A.P. Moller-Maersk (Maersk) has reached an agreement with Canadian Pacific Railway Limited (CP) to build and operate a new transload and distribution facility in Vancouver, Canada.
In a statement Maersk said the agreement will improve supply chain options for its customers and those of CP. The facility will be an expansion of CP’s existing Vancouver Intermodal Facility and will be benefit from turnkey rail infrastructure, according to Maersk.
The transload facility is designed to apply Maersk’s global integrator of container logistics strategy and will offer customers access to a multi-commodity transload facility that will rely on the substantial use of rail instead of truck in the Vancouver market – CP will shuttle containers to and from the ocean terminals via rail.
Maersk’s ambition to establish a sustainable supply chain aligns with CP’s initiatives to fight climate change.
“CP’s unique landholdings in Vancouver enable us to bring to market a first-of-its-kind transload facility that creates tremendous opportunity for sustainable growth,” said CP’s President and CEO Keith Creel.
“Together with Maersk, the global shipping leader, we will transform intermodal transportation in North America.”
Omar Shamsie, President of Maersk Canada said: “This agreement installs more agile supply chain options and capacity to and from Vancouver for our North American customers. Marketplace fluctuations, e-commerce demands and omnichannel fulfillment are testing every company – so this integrated logistics solution with CP will clearly elevate supply chain performance.”
Canada’s supply chain has suffered from a lack of warehouse space in 2020, and Shamsie said the new facility will help utilise capacity and “create more end-to-end supply chain solutions by reducing multi-modal handoffs.”
“We can now offer more responsiveness to the pace of business by giving supply chain leaders more control of order timing/fulfillment through inland routing flexibility, better velocity gained from one day savings of rail versus truck and cost savings through seamless transload operations into domestic 53’ trailers,” Shamsie added.
“We feel this is quite compelling to lower their year-on-year cost goals while creating a more sustainable supply chain with less truck emissions.”
