23 October 2024

Katoen Natie, a global logistics service provider, has started the operation of its new container yard in Jurong Island, Singapore. This container yard is expected to enhance the overall supply chain and logistical ecosystem in Jurong Island.

Located in the western part of Jurong Island (Angsana Drive), the container yard sits over a land area of around 28,000 sqm which houses empty and laden containers. Given its proximity to Katoen Natie’s existing Jurong Logistics Terminal (JLT) in Jurong Island as well as leveraging on PSA Jurong Island Terminal (JIT), this container yard will help optimize container transportation flow for shippers by reducing container trucking distance resulting in improved productivity at the same time.

Mr. Koen Cardon, CEO of Katoen Natie Singapore, said, “Today, for a typical export trucking, a shipper would need to arrange for an empty container to be picked up via road from a depot in mainland Singapore. The empty container would then be trucked into Jurong Island for loading before being subsequently trucked out from Jurong Island to the PSA ports in mainland Singapore. Depending on the location of the mainland depot, a typical round trip for export out from our JLT could take as far as 70 km in total distance. With our Katoen Natie Container Depot (KCD), we are now able to open up for shipping lines (through our partner Allied Container Services) to position their empty containers in our KCD and for shipper to leverage collection (or return) of containers. Further leveraging on trucking container into PSA JIT (instead of PSA ports in the mainland), such a round trip (around 12 km) could save trucking travelling distance by as much as 80%. This does not only translate to increased productivity and possibly cost savings for shippers, but such an optimized container transportation flow also enhances sustainability by addressing issues pertaining to shortages of drivers and carbon emissions.”

Mr. Lim Kian Chin, Managing Director of Allied Container Services, added, “We are delighted to partner with Katoen Natie (again) for its new container yard. We have previously operated on limited scale via trials where we brought in empty container via barge (through PSA JIT) and trucking these empty containers into Katoen Natie’s other existing integrated container yard within its JLT, with the support from Main Line Operators (MLOs) for these trials. The trials then had been very positive but scalability had been limited due to availability of container yard space. With KCD now and the strong support shown by the MLOs, we are confident that we would be able to increase our service offering to varying stakeholders, increase container throughputs and importantly, contributing to an optimized and sustainable transportation flow for the industry.”

The KCD is part of Katoen Natie’s master plan to further enhances its Singapore’s operation. In parallel to KCD, Katoen Natie has also embarked on its other expansion plan in Jurong Island where it is building a new warehouse which is expected to be ready in around mid-2026.

Mr. Koen Cardon shared, “Our Singapore operations have grown significantly over the last 20+ years here in our Jurong Logistics Terminal (JLT). We have since confirmed our decision to invest another S$60 million to expand our warehouse capacity in our existing JLT which would provide us with an incremental warehouse capacity of 32,000 sqm, bringing our total warehouse storage area close to 200,000 sqm in Singapore. With an increase warehouse storage capacity, we expect throughput to increase and KCD would complement this.”

About Katoen Natie

Katoen Natie provides tailor-made, innovative, and sustainable logistics and engineering solutions to a variety of end markets and key customers all over the world. Headquartered in Antwerp, Belgium, Katoen Natie has a global footprint of over 38 countries, operating over 165 logistics platforms with a total covered warehouse capacity of over 6,000,000 sqm.

For more information on Katoen Natie, please visit www.katoennatie.com or https://transport.katoennatie.com/

For enquiry, please contact:

Mr. Michael Tan, Chief Commercial Officer, Katoen Natie Singapore (Jurong) Pte Ltd

Tel: +65 6419 2719 (DID) / +65 8133 2356 (Mobile) 

michael.tan@katoennatie.com

Mr. Leslie Teo, Manager, Transport, Katoen Natie Singapore (Jurong) Pte Ltd

Tel: +65 6419 2182 (DID) / +65 9626 3379 (Mobile)

leslie.teo@katoennatie.co