Malmö Industrial Park – A hub for growth

Companies establishing new operations, collaboration on everything from digitalisation to industrial symbiosis and the decision to expand with an additional 250,000 square metre plot land. The logistics operations in Malmö Industrial Park are growing and being further developed. One of the explanations for this is the close cooperation between CMP and Malmö stad.

Malmö has access to something unique for a port city – large areas of undeveloped land directly adjacent to the port. This is where Malmö Industrial Park is emerging, where two companies will be making major establishments in the very near future.

“We are delighted to have established a working relationship with businesses operations that will be good for CMP and that will further develop the cargo handling in the port. The new establishment of operations also strengthens the role of Malmö as a logistics hub for Sweden as well as the rest of Scandinavia,” notes Olle Anderberg, Project Manager at Malmö stad’s Real Estate Office.

Take advantage of connections, act quickly 
This in part concerns the real estate company MG Real Estate, which is building a logistics and office facility, and in part Westerman Multimodal Logistics, which is constructing a facility for transhipment of goods by rail, road and ship. These two companies have established themselves on approx. 40 per cent of the plot of land, which MIP, Malmö Industrial Park, is offering in the first phase.

“Connecting the right operations is of core importance. In this work, CMP uses its own network of contacts. Together with Malmö stad we are visible and active at important logistics trade shows,” explains Ann-Charlotte Halldén-Åkeson, Sales Director Cars & MIP at CMP. Westerman’s commencing the establishment of operations in the industrial park is one good example of this. The agreement came about via our participation in an industry trade fair in Munich. By perceiving the signals and interest, and then acting quickly, a new agreement was established.

CMP and Malmö stad have always worked closely together with Malmö Industrial Park. There is a common interest in further developing port operations, creating new jobs, and strengthening Malmö’s role – not only as a logistics hub, but as a city that companies are seriously looking at and consider, and then choose to expand in. At the same time, Ann-Charlotte and Olle stress that this is a job that will take
time.

“It is long-term sustainable solutions we are looking for: in the infrastructure investments that are made around the port area, and in the types of operations we are looking to have in our industrial park,” Olle points out. This will obviously take some time, but on the other hand, we are sure that in the long term it will be fully developed. Moreover, the fact that the area is likely densifying in the long term, shows the experience of other cities where attractive areas of underdeveloped land have been developed.

Via the investments in the port area, Malmö stad and CMP
also safeguard the port’s role in a larger, European context. CMP has been designated by the EU as having “Core Port” status, meaning that the port is a port of a strategic importance for the transportation infrastructure throughout Europe. To maintain its Core Port status, infrastructure and logistics services must continue to be top-notch in the future.

Proximity provides new possibilities and opportunities
The foundation stone for Malmö Industrial Park was laid in 2014 when Malmö stad adopted the land-use development plan for the first phase – a land area that includes an approximately 300,000 square metre plot of land. Then a few years later the ground preparation and infrastructure facilities construction work followed before the first logistics operations, Kubiklagret, offering improved logistics, was established in the area in 2017.

“The proximity to customers creates new opportunities and new possibilities,” notes Ann-Charlotte. We have a multimodal capacity where we handle goods by ship, rail or truck. In this way, we can provide custom-made solutions and offer customers alternatives – if the container option is not sufficient enough then perhaps a ferry solution might be better.

When the customer is close to CMP, it is also easier to adapt frequencies and transit times to their particular needs and offer additional added value.

“One such added value is that the customers in the industrial park will able to benefit from using each other’s services,” she continues. As CMP sits in the middle of the flow of goods, we can easily spot where the opportunities and new possibilities arise, and therefore connect companies in a manner that provides benefits for everyone involved.

Throughout the port area, CMP and Malmö stad are also working to cindustrial symbiosis, where companies benefit from each other’s resources or jointly use common services. This relates for example to areas such as energy, logistics and waste management. Merging saves resources – which is not only good for the environment – but at the same time can deliver savings and make businesses more efficient.

Digitalisation as a driving force
The digitalisation of logistics management is another driving force in the development of the industrial park. The goal here is to reduce manual handling and one of the keys in this work is to share information with each other, everything to provide an overview, improve management and controls. CMP has already implemented a digitalisation project with the shipping operator Finnlines, which has simplified the flow of business information between companies.

“As a further step in the development – and to make things more efficient for us and the customers – a new photo gate is being built on the railway side. It will be synced together with our existing systems as part of the digitalisation initiative and allows entry and exit into the port to be automated,” observes Ann-Charlotte.

A next step is now also being taken with the expansion of the entire Malmö Industrial Park. In 2021, Malmö stad will decide on a land-use plan for phase two in the area. This concerns an additional 250,000 square metres of land area that is made available for the establishment of new operations, with a view to growth in the 2030s. In the future, green electricity will also be produced here via its own wind turbines.

“But as early as 2021, several logistics properties will be visible in Malmö Industrial Park, thanks to MG Real Estate and Westerman Multimodal Logistics. We also hope that before the year concludes we will have additional projects in the pipeline for more establishments in the area,” mentions Olle.

This article is part of CMP's annual report for 2020. The full report can be found here -->