M-real Facility is the Best in the U.S.
On the morning of January 23, 2008, a ribbon was cut for the opening of a new warehouse at the Port of Baltimore. The $26 Million, 215,000 square foot, state-of-the-art facility is responsible for shipping, receiving and stocking of M-real's paper and paperboard and serves the European-based company exclusively. The new building is part of "... the best paper handling facilities in the country, bar none ..." said Trip Bailey, President of BalTerm, M-real's primary logistics services provider at the port. According to Rick Schiappacasse, Director of Forest Products for the MPA (Maryland Port Administration), "the addition of M-real and the overall growth in paper imports have made Baltimore the number one port for forest products in the U.S. Forest products imports have grown from 185,000 tons a year six years ago to 1.4 million tons today." "We feel we have a real niche for forest products" added Jim White, Executive Director of the MPA.
In 2005, after many months of negotiation, a three-way partnership was forged between M-real, BalTerm, and the Maryland Port Administration with the signing of long term contracts. This partnership was built on trust, mutual benefit, and interwoven long term commitments: M-real agreed to consolidate its North American bulk importing and distribution operations in Baltimore for six years and guaranteed specific annual import volumes whilst Balterm agreed to be M-real's exclusive third party logistics company for ship unloading, warehousing, and the loading of outbound trucks, containers, and rail cars. The MPA allocated sufficient land, facilities, and dock space to BalTerm in order to serve M-real's needs, including building the new warehouse and installing a $6 Million stern ramp to more than triple the unloading productivity of larger vessels. "Since signing the six-year renewable agreement with the MPA in November of 2005, M-real has consolidated its bulk shipments from Philadelphia to Baltimore, doubling local imports to 300,000 tons annually" said Jorma Sahlstedt, President of M-real USA. M-real now ships between 1,000 and 1,400 truckloads of paper per month to customers from Baltimore.
According to Cliff Kaufman, Vice President of Graphics Operations and the chief architect of this unique supply chain partnership, "the opening of this warehouse is the culmination of our long term strategic plan to simplify our supply chain by consolidating locations and suppliers. The removal of complexity has allowed M-real to remain competitive. This strategy was facilitated by the strong partnership between public and private entities. The State of Maryland has delivered a first class infrastructure, on time and on budget. We're confident that our stevedoring partner, BalTerm, along with their ILA crews, will continue to deliver ever greater efficiencies."
M-real is one of the leading producers of paperboard and paper in Europe. The company's customers include publishers, printers, carton printers, paper merchants, office suppliers and well-known consumer brand manufacturers.
M-real supports its customers' businesses by providing quality papers and paperboard for consumer packaging, communications and advertising end-uses. Together with its customers and partners, M-real develops products and solutions for demanding end-uses, such as magazines, art books, brochures, direct mail, and office papers. The company's paperboard is used for packaging of beauty and healthcare products, cigarettes, branded food and consumer durables.
M-real's business areas are Consumer Packaging, Graphic Papers and Office Papers.
M-real is headquartered in Finland. The company's sales are EUR 4.4 billion (6.3 billion USD), and it employs over 9,500 people. M-real, which is part of the Metsäliitto Group, is listed on the OMX Nordic Exchange Helsinki. Metsäliitto Group is the eight largest forest industry group in the world with sales of EUR 7.7 billion (11.1 billion USD).
www.m-real.com
