Despite different approaches to building and distributing vehicles, European and North American automotive manufacturers can learn from each other to create more efficient operations and supply chains. That was the message John MacGregor, TransDevelopment’s president, delivered to nearly 200 attendees of the annual Autologistics Europe conference held in Montreaux, Switzerland.
The Port of Richmond California has kicked off the construction phase of $40-million in new port and rail infrastructure work at the historic Point Potrero Marine Terminal. The turnkey project will greatly enhance the port’s rail operations, allow American Honda Motor Co. to import vehicles for local dealers, and create a hub for outbound rail shipments. In 2009, Honda finalized an agreement with Auto Warehousing Co. (AWC) and the Port of Richmond to import more than 150,000 vehicles annually from foreign assembly plants to the San Francisco Bay Area. For three years, TransDevelopment has worked closely with AWC, the Port of Richmond, American Honda, and the BNSF Railway to bring the project to reality.
A major rebalancing of automotive terminal capacity in the eastern U.S. is underway in one of CSX Transportation’s key markets. Auto distribution operations are being shifted from two aging terminals in congested urban areas close to Boston to a modern and efficient facility outside of East Brookfield and Spencer, Mass. The new terminal has allowed the leading East Coast automotive railroad to cut its costs and bring vehicles closer to dealers in all of New England’s largest cities.
Later this year, when the first finished vehicles roll off the assembly line at Kia Motors Corp.’s newest manufacturing plant in West Point, Georgia, they will flow directly through a series of efficient processing facilities that were master planned by TransDevelopment Group. Then, the next-generation Kia Sorento SUVs will be loaded onto rail cars and travel over a new network of trackwork developed by TransDevelopment on Kia’s property where they will be privately switched to the CSX Transportation mainline and shipped to dealers across the United States and Canada. The $50-million Kia vehicle processing center and rail terminal – which included State of Georgia grant funding – is the third automotive assembly plant project that TransDevelopment has developed in the Southeast since 2003.
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