WACKER opens logistics centre near Kolkata

(L-R) Levi Cottington, Wacker Metroark Chemicals Executive Director, Dr Christian Hartel, President, Wacker Silicones and Soumitra Mukherjee, Managing Director, WMC during the inauguration

Munich-based chemical group WACKER has opened a new logistics facility at its production site in Amtala near Kolkata. The high-bay warehouse has a capacity of 5000 pallet spaces and will be operated by Wacker Metroark Chemicals (WMC), a joint venture between WACKER and Kolkata-based Metroark. The new logistics centre compliments WMC’s existing network of warehouses strategically located in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata.

At the opening ceremony, attended by Levi Cottington, Executive Director, WMC and Soumitra Mukherjee, Managing Director, WMC, Dr Christian Hartel, President, WACKER’s silicones business division, said the new facility will help maximise flexibilty of logistics, increase delivery speed, and minimise lead times for customers.

“This investment will strengthen our growth opportunities in India. Therefore, the warehouse has more capacity than we will use currently,” Hartel said. He emphasised that investing more than one million euros for the facility will have an immediate effect on WMC’s ability to increase the efficiency of its logistics operations. “This will enhance the accuracy and traceability of our deliveries for our customers, and will ultimately help to keep the costs in line.”

The high-bay warehouse has a capacity of about 5000 pallet spaces and utilises ten layer racking. It uses Very Narrow Aisle (VNA) forklifts that are wire guided to retrieve goods. The SAP warehouse management module ensures improved insight into the inventory and storage locations. Scanners will keep track of various transactions in the warehouse. Thus, the inventory information is made available to the operators in real time via a computer interface attached to the VNA.

EP News Bureau – Mumbai