The CMA CGM Group to set up a multi-temperature logistics facility at DP World London Gateway
CMA CGM, a world leader in maritime transport, is to take a long-term lease and invest in a build-to-suit, multi-temperature warehouse facility at DP World London Gateway Logistics Park, the company said in its press release.
The CMA CGM Group will occupy, through its international freight forwarding and logistics solutions subsidiary, a one hectare cold store facility within a 2.4 hectare logistics plot development on the River Thames and located close to main road access into the London area.
This state-of-the-art facility, fitted with IT traceability and management systems, represents a major milestone for the CMA CGM Group’s strategy to develop a global range of products in maritime transportation but also in inland solutions and logistics.
With this unique cold store, the Group will not only feature chilled and frozen chambers to handle a large variety of temperature-controlled products but it will also offer customers a wide range of added value services such as, product quality controls, packing, sorting, labelling, palletisation or bagging. It will also offer customs clearance, shunting (transfer from the quay to the warehouse) and delivery transportation (last-mile delivery).
The new cold store will be a real logistical platform gathering several types of work and expertise in a single place for a more efficient and reliable customer experience.
Work will start later this year, and the facility will become operational in early summer of 2019.
The CMA CGM Group, the world’s second carrier of reefer containers, is currently bringing cargo through DP World London Gateway Port on seven services. This includes large numbers of refrigerated containers arriving from the Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand, India and South America.
In the last two months, CMA CGM has consolidated much of its UK-bound temperature-controlled cargo, originating in the Southern Hemisphere, to come through DP World London Gateway Port.
This development and growth of CMA CGM’s reefer volumes ties in with DP World London Gateway’s ability to deliver time and cost savings, as well as reduce waste and carbon use through a one-stop-shop logistics solution that will increase product speed-to-market and reduce haulier mileage.
The port, which is among the fastest growing in the world, is handling large numbers of refrigerated containers arriving from all over the world. It uses more than 1600 ‘reefer’ points, a weather-resilient, automated container stacking system, custom-built inspection facilities and a service for shunting containers between the port and its neighbouring Logistics Park.