Page 18 - Port of Hamburg Magazine 02.24

PAGE 18
ALL-PURPOSE PORT PORT OF HAMBURG MAGAZINE 2/24
The multipurpose Seaport-Hub Wallmann forms the maritime link
for the 90 Deufol locations in twelve countries.
Deufol considers itself a specialist in physical and digi- tal infrastructure, promoting the fact that it offers everything as a single service provider. It strives to de- velop individual and international logistics concepts to avoid waste, shorten process times, reduce transport and packaging costs and to increase the profitability and efficiency of its customers. “With our services, we want to make our customers faster, optimise transport routes between their factories and combine loads to avoid excessive handling,” he stresses. Everything that leaves the customer no long requires space there and helps to increase the customer’s production capacity. “It often makes a lot of sense to have their goods pack- aged by us – this also helps to free up space at their own factory premises,” Wülfing continues.
Thanks to the Wallmann Terminal, which has belonged to Deufol since 2021, it has been possible to continue increasing the real net output ratio for customers. Un- like container ships, breakbulk ships do not always travel along fixed routes; they are sent wherever the corresponding plant parts are to be collected. “We are currently cooperating in a dam project in Laos, for ex- ample. Wherever large and heavy goods are needed around the world, that’s where we go,” he explains. The oversized and heavy loads are transported with the help of roll trailers and moved into the halls.
Digital processing plays a central role here. “We want to make the flow of goods transparent to stop con-
struction sites from grinding to a halt or customers from having to submit new orders,” emphasises Wülf- ing. Particularly in the case of large construction sites, while goods may actually be delivered, they can sometimes be difficult to find on site because they are not clearly identifiable, marked or labelled. “This un- necessarily costs a lot of time and money.”
Deufol employs around 60 members of staff who ex- clusively develop digital solutions. The service pro- vider prides itself in being the only company of its size that has its own complete IT infrastructure for digitally mapping supply chains in a transparent, end-to-end manner. This allows customers to track their goods seamlessly, even when sub-suppliers are involved. For instance, they see where something was purchased and in how many parts the goods will arrive. This in turn enables them to manage their construction site accordingly. This is by no means trivial. After all, site managers often have no idea what is being delivered or they receive parts that are not needed for another six months. “Our tool gives them an overview of the situation.”
Deufol does not store all the goods that are shipped at the Port of Hamburg. Since storage space is rela- tively expensive there, the service provider also uses its domestic locations and has the goods brought to the port just before loading onto the ship. Nonethe- less, in some cases, Deufol may store goods in its
© H.S.H.
© Deufol