Since its establishment in 2015, Bulk Terminal Zeeland has witnessed a spectacular growth. The company recently reached an agreement with North Sea Port on leasing an additional 9.3ha of land. Extra quay facilities will further extend BTZ’s services. Managing Director Jacco Geleijnse explains the company’s plans to PortNews.
“Ever since our founding, we have been able to expand our business”, Mr Geleijnse tells. “So far, we have managed to handle this growth on our current premises, although I admit that at times we had to deal with quite some challenges concerning quay and storage space.” With the agreement with North Sea Port, the storage space will be expanded by 9.3ha, resulting in a total of 21ha. Mr Geleijnse continues, “To start with this clean sheet of land gives us the opportunity to speak with our clients about their wishes and needs in stocking in warehousing and desired land facilities. This is a win-win situation for both (prospective) clients and us.”
Quay facilities
“Apart from the additional hectares, our quay facilities will also be improved and extended, which will be an exceptional occasion for exploring our activities in warehousing and bulk handling. A brand-new 250m long quay will be constructed on our existing quay’s site. But first, North Sea Port will build 450m of new quay next to our terminal. Both will result in fresh and up-to-date quay facilities with a total length of 700m, and we will be able to use 450m of this quay.” In order to receive larger vessels, the draught alongside the new quay facilities will be extended from 11.5 to 12.5m. “With the improved draught and the additional quay facilities, we will be able to receive larger vessels,” Mr Geleijnse voices. “This is good news for our existing customers, as we know that many of them prefer shipments using the largest possible vessels, and it will help us to attract customers that now go elsewhere. This not only concerns attracting bigger vessels coming to us for unloading, but for loading as well. Turkish steel manufacturers, for example, use great amounts of scrap, and for them it is obvious that larger shipments from us to Turkey result in a cheaper shipment per mt.”
Unique crane
The expansion of the quay and storage facilities is not without reason. Mr Geleijnse explains, “We are perfectly capable of handling goods up to 10,000t using our current facilities. But with our increasing name awareness, companies today contact us for larger shipments, which is why we decided to invest in a new crane last year. We will greatly increase the capacity for loading and unloading with this new crane. The investments in bigger handling equipment means that additional handling and storage space is necessary. We hence decided to get in touch with North Sea Port, in order to secure land position and become future-proof.” According to Mr Geleijnse, this crane will mark a new stage in the company’s development. “The Sennebogen 895 E was recently transported to our terminal in sections. After assembly and testing, the crane will be operational by the end of this year. This crane is unique and will be the first one delivered in the Benelux. At an estimated 390t own weight and with a reach of more than 40m, the crane is the world’s largest hydraulic material handler of its kind. The crane also comes with an innovative energy recovery system. Our crane is supplied with various tools, so we can use it for a broad range of cargo ranging from containers to bulk.”
Four years
When everything goes according to plan, the construction of the new quay will commence early next year. Once ready, Bulk Terminal Zeeland’s new quay will have a capacity of 5t/m2 and a reinforced part that can handle loads of 20t/m2. “During the construction of the new quay facilities,” elaborates Mr Geleijnse, “it is important to keep our business ongoing, even when our quay is out of use. A detailed planning between the constructor, North Sea Port, and ourselves is thus required during the entire project, which should take around four years. For the construction of the quay, we have a commercial challenge of gradually filling in the additional 9.3ha of space. Much of this depends on market demand. With today’s knowledge, part of the expansion will probably be used to build extra warehouses for the storage of, among other things, bio grains. With additional open storage facilities, we could on the other hand further expand our position in the offshore market and for storing commodities such as scrap. But everything depends on market conditions and other developments that are simply beyond our control.”
Sustainability goals
According to Mr Geleijnse, the terrain’s extension will also help Bulk Terminal Zeeland to reorganise its office facilities. “Since our foundation, offices have grown from small mobile offices to our current ones. But they are now almost surrounded by stored goods due to our growth in activities, which is safety-wise not ideal. We can now rearrange the premises more logically and future-proof.” He continues, “We also have plans to have a wind turbine constructed on the terrain that will provide us with green power, and we want to realise shore power facilities for our customers.” Bulk Terminal Zeeland can also contribute to its customers’ sustainability goals in other ways. “We can certainly help our customers to reduce their footprint. From our terminal we can offer multimodal transport by road, inland shipping, and (short)sea shipping. Instead of shipping by truck, we already notice customers switching to barge transport. And if in high demand, we will certainly also consider rail facilities on our terminal as we are just several hundreds of metres away from the port’s railway system.”
“Apart from our expansion plans, our location in North Sea Port surely has a lot to offer for customers and prospects.”
Business units
Bulk Terminal Zeeland currently consist of three business units, which include BTZ Services, BTZ Agri, and BTZ Commodities. “With BTZ Services, we meet demand from the offshore industry. We provide handling and storage facilities for armour rock, spare parts, and equipment. Our terminal is also suitable for mobilisation and demobilisation of offshore support vessels. We do not take this work on ourselves, but instead provide shipowners and contractors with the space and facilities for the time they need to execute the job. BTZ Agri offers handling and storage facilities for bio grains. Apart from having suitable facilities for this, we are also fully certified according to SKAL, GMP+, and ISO9001. Although we have the facilities and capabilities to handle other types of grains as well, we made the decision to remain focussed on sensitive bio grains. This will avoid any risk of possible contamination with non-bio products, so that we can guarantee our customers safe handling and storage of their goods.” With BTZ Commodities, the company aims at a broad range of goods such as scrap, pellets, and semi-manufactures. “This year, for example, we handled wood pellets for powerplants and gypsum. We expect a total of 1.3t million of handled cargo this year.”
Focus
Bulk Terminal Zeeland in the past also offered various kinds of added value, but last year the company decided to stick to its core business, which according to Mr Geleijnse can be described as the handling and storage of goods. “Apart from handling and storing, we used to offer customers added value services such as packing and repacking, and screening and sorting. But what we do should be perfect, and during our present growth we noticed that matters sometimes just became too complex. We thus decided to focus only on handling and storing. Our change in focus does not imply that we will no longer provide added value services, but rather that we will now rely on trusted partners to take care of this. In fact, we wish to expand the possibilities for companies seeking some form of relevant collaboration with us.”
Core values
“Apart from our expansion plans, our location in North Sea Port surely has a lot to offer for customers and prospects,” comments Mr Geleijnse, “and as one of Europe’s top ten ports, North Sea Port enjoys a growing international name awareness, which also helps us with our communication.” Despite the continuing growth, Bulk Terminal Zeeland wants to stick to its original core values of flat decision organisation, problem solving, cooperative thinking, and flexibility. “We started our terminal with these values, aiming at small niche bulk volumes. We have since built up an interesting portfolio of loyal customers. Today, we are evermore equipped in machinery and installations. We are aware of the challenge of growing our organisation in a controlled manner, without forgetting that we started from scratch and we will continue to respectfully serve today’s and tomorrow’s clients. We will keep on serving our customers just like before, meaning flexibly, down-to-earth, and with great care for their goods. A growing organisation certainly requires a lot from all of us. I sometimes compare Bulk Terminal Zeeland with a napkin that has grown into a tablecloth. Now the table needs to be set. To reach our goals, our challenge lies in doing things the right way and with the right components.”