Wallenius Wilhelmsen has officially opened a new, purpose-built equipment processing centre in Zeebrugge that will play a key role in Doosan’s supply chain for the European market. 

It is WW’s second equipment processing centre in the Belgian port and the investment will support construction equipment manufacturer Doosan to optimise its delivery network in Europe.

The 1,330 square-metre facility offers floor strength to handle machines of up to 90 tonnes, three overhanging cranes with capacities of 10, 10 and 20 tonnes respectively, and a new warehouse management system.

The new centre has been operational since early January 2019, but officially opened its doors last month. Exactly one year after Doosan announced that the Belgian port would become its European distribution hub.

Following a ramping-up period, Wallenius Wilhelmsen will mount and customise around 3,000 construction machines a year for the company.

Doosan and Wallenius Wilhelmsen have worked together to determine how to optimise the company’s supply chain. “More and more, OEM’s want to build the machine in their factories but customise it close to the end customer,” Werner Van Dessel, senior manager EMEA at Wallenius Wilhelmsen Solutions, explained. “Doing so greatly speeds up time to market.”

Doosan’s new operations director S.H. Chung says: “This new equipment processing centre at Zeebrugge is a vital part of our European distribution plans going forward. Through this expansion, WW Solutions has increased its capacity to provide a complete end-to-end solution to Doosan, enhancing our business competitiveness.”

Wallenius Wilhelmsen expects that the cluster Tof equipment processing centres at Zeebrugge will attract other businesses in the coming years. “We are ready to take on any challenges our customers have at this new, semi-industrialised EPC,” Van Dessel says.