Fertiliser warehouse ramps up capacity

The Beira Logistics Terminal (BLT) has added 8000 tons of capacity to one of its bulk fertiliser warehouses, bringing total capacity to 70 000 tons and enabling the facility to service larger vessels, according to Jonathan Middleton, CEO – warehousing at J&J Africa. “Our state of the art minerals shed is also now fully operational with four weighing stations fully integrated into our management system which means there is increased efficiency in getting last minute shipments packed and VGMs submitted to shipping lines.” This, said Middleton, gave customers a lot more flexibility to ship cargo more quickly. According to Middleton one of the big challenges in Beira has always been warehousing capacity – especially when it comes to fertiliser imports. “Most of the cargo is shipped within a very short
period of time creating a lot of congestion in the port which in turn creates extra delays for our clients. It increases supply chain costs due to high demurrage bills. By adding capacity, we can now receive more cargo at a time in bulk, turning around our clients’ vessels more quickly and saving them money.” The reason, he said, for adding a dedicated minerals warehouse was to build a specialised warehouse with a high level of security such as extensive CCTV coverage – especially over the weighing stations where individual weights are captured from the scale for reconciliation purposes later on. “Our purpose-built “High Value Cargo” management system is updated in real time with minimal user input to minimise errors and it gives clients quicker access to information around what has been received.”