Aschaffenburg, 7 June 2021 – In its role as site architect, bayernhafen develops and operates commercial sites to enable raw materials, goods and products to reach their destinations. The efficient combination of inland waterway, rail and road means the ports actively contribute to the modal shift – and hence also to achieving environmental targets. In doing so, bayernhafen also takes the requirements laid down by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and the Free State of Bavaria on the protection of biodiversity seriously, consistently implementing them in the planning and operation of its six sites in Aschaffenburg, Bamberg, Nuremberg, Roth, Regensburg and Passau.

Ongoing projects testify to the consistent manner in which bayernhafen Aschaffenburg promotes the protection of nature and greater biodiversity in the region:

Compensatory reforesting scheme on 2.8 hectares in the Hübner Forest

Longer and more frequent periods of drought and water scarcity demand a healthy forest stock of deciduous and coniferous trees. This demand has increased the importance of restructuring forests to achieve a stable mix of trees. bayernhafen is supporting the achievement of this goal through the planting of around 14,500 trees in the Hübnerwald (Hübner Forest) near Stockstadt, where a total of 2.8 hectares of mixed forest have been replanted in cooperation with the Hübner-Verwaltung Stockstadt under the expert guidance of the renowned environmental and landscape planning offices of Bosch & Partner GmbH.

Alexander Zeiger, Head of Real Estate Business at bayernhafen Aschaffenburg: “The mix of native tree species is preparing the forest to face the climate of the future.” The 14,500 seedlings planted are divided into 8,650 English oaks, 2,175 hornbeams, 2,175 sweet chestnuts and 225 each of winter lime, wild cherry, service tree, service tree, field maple, French maple and black walnut trees.

Anja Bokeloh, Head of Technology and Operations at bayernhafen Aschaffenburg: “We at bayernhafen Aschaffenburg are contributing towards reaching the environmental targets in a number of ways: through the very nature of our business, which involves shifting long-distance transport to the more environmentally friendly modes of inland waterway and rail, and additionally through nature conservation schemes such as tree planting, reforestation and the development of the habitat corridor at bayernhafen Aschaffenburg. Environmental protection and biodiversity go hand in hand – and we are fulfilling our responsibility.”

Protecting biodiversity through habitat corridor concept

In the port itself, bayernhafen is doing its bit to protect nature and biodiversity. Currently, it is implementing a “habitat corridor concept” for bayernhafen Aschaffenburg. Connecting habitats ensures that animal species can survive – because when animals bridge the areas between the various habitats, they can establish contact and ensure their populations thrive.

Open land that is not used for commercial purposes is being developed to provide spawning grounds for amphibians and as habitats for reptilians, coupled with the creation of habitats for species such as natterjack toads and sand lizards. The core areas are connected inside the port through corridor structures running along the rail facilities and quay walls. To achieve this, bayernhafen Aschaffenburg is investing in specific structural measures, such as in the erection of protective fencing along roads and culverts for amphibians under paths; the preservation of hollow trees, creation of fallow structures, rock fills and deadwood piles as terrestrial habitats or winter habitats, and the establishment of spawning grounds. The experts from Bosch & Partner are also on board to provide environmental expertise and support.

Alexander Zeiger, Head of Real Estate Business at bayernhafen Aschaffenburg: “Alongside our core business – the development and management of industrial sites, commercial areas and transport facilities – we are also doing our bit for biodiversity, an extremely timely combination.”

bayernhafen eco-account

The “habitat corridor concept” involves upgrading suitable areas to boost biodiversity, such as transforming fallow land into extensive grassland. The eco-account serves as an instrument for safeguarding and providing offsetting and compensation measures in advance that can be used to offset any adverse impacts on the natural environment in the future. Klaus Müller-Pfannenstiel, Managing Partner at Bosch & Partner: “Eco-accounts increase planning reliability and can speed up planning processes.”

“Port In Bloom” for schools and kindergartens in Aschaffenburg

In addition, in April, bayernhafen Aschaffenburg gifted 1,000 packets of seeds containing the “Port In Bloom” flower mixture to schools and kindergartens in Aschaffenburg. Each little packet contains enough seeds to create a bee-friendly flowering meadow 2.5 square metres in size. With the help of the children, more than 2,500 square metres of land will be turned into a flowering landscape that provides food for bees. As well as benefiting biodiversity, the flowers will also bring a wonderful splash of colour to the city in the summer months.

bayernhafen Aschaffenburg efficiently links the transport routes of inland waterway, rail and road, and is the key logistics hub for the Bavarian Rhine-Main region. It makes a significant contribution to the supply of goods to the region’s inhabitants and businesses and provides local companies with seamless access to international transport networks. As the largest industrial and commercial area in the Bavarian Lower Main region, its 157 ha of land provide space for ideal growth opportunities in a dynamic region to around 60 companies with approximately 2,800 employees.

bayernhafen comprises six corporate locations: Aschaffenburg, Bamberg, Nuremberg, Roth, Regensburg and Passau – major platforms for the global exchange of goods that efficiently link the transport modes of inland waterway, rail and road. In 2020, around 8.75 million tonnes of goods were moved by inland waterway and rail. bayernhafen acts as a ‘site architect’ that invests in high-performance infrastructure and cooperates closely with the companies settled in the ports to tap new potential for value creation between the different companies and across the different port locations.

800 hectares of total port area and more than 400 companies operating from its ports providing over 13,000 jobs make bayernhafen one of the best-performing logistics networks in Europe. The operator of the locations of Aschaffenburg, Bamberg, Regensburg and Passau is Bayernhafen GmbH & Co. KG. The Chief Executive Officer is Joachim Zimmermann. The Nuremberg and Roth locations are operated by Hafen Nürnberg-Roth GmbH, with an 80% share held by Bayernhafen GmbH & Co. KG, a 19% share held by the City of Nuremberg and a 1% share held by the City of Roth.

Hübnerverwaltung Stockstadt am Main

Hübner are a cooperative of forest owners, comprising two forester cooperatives, the upper forestry worker cooperative, Oberhübnerschaft, KdöR, and the lower forestry worker cooperative, Unterhübnerschaft KdöR, which consists of 142 foresters. The two cooperatives manage 951 hectares of forest, amounting to just over 50% of the total area of the Market Community of Stockstadt (approx. 1887 ha). (truncated extract from the Hübner website)

Bosch & Partner GmbH

Bosch & Partner GmbH delivers a wide range of services to provide goal oriented environmental and landscape planning and is a pioneer in environmental research. At its four locations in Herne, Munich, Hanover and Berlin, a team of landscape planners, landscape architects, biologists, engineers and geographers delivers planning, consulting and research services throughout Germany.

At the end of May, the energy supplier MaierKorduletsch officially commenced operations at its wood pellet silo storage facilities in bayernhafen Passau. The three 30-metre high silo towers provide storage space for 4,500 tonnes of wood pellets. The entire facilities involved an investment volume of around € 1.9 million.

Although many laughed in 2005, today’s success clearly proves they were right, says the Managing Director Johann Berger about the development of the pellet business. Not only a large number of households but also large-scale consumers and companies have opted for this renewable energy source.

The silo storage facilities will enable them to manage future fluctuation in demand and production and allow them to expand the renewable energy source business. The pellet storage facilities are enhanced by a loading bay incorporating a weighbridge and state-of-the-art technology. The trimodal connections offered at bayernhafen enable more environmentally friendly transport. Through its new pellet storage facilities, MaierKorduletsch is making a contribution to sustainability and securing reliable energy supplies.

Axles are essential for road mobility because they transfer the power of the engine to the wheels. For this reason, the manufacture of trucks, trailers and buses, along with the downstream spare parts business, absolutely needs the axles to be at the right place at the right time. This is where the logistics Service Provider Teamlog (approx. 400 employees) comes in. For more than ten years, the bayernhafen Aschafenburg-based Company has been providing precisely this Service to the axle manufacturer SAF-Holland. The supplier of parts for trucks, trailers and buses has its Headquarters in Bessenbach in the county of Aschaffenburg.

Now, Teamlog and SAF-Holland are intensifying their cooperation in the field of industrial contract logistics through the construction of a second warehouse facility at bayernhafen Aschaffenburg, which together with the Inland port Locations of Bamberg, Nuremberg, Roth, Regensburg and Passau, is one of the six bayernhafen locations. The new facility, which will be used to store spare parts for axles, suspensions and fifth wheels, will cover an area of approximately 14,000 m² and will have 6,500 storage bays, 1,500 small parts bays and 4,500 m² of space dedicated to block storage. The construction of the facility on the site of the dismantled substation is scheduled to be completed by the second quarter of 2019. The building costs alone amount to around € 10 million.

Continuous growth at SAF-Holland meant that the previous Teamlog spare parts facility in Germanenstraße had been stretched to the limit. Teamlog will use the new building to supply more than 25 SAF-Holland sales subsidiaries worldwide, as well as numerous national distributors and aftermarket resellers. “We do not merely store, but also ensure the optimisation of processes and inventory,” says Teamlog Managing Director, Jürgen Huth. He adds that the new warehouse facility is designed to accommodate continued growth at SAF, and that process optimisation will also reduce traffic flows.

For Wolfgang Filippi, Branch Manager of bayernhafen Aschaffenburg, the new building is a logical progression of the long-standing cooperation between Teamlog and SAF-Holland. “Logistics is increasingly becoming one of the decisive factors for success. Professionally planned and executed logistics create efficiency, smooth processes an the highest degree of reliability. By linking inland waterways, rail and road transport, we provide the best possible conditions for logistics and industrial companies in bayernhafen Aschaffenburg.”

The local news organisation, the Main-Echo, spoke to the companies involved. Watch the interviews with Bernd Oberding (Managing Director Teamlog), Alexander Geis (Managing Director SAF-Holland) and Wolfgang Filippi (Branch Manager bayernhafen Aschaffenburg):

„Under construction at the port of Aschaffenburg“

bayernhafen Aschaffenburg has once again demonstrated its key role as a location for industry: After a construction period of ten months, the Neumarkt-based RAIL.ONE Group is to start serial production of up to 600,000 concrete sleepers per year at its new plant in bayernhafen Aschaffenburg. The sleepers are destined for long-distance and local rail transport, in particular, in Germany. Every day, around 1,600 concrete sleepers on average will roll off the production line at the new plant in Aschaffenburg – enough for almost one kilometre of railway track. The total investment for the new plant, where RAIL.ONE will create almost 50 jobs in production and administration, amounted to € 10 million.

The plant in Aschaffenburg will replace the previous production facilities in Langen, in the federal state of Hesse. Several location-specific factors convinced RAIL.ONE to choose bayernhafen Aschaffenburg: Chief among them was the central location with trimodal links both for deliveries of raw materials and for shipping the finished concrete sleepers, along with the large storage capacity of up to 120,000 sleepers. RAIL.ONE uses two loading tracks with a capacity of 20 to 22 wagons per train.

At the inauguration of the plant, Jochen Riepl, Chief Executive Officer of PCM RAIL.ONE AG, said: “Our new site is a very important addition to our other production sites in Germany and key to the long-term success of our entire corporate group. For our most important customer, Deutsche Bahn, we will retain a presence at four locations.” Kamal Kumar Mittal, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, who had travelled from India in honour of the occasion, said he was proud of this “addition to our family of a state-of-the-art sleeper production plant.

Lord Mayor Klaus Herzog emphasised that the jobs brought through the opening of the RAIL.ONE plant was a major boost to bayernhafen Aschaffenburg as a location for industry. Joachim Zimmermann, Chief Executive Officer of bayernhafen Gruppe, said: “The rail track network at the bayernhafen Gruppe locations alone covers some 120 kilometres. One example of this is the port marshalling yard at Aschaffenburg, which is currently being modernised.

Wolfgang Filippi, Branch Manager of bayernhafen Aschaffenburg, was also delighted: “The 35,000 square metres of land covered by the new RAIL.ONE facilities mark the first milestone in the conversion of the former transformer station, which has freed up 100,000 square metres of space for reuse since it was dismantled at the end of 2015.

Between 2002 and 2007, Europe’s largest hardwood sawmill Pollmeier, was one of a number of companies that we were able to attract to the former site of a coal-fired power plant.

bayernhafen Gruppe, to which bayernhafen Aschaffenburg belongs, offers its customers temporary land ownership through leasehold and rental agreements. This ensures that land is used sustainably, reduces vacancy rates and enables a change in usage at its sites – site recycling instead of greenfield site construction.