Tank container cleaning and repairs with trimodal transport connections

The new cotac site in Ludwigshafen, Kaiserwörthhafen, is the first facility of the Multimodal Tank Care GmbH joint venture – a partnership between the cotac group and Contargo – to go into operation. cotac stands for complete tank care, and offers certified quality standards for cleaning, repairing and maintaining tank containers at twelve locations worldwide. In Ludwigshafen, the full service also includes cleaning and workshop services for tank containers measuring up to 52 feet. It is the first location of its kind with a trimodal transport connection.

At the chemicals hub in Ludwigshafen, the cotac operation primarily cleans tank containers that were loaded with dangerous goods or harmless chemical products. The cleaning operation complies with the EFTCO standard (European Federation of Tank Cleaning Organisations) and is audited and certified. Up to 20,000 cleanings and 7,000 repairs can be carried out annually. Periodic maintenance and modifications also take place in the workshops.

According to Dirk Müller, Site Manager at cotac Ludwigshafen, “Our customers benefit from the fact that we are located in the immediate vicinity of a trimodal container terminal. This enables us to offer them all the services in accordance with established quality standards and brought together at a single site. For us, the fast and flexible turnaround time of tank containers is our absolute focus.” In addition, the trimodal transport connections give customers the opportunity to reduce truck journeys and thus further decrease their CO2 footprint. Tank containers can also be heated with steam at six locations, and empty tanks can be temporarily stored in the company’s own depot before and after cleaning and workshop services.

Jürgen Albersmann, CEO of Contargo, says, “We can now offer customers in the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region an even more comprehensive service for tank containers, available immediately. To enable as many shippers as possible to benefit from these services, we are currently increasing the storage capacity for tank containers at our Ludwigshafen terminal from 430 to 730 spaces.”

The partnership between cotac and Contargo provides the chemical industry with the ideal conditions for efficient trimodal turnaround with reduced downtimes for cleaning, repair and maintenance work: A strong partnership that will set up additional service locations with these advantages in the future.