VTS acquisition helps duisport double sales

The acquisition of the VTS Group, a new packaging logistics segment, played a major part in this near-doubling of business volume, with sales of €54.9m. VTS offers the duisport Group great potential, especially in machine and plant engineering, according to Erich Staake, Duisburger Hafen AG’s chief executive officer. “More than 100 companies in the capital goods industry have positioned themselves in our field,” he said. VTS has several sites in Germany, as well as others in Antwerp, Belgium and Shanghai.

The group’s Transshipment and Logistics Services segment saw business grow by 16% to €34.1m, while Infrastructure and Suprastructure reported an increase of 6% to €31.1m. dusiport made a record investment of €60.3m in infrastructure over the course of the year. This included preparation for construction at the logport II site, extensive investment in port and railway infrastructure and expansion of container terminals.

Some 90% of the logport area has now been marketed and more than 60% is already in operation. There were big new investments in 2007 by logistics companies such as DHL Excel, Kühne+Nagel, Schenker Deutschland and Verbatim. Among the port areas, the DUSS Terminal in Duisburg-Ruhrort acquired an additional 25,000 sq m for expansion, while 39,000 sq m was added to the Rhine-Ruhr Terminal at the parallel port.