News
29.01.09 - Nordlandkai Timber processing creates and secures Jobs
[Translate to Englisch:] Besichtigten die neue CNC-Maschine von Finnforest: Hans-Gerd GieleĂźen, Heinrich Beckmann, Michael Menz und Lothar Loddoch (v. li.)
Finnforest Deutschland GmbH, part of Finland's Metsiitto forestry products group, has taken its new storage, logistics and engineering centre into operation at LHG’s Nordlandkai Terminal. Already nine new jobs have been created and the number of employees is expected to rise further.
From this year, the internationally active timber concern is serving wholesale and industrial customers in the entire central European area from LĂĽbeck. The timber is being delivered to Nordlandkai on existing ferry shipping lines. The LHG is responsible for unloading, transport from ship to warehouse, storage, commissioning and provision.
At the official inauguration of the facility, Finnforest Deutschland GmbH Managing Director Michael Menz, Logistics Continental Europe Vice President Lothar Loddoch and LHG Managing Directors Hans-Gerd Gielessen and Heinrich Beckmann underscored the excellent co-operation that had made the completion of the project possible in such a short time.
The facility is located on a 3.2 hectare site on the Einsiedelstrasse, adjacent to Nordlandkai. The LHG bought the site, along with a number of halls and an office building, in 2007. It has modernised about 1500 square metres of hall area and the office building, adapted them to current needs and leased them to Finnforest. At the hub of the hall space is an ultra-modern CNC machine on which all kinds of timber, particularly high-value plywood, Kerto veneer-laminated layered timber and Thermowood, can be processed by computer into widths of up to six metres.
“We have acquired not only a new tenant, with whom we have enjoyed a close and co-operative relationship for years”, said LHG Managing Director Hans-Gerd Gielessen, “but the port and shipping lines profit as well from a growth in cargo. In addition the Finnforest depot will be served by LHG personnel, something which in turn helps secure employment in the port”.
Commented Michael Menz: “With this facility Finnforest is adapting its structures to meet current demand. Timber product flows to Germany and central Europe have changed drastically. Imports from Asia and America are no longer of any great importance to us. Central Europe provides much of its own timber and timber products. It was therefore the obvious move for the Finnforest Group to create an efficient centre in a Baltic seaport, in other words positioned midway along today’s product flows”.
Added Lothar Loddoch: “The new infrastructure at the Nordlandkai Terminal can be supplied along the shortest possible routes from Finland and Russia. At the same time synergies within the overall concern are able to be exploited as well because parent company Metsäliitto is already using Lübeck as a gateway to central Europe in the paper and cellulose products logistics sector”.
