 

buffer capacities of both tanks 

allow onward transportation to be 

made flexibly by inland ship – 

even if the water levels of the 

Rhine are low. ■ 

30 chemical logistics 2009 

? 

! 

? 

!

Tank Cleaning in Europe 2009 

Essential information wherever it’s needed – in the office or in the cab. 

Tankr ankreinigung einigung 

in Europa Europa 

2009 

Tank- und Kesselwagen, Silos, Tankcontainer, IBC 

Mit 

Cleaning 

Kennzeichnung 

19. Edition 

Schlüsselfertige Anlagen für die Tank-, Behälter-, Silound 

Kesselwagen-Innenreinigung 

www.protec-de.com 

Consulting – Engineering – Personaltraining – ACT-INFO 

www.act-international.de 

Tankreinigung 

Tank rengjøring 

Lavage de citernes 

Tankrengöring 

Lavaggio Cisterne 

Tank rengøring 

Lavado de Cisternas 

Mycie Cysterny 

Tankautoreiniging 

100 pages · € 13,80 

Effective and timely tank cleaning is crucial for quality control. It is also of great signifi cance to 

both safety and environmental issues. It is therefore vital to know at the planning stage of a trip 

where specific services can be found. This guide provides detailed entries on 600 tank cleaning 

stations in 26 countries across Europe. Additionally the publication also gives detailed information 

on 41 cleaning stations for rail tank cars. Accurate road maps identify the nearest stations, 

whilst the telephone, fax and e-mail addresses shown for each entry greatly facilitate contact. The 

guide provides SQAS “Cleaning” assessment of the station, opening times, the average waiting 

time, non-accepted products, type of cleaning documents issued as well as an overview of general 

services provided. Finally the guide provides a very useful drivers checklist and EFTCO tank 

cleaning codes in 10 languages. 

Verlagsgruppe Hüthig Jehle Rehm GmbH – Customer-Service 

Hultschiner Straße 8 · 81677 München · Phone +49-89-2183-7928 · Fax +49-89-2183-7620 

customerservice@hjr-verlag.de · www.storck-verlag.com

“Turn a win Ning 

NICKEL 

formula into perfect 

............................... 

28 58.693 

c He mistry.” 

2 4.0026 

HELIUM 

Go ahead, challenge us. 

At Agility, we have formulated ‘intelligent 

logistics’ the perfect chemistry for chemical 

industry supply chains. So we’re not only 

delivering freight management, operations 

outsourcing and safety services, we deliver 

a total solution. 

Agility is a leading logistics company with 37,000 employees taking care of our customers 

in more than 120 countries. Put Agility’s specialty chemicals business to the test, contact 

chemicals@agilitylogistics.com 

© 2009 Agility Logistics AG

chemical logistics SPECIAL ISSUE • STORCK PUBLISHING ...

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