‘Portbase offers the customer concrete advantages’
“The result is optimum transparency”
Rémon Kerkhof, Manager Import/Export Lehnkering
Optimum transparency
From Rotterdam, Lehnkering’s Port Logistics division arranges all of the logistics throughout the world for its customers. This applies for both containers and bulk cargo. To achieve this, Lehnkering works via all West European ports. However, the focus is on Rotterdam. “We ship approximately 100,000 TEU (Twenty foot Equivalent Unit, the unit used to describe containers, ed.) for our customers annually,” says Manager Import – Export Rémon Kerkhof. Bulk is more difficult to quantify. “Around 350 sea-going and inland vessels are involved every year.” Lehnkering’s import-export ratio is approximately 30 – 70. Kerkhof: “Depending on the wishes of the customer, we coordinate the entire supply chain, from factory to final customer. We can arrange every aspect, from warehousing, through organising the entire document flow to assuming responsibility for some of the production. Everything is possible; we really wish to assist the customer and respond to its needs.”
“We do our utmost to speed up the logistics process. We want to be able to monitor the entire supply chain.”
Rémon Kerkhof, Manager Import/Export Lehnkering
A large German chemical producer is one of the customers for which Lehnkering arranges all of the logistics. On its instructions, Lehnkering ships several tens of thousands of containers annually. The majority are shipped via the port of Rotterdam. Both the producer and Lehnkering required more transparency and less paperwork between the plant and the moment of shipping. This was a reason to start to use the Portbase ECS services at the start of 2012. Now, exporting is considerably easier. Kerkhof: “Our customer automatically sends us the cargo details we require; our system encrypts them and forwards them as an ECS notification to Portbase.”
The result is optimum transparency. Via the ECS services, Lehnkering can track the containers in the port almost in real time. “When abnormalities arise, we can immediately take action. For instance, when a container does not arrive in time at the port or is not cleared by customs. Shipping companies are considerably less proactive in reporting such abnormalities. The ECS services help us to be a true control tower for our customer. Moreover, the customs process in the port also runs very easily thanks to the ECS services.”