SHANGHAI, Dec. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Goodman Group (Goodman or the Group) is pleased to announce that it has secured five new major customer commitments totalling 98,120 sqm at the Goodman Pudong Airport Logistics Park (GPALP). The leasing success achieved reflects the continued robust demand for well located, high quality warehouse and distribution facilities in and around key gateway cities like Shanghai.

Located next to the Pudong International Airport's third runway, which is designated for airfreight only, the park is well serviced by strong transportation infrastructure. It comprises two-storey ramped up warehouses with sustainable features such as LED lighting, low-e glass curtain walls and steel structures made out of recycled materials.

The five customers who have recently committed to GPALP are:

• China Postal Express & Logistics, China's leading postal services provide
• DSV, a Danish transport and logistics service specialist
• NTS Logistics Management Company, a leading Chinese integrated transportation firm
• Shi Hao Vehicle Logistics Solutions, a Chinese vehicle logistics company
• Success Master Consultancy Co. Ltd., an automobile pre-delivery inspection service provider

Kristoffer Harvey, Chief Executive Officer, Greater China, Goodman said, "The strong demand for space at the Goodman Pudong Airport Logistics Park underscores our commitment to making it the preferred choice for companies wanting to locate in excellent proximity to China's second busiest airport. We are pleased to welcome so many renowned customers to this facility and to be able to meet their requirements with our modern logistics solutions and high quality customer service."

China Postal Express & Logistics, one of the park's new customers, committed to a total of 19,769 sqm.

Wang Aiping, General Manager, Shanghai Branch, China Postal Express & Logistics said, "Shanghai Postal Express & Logistics is a modern and integrated state-owned express delivery and logistics company that professionally operates and manages Shanghai's postal express and logistics services. Our business covers all of China and more than 200 countries overseas. Goodman has a strong reputation in the market due to the high quality of its warehouses, as well as its excellent property management capabilities. We are very honoured to occupy Goodman's best-in-class facility, which has been built in line with the highest standards. The adequate amount of space provided by the Goodman Pudong Airport Logisitics Park will play a key role in helping Shanghai Postal Express & Logistics improve its management and operational capabilities, boost its efficiency and provide integrated customer services. Meanwhile, Shanghai Postal Express & Logistics will also offer convenient, rapid, safe and reliable express delivery and logistics services to all segments of society."

About Goodman

Goodman Group is an integrated property group with operations throughout Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Europe, the United Kingdom and the Americas. Goodman Group, comprised of the stapled entities Goodman Limited, Goodman Industrial Trust and Goodman Logistics (HK) Limited, is the largest industrial property group listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and one of the largest listed specialist investment managers of industrial property and business space globally.

Goodman's global property expertise, integrated own+develop+manage customer service offering and significant fund management platform ensures it creates innovative property solutions that meet the individual requirements of its customers, while seeking to deliver sustainable long-term returns for its Partners.

|  A Goodman release  |  Dec 14, 2016  |

CEVA Logistics, one of the world’s largest supply chain management companies has announced the appointment of Carlos Velez Rodriguez as Managing Director for its Australia & New Zealand cluster. Based in Melbourne, he will report to the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Xavier Urbain.

Velez Rodriguez joins CEVA from FM Logistic where he was Group Managing Director Central Europe for the last decade and led a team of 5,000 individuals. He has a proven track record in the logistics sector and has held a number of commercial roles at companies in Europe, the USA and Latin America. Born in Colombia, he is an Austrian citizen.

His appointment is effective immediately. Commenting on Velez Rodriguez’s arrival, Xavier Urbain says: “I am delighted to have someone of Carlos’s caliber to lead our operations in Australia & New Zealand. His extensive industry knowledge, experience in leading large organizations and his collaborative style make him an excellent successor for this critical role in this important cluster.”

|  Automotive World  |  Dec 13, 2016  |

1-Stop Connections (1-Stop) is the chosen IT solutions provider for the joint venture between Ports of Auckland (POAL) and Port of Napier (PON). 1-Stop is also the provider of choice for container terminals in Australia and the Philippines.

“Ports of Auckland and Napier Port are the gateways to two of the largest North Island provincial economies with significant growth and demands on infrastructure,” says Ports of Auckland Chief Executive, Tony Gibson.

The partnership will allow Auckland and Napier to work together to find ways to optimise services for freight customers and achieve further scale and efficiencies in the supply chain. It will prompt even greater competitive contestability and resilience in New Zealand’s supply chain to help lower costs to exporters and importers.

“There is a natural fit between Ports of Auckland and Napier Port. We share a similar way of working, common customers and supply chain opportunities and have similar ownership structures so that’s a great base to work from,” he added.

POAL’s commitment to improvement led to the launch of 1-Stop’s VBS in 2007. The VBS introduction was achieved because of widespread industry collaboration, which included representatives from border security, shipping lines, trucking companies and freight-forwarders. Initially presented in a trial format at the Axis Fergusson terminal, the early results of the VBS quickly proved it was creating a more efficient platform for trucks to operate within.

The VBS has consistently improved POAL’s truck turn times, year on year. In 2016, the average turn time was 19.65 mins with 86-90% of those turn around under 30 mins.

PON implemented 1-Stop’s VBS in 2015, to allow road carriers to book timeslots for the pick-up or delivery of containers. The VBS is instrumental in catering for increased truck volumes while simultaneously reducing turnaround times.

Michael Bouari, CEO, 1-Stop assures that the focus will be on working together with the two ports to achieve a common goal. “We will continue to work collaboratively with both terminals to ensure that 1-Stop’s products can seamlessly manage any increases in volume due to both terminals expanding dock side and inter-modally over the coming years,” says Bouari.

Since 1-Stop introduced the Vehicle Booking System, port communities have benefited through:

   · Reduction in queue times: 2 to 4-hour queue times to mostly no queues at the terminals.

   · Decreased TTT: Truck Turn Times at some terminals were reduced from 91 minutes to 37 minutes (and in some cases as low as 15 minutes’ averages)

   · Decrease in dwell times: By 30% in the first 2 weeks of operation

   · Increased throughput: Increased Terminals in South East Asia experienced a 20% increase in truck servicing

   · Increased utilisation: Trucking companies are experiencing up to 5 times more utilisation per truck

|  Source: Ports of Auckland  |  Dec 12,2016  |

Prime Minister John Key and Transport Minister Simon Bridges have turned the sod on the first section of the long awaited Pūhoi to Wellsford Road.

The Puhoi to Warkworth road will be a new 18.5km motorway between Auckland and Northland. It is the first section of the Pūhoi to Wellsford Road to get underway, one of the Government’s Roads of National Significance.

“Extending the Northern Motorway between Pūhoi and Warkworth will enhance inter-regional and national economic growth and improve the reliability of the transport network between Auckland and Northland,” Mr Bridges says.

“It will also support population growth, connecting the expanding Warkworth area which is expected to grow to 20,000 residents in the next few decades.”

The $709.5 million project is being delivered through a Public Private Partnership, the second for a state highway in New Zealand.

Progress is also being made towards starting the second stage between Warkworth and Wellsford.

“The NZ Transport Agency has been undertaking investigations and will be sharing an indicative route with the public early next year,” Mr Bridges says.

“Both of these projects will reduce the overall travel time between Auckland and Northland, bypassing town centres and avoiding State Highway 1’s current steep and winding route.

“It will also create a better freight connection for Northland to the Upper North Island freight “Golden Triangle” of Auckland, Waikato and Tauranga.”

The road is planned to be open to traffic in late 2021.

More information is available at http://www.nzta.govt.nz/projects/ara-tuhono-puhoi-to-warkworth.

European manufacturers are failing to make the most of data and analytics tools to plan and segment their supply chains, according to a new report.

JDA Software Group and Warwick Manufacturing Group's (WMG) report the Supply Chain Segmentation: A Window of Opportunity for European Manufacturing found that only 18% of respondents took into account historic, present and future data in the supply chain planning process.

The report surveyed 100 manufacturing organisations across Europe to benchmark their supply chain segmentation practices.

Only 39% of respondents’ segmentation models were data-driven and 23% of organisations stated they prefer the use of “rules of thumb” to any kind of data-driven methodology.

“The survey highlights that the majority of organisations are not using dynamic or data-driven models,” said Hans-Georg Kaltenbrunner, vice president manufacturing industry strategy, EMEA at JDA.

“Indeed, more organisations are driving their supply chains forward by looking in the rear-view mirror, rather than looking at the road ahead.”

Kaltenbrunner said that as well as an over reliance on historic data, research suggests that some organisations may not have the capability to accurately navigate their supply chain along the business roadmap.

“A lack of analytics capabilities is widespread, along with a consistent end-to-end analytics approach,” he said.

This meant first movers would quickly gain a competitive advantage.

Twenty nine per cent of respondents said they implemented supply chain segmentation practices, in a top down manner – which the report said indicated that the strategic nature of segmentation is not being recognised in practice.

Continue to full article

APL is seeking to capitalize on the fact China is New Zealand’s second-largest trading partner for exports and third-largest for imports.

CMA CGM’s newly acquired APL will begin a direct weekly service between North Asia ports and New Zealand from the end of December, increasing coverage in response to fast-growing trade with China.

The New Zealand Express II, or NZ2, service will increase its port calls in New Zealand to five to strengthen APL’s presence in the Oceania trade lane. With the launch of the NZ2 service, APL will have a network of six Oceania services that connect Asia with Brisbane in Australia and New Zealand.

“APL introduced the new NZ2 service to serve the China-New Zealand market in a direct and more efficient way. Compared to transshipment options, the NZ2 service provides our customers with dedicated and faster connectivity between the North Asia and Oceania markets,” said Tonnie Lim, APL head of intra-Asia trade.

The new NZ2 service will be made available through slot swaps on ANL’s ANZEX service, and will deploy seven vessels with capacities between 4,132 and 4,578 twenty-foot-equivalent units. It will complement the existing New Zealand Express, or NZE, service, with a port rotation of Shanghai, Ningbo, Chiwan, Kaohsiung, Brisbane, Auckland, Port Chalmers, Lyttelton, Napier, Tauranga, Hong Kong, and Keelung.

“The direct service will enable businesses to accelerate their products’ speed and access to these markets, as they seize new growth opportunities in the region,” Lim said.

New Zealand’s trade relationship with China has nearly tripled during the past decade, with two-way trade rising from $8.2 billion in the year ended June 2007 to $23 billion up to June this year. Annual exports to China have quadrupled and annual imports from China have doubled since 2007, according to the country’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade.

“We have traded more with China since the free trade agreement entered into force in 2008 than in all our previous history, and growth is faster with China than any of our other major trading partners,” the ministry said in a statement.

China is New Zealand’s second-largest trading partner for exports and third-largest for imports. In the year ended June 2016, 17 percent of the country’s goods and services exports went to China and 16 percent of goods and services imports came from China.

New Zealand’s top goods export to China in the past year was milk powder, and has been since 2008. The trade ministry said at its peak in the year ended June 2014, milk powder accounted for more than 40 percent of New Zealand’s total annual export value of goods and services to China. Other leading exports are untreated logs and beef and lamb.

Clothing was the largest import during the past decade, but has dropped from around 16 percent to 11 percent of the total import value from China this year.

Also capitalizing on the rising trade between China and New Zealand is Maersk Line that in October inserted Tauranga on the westbound northward leg of its AC-3 Asia-west coast South America service, a weekly service connecting Mexico, Panama, Colombia, Peru, and Chile directly to New Zealand.

Leading the AC-3 service was Aotea Maersk, and its capacity of 9,640 TEUs made it the largest container vessel ever to call at a New Zealand port. The port of Tauranga has a long-term strategy to extend its freight catchment and consolidate its position as the country's leading freight gateway. Handling larger vessels is a key part of this focus and its shipping channels have been widened and deepened, to 47.6 feet inside the harbor entrance and 51.8 feet outside the harbor.

That long-term plan also included signing a 10-year deal with logistics company Kotahi that guaranteed Tauranga 1.8 million TEUs during that period.

Maersk Line and APL are members of the Asia Australia Discussion Agreement along with ANL, China Cosco Shipping, Evergreen Line, Hamburg Sud, Hyundai Merchant Marine, Mediterranean Shipping Co., Orient Overseas Container Line, Pacific International Line, Sinotrans Container Lines, T.S. Lines, and Yang Ming Line.

Article written by Greg Knowler Dec 07, 2016

A new Land Transport Rule will help increase efficiency and ease congestion on our roads by enabling trucks to carry more freight, Associate Transport Minister Craig Foss says.

The new Vehicle Dimensions and Mass (VDAM) rule makes small adjustments to the rules covering height, width and weight limits for trucks and some buses.

“Maximising the potential of our heavy vehicle fleet will increase capacity and improve productivity across the transport sector,” Mr Foss says.

“Enclosed vehicles such as refrigerated trailers will be able to load three more pallets side-by-side, increasing capacity by 10 per cent and reducing the number of these vehicles on the road by a similar amount.”

The VDAM changes include:

• Redefining the width limit to enable more vehicles to utilise the 2.55m limit;
• Increasing the general access gross mass limits from 44 tonnes to 45 and 46 tonnes, depending on vehicle configuration; and
• Increasing axle mass limits for various axle configurations.

“Safety is always the Government’s primary consideration. The rule will encourage operators to purchase newer vehicles aligned to international dimensions with more technology and safety features,” Mr Foss says.

The VDAM Rule 2016 comes into force on 1 February 2017.

For more information, visit: www.nzta.govt.nz/vdamrule2016

The family that owns the Bluebridge Cook Strait ferry service has sold the bulk of its transport business to an Australian equity company.

Champ Private Equity has agreed to buy Strait Shipping, owner of Bluebridge, and Freight Lines from the Barker family, it was announced on Tuesday.

No price was mentioned in the announcement.

The sale represents the end of an era for the Barker family but was in keeping with founder Jim Barker's wishes, says Strait Shipping managing director spokeswoman and Mr Barker's daughter Sheryl Ellison.

"We are extremely proud of these three leading New Zealand transport businesses and we are excited about their future under a new growth focused ownership," she said in a joint statement.

Mr Barker had been closely involved with the sale until his death in August, Ms Ellison said.

"It was Dad's vision that these businesses would continue to thrive, grow and lead New Zealand's transport industry into the future and we're confident that this sale will ensure this."

Strait Shipping started its Cook Strait service with one ferry in 1992 when Mr Barker wanted a service to transport cattle. It now operates two ferries, the Straitsman and Strait Feronia.

The Barker family will retain ownership of Bulklines and Stocklines, which are not included in the sale.

Continue to full article

Toll New Zealand, one of New Zealand’s largest domestic freight forwarders offering end-to-end transport services and logistics solutions, has announced that it will deploy Promapp’s cloud-based business process management software as part of the company’s ongoing continuous improvement program.

Promapp will replace the company’s range of processes created and stored in Visio, Word and on their intranet which, although documented, were difficult to update and manage for the diverse business groups throughout the Toll business.

“We wanted a common language for process throughout the business and sought to deploy an industry best practice solution. At the same time, we aspired to deploy a platform where processes could be documented and then evolve to where these processes could actually provide a platform for continuous process improvement,” explains Anthony Barrett, General Manager, IT, Toll New Zealand.

The decision to deploy Promapp followed a review of market solutions available. Promapp was selected based on its ease of use, attractive user interface and its overall return on investment based on the experience of other companies.

Promapp will be rolled out to all of Toll New Zealand’s business units and departments. They will use the software to support continuous improvement.

“We believe that people perform best when they are empowered, accountable and recognised. How we go about achieving success is as important as success itself. Promapp will enable us to drive this strategy,” said Barrett.

At the same time, the company has also started to deploy Promapp’s risk module which will support the company’s overall compliance initiatives.

“Our compliance policy aims to achieve the ongoing involvement and total commitment of all management, employees, contractors and suppliers to seek and achieve continuous improvement in everything we do,” says Barrett. “Promapp will support this program in the coming years.”

Promapp’s recently launched Process Variant Management Module will also provide Toll New Zealand with the ability to recognise standard processes and manage or eliminate process variations.

“We need Process Variant Management functionality as we have customer and region specific variations and must capture and manage these effectively in order to boost business operational performance. Previously, we didn’t know how different a process was from one customer, region or department to another so we were unable to attach a value to it. Now, we will be able to see each variant and more importantly, identify the cost and impact of each process variation. We will achieve better management of process variations so will be able to better manage risk,” says Barrett.

Being cloud-based, Promapp enables teams to suggest improvements and update processes in real-time. This means all staff will always see the latest information.

As New Zealand's most successful multi-modal supply chain operator, Toll New Zealand provides its customers with high quality freight forwarding and logistics solutions from Kaitaia to Invercargill. In addition to its transport and relocation capabilities, the organisation is also expert in providing fully integrated logistics solutions and is able to manage a customer’s supply chain warehouse and support with third party logistics (3PL) services.

“Our company mission is to harness our significant resources, know-how and passion to deliver the optimal logistics solutions for our customers. By using Promapp, we will have a process management solution that is accessible throughout the organisation. The feedback loop will also enable people to engage with processes and suggest improvements, ultimately supporting our strategy of being recognised as the Asia Pacific region’s most successful provider of logistics,” said Barrett.

The Coda intermodal freight hub expansion was officially opened by the Minister of Transport Hon Simon Bridges today, unlocking a new transport network for the North Island.

Scott Brownlee, Chief Executive of Coda Group, the country’s leading freight management business, said based on cargo volumes, the Coda intermodal freight hub, Savill Drive in Auckland, will be one of the largest fully intermodal freight hubs in New Zealand, providing a consolidation point to bring together export, import and domestic cargo flows into one single location.

“Infrastructure investment and rail connectivity were key milestones required to increase capacity and services of the freight hub and the existing Coda rail offering between Auckland and Palmerston North. We now provide further opportunities for lower North Island exporters to access the two main ports in the North Island.

“The hub is an efficient supply chain ecosystem that will continue to remove waste from the North Island’s freight network. Each day we’ll see more than 300, 20-foot equivalent container loads of goods flow through the site, with products dispatched to supermarket shelves and retail stores or railed to port for export to markets around the world. The intermodal freight hub is a significant step in increasing the landside logistics capability required to consolidate cargo and service the larger ships now visiting New Zealand.

“By working together with our customers and partners, we’re delivering fresh, innovative supply chain solutions which will provide better matching of freight flows up and down the North Island and keep New Zealand businesses competitive,” he said.

KiwiRail Chief Executive Peter Reidy said the recent Kaikoura earthquake has demonstrated how connected New Zealand’s logistics partners need to be.

“We’re proud of the work we’re doing to achieve this and welcome strong strategic partnerships like the one we have with Coda. The facility not only means an increase in rail volumes, it is also helping change the way export and domestic volumes are flowing. This collaborative approach supports the growth of New Zealand businesses and in turn this brings significant benefits to the country.

“Helping to drive New Zealand’s growth is important to KiwiRail and this facility is a good example of how KiwiRail is offering transport operators the best landside logistics solution.”

The significance of the southbound rail link will enable the Coda intermodal freight hub to move south, by rail, the equivalent of 8,000 heavy vehicle trips of cargo annually. Each year this will save over 1.5 million litres of fuel and 4,000 tonnes of carbon emissions – equivalent to planting just over 100,000 tree seedlings, grown for 10 years*.

The Coda intermodal freight hub provides a full logistics solution which includes transport, product warehousing, cross-dock facilities, container loading and devanning, container storage, hire and a coastal shipping service moving up to 500 TEU per week to the South Island.

The new expansion includes a new 10,000 sqm intermodal yard, 4,950 sqm warehouse extension, 6,500 sqm freight canopy, two rail sidings and in 2017 an additional 7,500 sqm warehouse with additional freight canopy will be completed.