A very special international conference is taking place this week within Western France, in the sea-side resort LA BAULE. It is the LA BAULE World Investment Conference. The theme for this year is green technologies. Some 500 CEOs of around the world will be here. As far as logistics is concerned, there will be people from Gazeley and Prologis who will talk about environment and logistics platforms.
Applied to logistics, the theme of environment makes me think more precisely about a very special French cluster (or club) I know, called the « club demeter » that is especially focused on environmental issues applied to logistics and that gathers industries, carriers, investors and transporters. The organization and working process of this club is exemplary and I wish this could be extended to our regions.
more info about the club demeter
more info about the LA BAULE WIC

If everything goes well, about 500 jobs should be created by 2012 within the 33ha logistic park GECINA just got from the « communauté de communes » of Sablé sur Sarthe near Le Mans. The Ouest Park is located in between Le Mans and La Flèche, down south of Le Mans near the highway A11 on the western part.

I just read in Usine Nouvelle that 12 000sq. meters are planned to be built near the Aker Yards of Saint Nazaire in order to extend the logistic platform of Arcelor Mittal and thus reach a global surface of 50 000sq. meters.
According to Patrick Gastineau, Chairman of the company: « The Arcelor Mittal distribution platform of Saint Nazaire is of great importance for the group in France ».

Arcelor Mittal, more information

on July 4rth, a roundtable and conference about the issues of Supply Chain management will take place in Paris. It’s free !

more info

I came across this article today and found it interesting :

« Ports could hasten freight traffic by doubling up on crane trips.
Ports could use cranes more efficiently if they loaded and unloaded ships simultaneously. In doing so, the ports would increase efficiency, save costs and conserve fuel. The benefits of switching would be felt throughout the port, according to research published this week. Two studies, both co-written by Anne Goodchild of the University of Washington and Carlos Daganzo of the University of California at Berkeley, are the only scholarly publications on a technique known as double cycling. « 

élémentaire mon cher watson !

full story

ED will set up a logistic platform of 21 000sq.meters in Angers by 2009. This platform is for the distribution of 40 ED shops in Western France.
The hosting site is at Saint Barthélémy d’Anjou, on the East side of Angers within the « parc d’activités Angers Est ». The site is directly connected to highway A11 (Paris-Nantes) and A87 (Angers-La Roche sur Yon).
150 jobs are said to be created at the beginning.

More info about ED