18 BULKDISTRIBUTOR
Logistics
November/December 2016
Environment Agency awards logistics contract
T
he Environment Agency has awarded a one-year contract to Stobart Group to store,
track and transport its 40km of temporary barriers and other mobile equipment.
The contract will include use of the Stobart Group’s network of resilience centres, distribution centres
and extensive fleet of over 3,000 trucks.
Stobart Group will be working with the Environment Agency to provide a 24/7 logistics support
service throughout the year assisting the Environment Agency before, during and after flooding.
Andrew Tinkler, Stobart Group Chief Executive Officer, said: “Last year’s floods were devastating for
many communities across the UK. I am very pleased to announce that Stobart Group will be providing
support to the Environment Agency over the next 12 months and utilising our logistical expertise, skilled
workforce and assets to deploy equipment as and when required.”
Liquefied Natural Gas as pioneering alternative
in industrial and transportation sectors
A
t a specialist meeting held last month by VTG
Aktiengesellschaft and Brunsbüttel Ports GmbH,
representatives from the political and business scenes
highlighted the future significance of liquefied natural gas
(LNG) for the industrial and transportation sectors.
The experts called for infrastructure investment to enable LNG to
become fully established. In this context, a German LNG import
terminal is essential. Despite the fact that the potential of LNG has
been acknowledged, Germany is still lagging behind when
compared to the rest of Europe.
In addition to the transportation sector, LNG also benefits the
industrial sector and is gaining increasing importance when it
comes to energy policy issues. Germany’s current natural gas
provisions are mainly supplied via pipelines from the Netherlands,
Norway and Russia.
Due to declining natural gas production, the Netherlands will
cease to be a supplier in the foreseeable future, thus specifically
increasing dependence on Russian natural gas, for example. LNG
offers the possibility to obtain large quantities of natural gas
worldwide − independent of pipelines. This, in turn, would decrease
reliance on the current suppliers and market prices would become
freely negotiable.
The long-term benefits of LNG as an alternative to pipelines are
particularly clear in the industrial sector. VTG Aktiengesellschaft, in
collaboration with Chart Ferox a.s., specialists in the development of
transport containers for cryogenic liquids, developed and
constructed an LNG tank wagon for industrial customers.
“Our LNG wagon enables us to transport environmentally friendly
LNG by means of environmentally friendly rail,” said Dr Heiko Fischer,
CEO at VTG AG. “Much larger quantities of LNG can be transported
in this way, which is primarily beneficial to the industrial segment.”
The VTG LNG tank wagon’s capacity is double that of a truck
and three times that of an LNG tank container, it can be used
throughout Europe and is able to keep the LNG in a cryogenic state
for up to six weeks.
Dr Jochen Wilkens, Chairman of the Chemical Industry Association
in Northern Germany, also offered his views from the perspective of
the energy-intensive industrial sector: “The chemical industry in the
Lower Elbe region is one of the largest gas consumers. For our
company, security for the supply of natural gas, when compared
internationally, is a decisive locational factor. We see LNG as an
important component in Germany’s energy mix. In order to remain
competitive, our locations in northern Germany have to be able to
benefit from price developments in the LNG gas market. This is why
Germany needs its own LNG import terminal. On the whole,
ensuring a reliable energy supply is one of the basic components of
responsible industrial policy.”
Plans for an LPG import terminal at Brunsbüttel Port in the Hamburg
metropolitan region are currently going ahead. The concept is based
on a three-pillar strategy: Firstly, LNG as an alternative fuel for ships on
the busy Elbe-Kiel Canal shipping point and overland transport,
secondly, the regional, as well as transregional, supply to the industrial
sector and thirdly the possibility to further diversify Germany’s natural
gas procurement sources through LNG.
LNG is natural gas which has been cooled to between -164°c
and -161°c and, in the process, is converted to liquid form. LNG
is condensed and therefore only occupies six-hundredths of the
volume of natural gas, making transportation efficient and
considerably more simple. Owing to these properties, LNG is traded
worldwide and is available in large quantities.