Shanghai Pudong Int’l Airport Cargo Terminal Co. (PACTL) is in the final stages of building a new perishable centre. The new facility will enable the company to provide the whole range of temperature conditions needed for handling perishables and pharmaceuticals at any time. It is due to go into operation in July 2015 once it has gained IATA’s Center of Excellence for Independent Validators (CEIV) Certification for Pharmaceutical Logistics.
Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG) is one of the top 10 destinations for nearly all PACTL’s airline customers. “As most of our airline clients are offering and further developing sophisticated perishable and pharmaceutical services, we expect the recent growth in our perishable and pharmaceutical business to continue,” says Lutz Grzegorz, vice president of PACTL.
“It’s our job to support the efforts of our customers by providing infrastructure as the basis for competitive products; this will allow them to gain a better position in the relevant markets,” says Markus Knickmann, manager of the Strategic Business Development Department at PACTL.
The new perishable centre will cover a total area measuring more than 3,500 square metres and the company will have the option of extending the facility by an additional 550 square metres of storage space. It will meet all the necessary temperature requirements to support continuous cool chains and feature a deep freeze area (-18 degrees Celsius), several cool storage facilities (+4 to +8 degrees Celsius) and an ambient temperature storage zone (+15 to +25 degrees Celsius). It provides an acceptance area with separate x-ray machines and a build-up zone, a 1,500 square metre handling area for quick break-downs and a specially designated delivery sector.
In order to close the gap between the facility and the aircraft, PACTL is considering investing in 10 foot lower-deck refrigerated dollies and making them available to the ramp handlers so that they can use them to transport items between the apron stands and the warehouse and be able to store perishables at the apron stands.
Operations at the new perishable centre will be fully integrated in PACTL’s IT system. A computer-based tool will provide highly reliable forecasts to the staff in charge of capacity management and will feature appropriate status updates and location information in addition to business intelligence data.
