APM Terminals Mobile has welcomed Walmart’s plans for a new international distribution centre to be opened 15 miles from the port. The sixth of Walmart’s US international distribution centres, the Irvington, Alabama facility will handle Walmart’s import cargoes destined for Walmart’s regional distribution centres in the American South. The recently completed Panama Canal lock widening project will permit vessels of up to 13,000 TEU capacity to transit the canal, bringing larger vessels and new opportunities to the deep-water terminal located on the US Gulf Coast.
The APM Terminals Mobile terminal opened in September of 2008. With a depth of 45 ft, the facility is currently equipped with two ship-to-shore (STS) container cranes capable of a 19-row reach. APM Terminals Mobile is adding two new super-Post Panamax STS cranes with expected delivery in June 2017. It is also expanding the container yard by 20 acres as part of a $40m infrastructure investment which will increase the terminal’s annual throughput capacity to 500,000 TEUs.
APM Terminals, Canadian National Rail (CN), and the Alabama State Port Authority have also signed a Memorandum of Understanding to increase intermodal container traffic moving by rail through the Port of Mobile. A new Intermodal Container Transfer Facility (ICTF) which opened in June 2016, adjacent to the port, provides direct service by the CN railroad to Memphis, Tennessee and Chicago, Illinois, with connections to Jackson, Mississippi; Indianapolis, Indiana; Detroit, Michigan and Canadian destinations. The ICTF includes two operating tracks, a loop track, and car repair track of 3,000 ft in length.
Walmart, with 4,488 retail locations in the United States, selected the Mobile, Alabama port location with these new cargo handling and intermodal capabilities in mind.
APM Terminals Mobile Managing Director, Brian Harold, commented: “We are very pleased with the level of growth we’ve seen at APM Terminals Mobile over the past few years, and we believe we provide a very valuable service in an emerging US gateway. We are looking forward to working closely with our colleagues at the Alabama State Port Authority to provide some southern hospitality and world-class logistics to our new valued customer, Walmart”.
The $135m Walmart Irvington distribution centre is scheduled to open in mid-2018, representing new annual container traffic of an estimated 50,000 TEUs annually through the Port of Mobile.
Source: APM Terminals
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