A golden finish to culminate the ZAL logistics project. The last available plot in the so-called ZAL Port, next to the mouth of the Llobregat, has been leased by the Danish multinational logistics and maritime transport company Maersk, a giant that operates in 300 ports and 130 countries and leads global container traffic.
The company has signed an agreement with Cilsa, the ZAL's managing company, for it to build a turnkey warehouse of 8,168 square meters on plot A30, which has an area of 14,400 square meters. Cilsa will invest close to five million euros in this logistics platform, which will have 39 loading docks and will be certified as Leed Gold as it will be built with the highest criteria of energy efficiency and sustainability.
Maersk's objective is to open the warehouse during the first quarter of 2022 to improve and expand the services it provides to its customers. Thus, the company's strategy is now not limited only to international container transport, but also offers higher value-added services such as the consolidation and deconsolidation of goods. Thus, from the ZAL Port warehouse, Maersk plans to carry out deconsolidation operations of import containers for the subsequent delivery and distribution of these loads to final customers located in the Iberian Peninsula and Southern France.
According to José Antonio González Paz, Maersk executive in Southern Europe, the ZAL platform will strengthen the group as a "reference provider in comprehensive logistics services," in addition to optimizing costs for its customers. The warehouse will be supplied with containers arriving at the Port of Barcelona and also with goods from the airport and the intermodal transport network.
"This operation confirms ZAL Port as a benchmark in the logistics market in Barcelona," highlights Cilsa's general director, Alfonso Martínez, who thus sees the culmination of the project to build a logistics park with more than 920,000 square meters built. In addition to Maersk, among the companies that have opted in recent years to set up in the ZAL are Decathlon, Caprabo, Damm, Lidl, UPS, Agility, Kuehne + Nagel, Carrefour, DB Schenker and Fedex.
Cilsa and the Port of Barcelona are already working on the expansion of the ZAL due to the high demand for new logistics space. Thus, it is expected that the industrial park can be expanded by 100,000 square meters by incorporating the land that until 2019 was occupied by the factory of the French multinational Total Petrochemicals in El Prat.
The ZAL management company, Cilsa, is controlled 51.5% by the Port Authority of Barcelona and 48.5% by the listed real estate company Merlin Properties, led by Ismael Clemente