The Goodrich Group is among the fastest growing and the most versatile logistic service providers in Asia – inaugurated their most prestigious project till date: the Goodrich Integrated Chemical Logistics Park at the south zone of Jafza, Jebel Ali in Uae on the 2nd of May 2019.
The state-of-the-art facility was formally opened and dedicated to the chemical industry in the MENA region by Mohammed Al Muallem, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of DP World, UAE Region at a glittering ceremony attended by the “Who’s Who” of the region from the chemical and logistics fraternity.
The Integrated Chemical Logistics Park is a “dream come true” for the promoters of Goodrich Group as the origin of this dream was an observation made by a customer
in Saudi Arabia during a regular marketing call and a discussion emerged for alternate solutions to the logistics issues that he was facing in smooth shipping out of his liquid cargo. Extending the conversation, an impromptu suggestion was made if he could send his cargo to Jebel Ali by road where Goodrich was confident to find a solution.
One thing led to another after this meeting and the Group embarked on a collective study of the needs of the region’s Specialty Liquid Chemical traders’ and manufacturers’ requirements, and their dire need to have a facility to aggregate prior to distribution to various global markets.
The promoters sensed that a niche existed in this segment of the market and they immediately took firm steps in putting up a storage facility for aggregation and distribution at Jafza.
It took them hardly any time to zero in on this location because it suited all their parameters as far as ease of doing business is concerned. Not to mention about the appropriateness of the geographical impact of Jebel Ali.
Comprehensively aware about Jafza’s systematic evaluation procedure and their deep concern for safety aspects, Goodrich Directors instructed their own team and the appointed consultants to keep these requirements uppermost in the minds.
During the process of identification of an appropriate plot of land, preparation
and submission of various documents for licensing procedures, environmental and structural clearances, Jafza officials, though elaborate in their processing, were very co-operative, cordial and prompt in their approach. Their minute attention for details in all the safety measures made the entire Goodrich team conscious of how important it is to exercise abundant caution during the building and subsequent conduct of this facility towards safety needs.
The Tank Farm that has been erected comprises of 18 Storage Tanks out of which 17 are made of Carbon Steel and the remaining 1 of Stainless Steel (for corrosive products), all of which are designed in accordance with API 620. The tanks are provisioned with Nitrogen Blanketing with N2 of 99.9% Purity. Two of the Carbon Steel Tanks have been supplied with coils for steam heating and another Carbon Steel Tank is insulated for the handling of temperature sensitive products like Acylates, Monomers etc. One of the tanks is also equipped with agitators to facilitate the blending of two or more products. The capacity of these tanks ranges from 100 cbm to 1,190 cbm.
Apart from the above, the facility has a temperature-controlled warehouse with a fire rating of two hours and that which can store about 400 to 450 drums of chemicals of various class.
The terminal also boasts of a Drum Filling System installed with a capacity of filling close to 40-50 drums per hour depending upon the product density. In addition to Drum Filling, the facility can cater to ISO Tanks, Road Tankers, Flexi Tanks Loading & Unloading Operation and Cross Transfer Operations too!
The movements in and out of the terminal is on mass basis and to support this a 100 MT capacity weighbridge has been installed.
To top it all there is a technologically evolved Chemical Wastewater Treatment Plant, which has the capacity to render 60 per cent of the waste water available for reuse.
The office complex at the terminal has been built in compliance with US Green Building requirements as a commitment towards sustainability. Alongside the Bulk Storage Terminal an ISO Tank Cleaning & Repair station has also been built. This station is fully equipped to serve the requirements of global tank operators, tank leasing companies as well as local hauliers and transport companies. With an extreme accent on Safety, Quality and Throughput time requirements, this ISO Tank Cleaning & Repair station
is indeed ranking with the Best that is available in the Global firmament.
The Tank Cleaning with its PLC controlled washing programs and high-pressure pumps of 100 bar and spinners with a maximum capacity of 100 litres per minute can guarantee the best in terms of Tank Cleaning. Ecological obligations have been ensured with a 50 cbm per day chemical or physical waste water treatment as aforesaid.
The Goodrich Integrated Chemical Logistics Park is proud of being DCD approved, NFPA compliant and in the process of acquiring the highest certification in consonance with International Standards like SQAS, CDI, OSHAS, Responsible Care, ISO 9001, ISO 14000 and others. Goodrich operations in India are already CDI-MPC and ISO compliant.
The history
Talking about Goodrich Group birth and growth, from a modest beginning in 1997
at Mumbai in India, the Group has scaled one peak after another in this span of 22 years to be recognised and awarded multiple times as the most versatile shipping and logistics group or for that matter as the fastest growing shipping and logistics one. Goodrich is active in all the spheres of shipping and logistics. Right from ship owning, chartering, ship agency, NVOCC services, CIS Logistics, Global Freight Forwarding, Airfreight, and other agency operations and broking activities.
However it is chemical logistics, which over a long period of time that has been making rapid progress, both in number of business segments and it’s geographical expanse, irrespective whether they are agency representations or own operations. The activity segments include equipment adjuncts such as Flexi Tanks, ISO Tanks, Swap Tanks, Baffled Tanks, Rubber and Chem Lined ISO Tanks etc. Most of which are owned. Over a period of time Goodrich has an impressive list of international customers benefitting from the A to Z in chemical logistics services of Goodrich.
Right from the time Goodrich’s first company was incorporated, the promoters understood the need to be different from their contemporaries and underlined the need to innovate and come out with novel service products. The need for which was so immense and the field so vast that it required a daring set of entrepreneurs to take the plunge and dedicate themselves. The industry recognises Goodrich Group as the business house, which took up this challenge years back and have relentlessly continued to be focused. An attitude that was the fulcrum of their eternal business quest!
Their daring and effervescent qualities are also omnipresent when they embark on a geographical expansion. Take for example their forays into difficult terrains such as Afghanistan, Kazakhstan et al, part of an unstoppable urge to experiment and do sustainable business in different markets of the World. All these bear testimony to the promoters’ and their employees constantly determined spirit.
The future
As far as future plans for the facility is concerned there is still 3,500 square metres of land awaiting further development and growth. Among the possible options available with Goodrich is to increase the current tank capacity.
During the plaque unveiling ceremony the owners of Goodrich hailed the unique spirit of the Dubai and UAE governments to invite and offer their resplendent infrastructural facilities to foreign companies, the ease with which overseas entities are permitted to do their business. All of these making Dubai the first choice to do International Business for any foreign entity.
The Goodrich Directors in their speeches profusely thanked all statutory bodies for their excellent cooperation during the building of this facility and they made a special mention of gratitude to their various contractors, vendors, and Goodrich’ own project team.