Dusseldorf Airport has invested €3 million to build a state-of-the-art warehouse for processing temperature critical shipments. It closes an existing link within the ground services
offered. The 800 sqm large facility comprises a variety of cool rooms to fit different requirements.
Simultaneously, IAG Cargo has expanded their global network of Constant Climate stations in Latin America.
Around 16 percent of the producers of pharmaceutical items in Germany are based in the highly industrialized State of North-Rhine Westphalia of which Dusseldorf is the capital. To capture this
business instead of any longer standing passively on the sidelines and, watching the high-yield shipments being trucked to Amsterdam, Frankfurt or Paris, Dusseldorf Airport decided to build its
own facility for handling this range of sophisticated and specialized products in-house by DUS Cargo Logistics.
This resulted in the construction of a Pharma Center in which temperature critical items like foodstuff, perishables, life sciences, medical or pharmaceutical products can be stored and processed
according to international standards.
No risk of quality loss
To enable the fast access and flows of goods DUS managers decided to build the complex within the security area, next to the existing cargo warehouse. Locating the facility outside the airport
fence for reducing expenditures was no real option, states Thomas Schuermann, sales and marketing manager at DUS Cargo Logistics. If so, new interfaces would have been created, consequently
slowing down the flow of goods and delaying processes considerably. “That way we would have risked sacrificing quality standards,” he says.
DUS Cargo Logistics is managing all handling processes within the Pharma Center which opened up its doors for commercial use only a few days ago.
“The new facility is one side of the coin, the other is qualified personnel that we provide to ensure our clients utmost handling quality,” notes Thomas. The building itself is divided into 3
different corridors and comprises a total of 23 separate cooling cells covering a temperature range between 2° and 25° Celsius.
Additional node
This way a great variety of highly sensitive products both imports and exports can be handled and stored in accord with the valid regulations and requirements.
For safely transporting pharmaceutical products without risking overheating of the container’s contents or mistreatment by ground personnel, airlines and their forwarding agents depend on a
network of adequate storage and handling facilities stretching from beginning to end of the supply chain.
Against this background the Pharma Center at DUS is an additional node within the global network of facilities built for the purpose of adequately processing temperature critical products.
IAG Cargo expands its Constant Climate network further
The same accounts for two new stations opened up by IAG Cargo in Ecuador, bringing the total number of gateways in the region to 15 and making it one of the largest regional networks for the
transportation of time and temperature sensitive pharmaceuticals.
Latin America is an increasingly important market for the trade in pharmaceuticals. Currently worth an estimated US$70bn, the market is expected to grow rapidly as a result of population growth
and regional economics, reads the IAG release.
The move follows the opening of two new Constant Climate stations in Europe - Oporto in Portugal and Linz in Austria, complementing the 38 stations already in operation in the region.
Heiner Siegmund
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