The delegation of BLG logistics group visited Korea. The Shippers’ Journal had a chance to interview Mr. Dreeke, the president CEO of BLG on 26th Nov. and asked some questions.

Q What is the purpose of visit to Korea this time? Hyundai Glovis, a logistics arm of Hyundai and Kia Motros, is known to be one of the major customers for BLG. Do you still have good co-operative relationships with each other?

 Our purpose of visit to Korea this time is to meet our customers, EUKOR car carrier and of course Glovis. We have excellent relationship with both of them and closely work together.

 With Glovis, we have long-lasting relationship, so we do co-operate with Glovis not only as a port operator but also as in our inland terminal within our truck transportation as well as our rail transportation.

Q ‘Volkswagen Incident’ is also a big issue in Korea. Would that have implications for BLG, which takes on logistics of German Cars?

 First of all, for the reputation of German car manufacturers, the scandal is bad. Cheating is a something which you should not definitely do as a company. The implications for the whole German car industry, well it's difficult to say, but I don't think so because German cars are good cars.

 VW reputation would be very negative but the impact on the overall sales, it is too early to say right now. Based on the view of BLG, we still handle the same number of cars in Bremerhaven and on our rail wagons.

 Sales-wise, we cannot say whether it will have huge impact or not. If you look at the sales figures even in the U.S., their sales didn't slump too much because their portion of diesel cars is not big. Its portion in Europe is big but overseas is not big.

 Nevertheless it's a critical thing and reputation-wise, VW has a problem on that.

Q There has been recent news that BLG opened N3 car center in Bremerhaven, which can hold over 7,000 cars. Do you have an optimistic point of view regarding the rise in car handling volume?

 It is our 8th car garage in Bremerhaven. So with that new garage, we have 50% of the capacity now covered. It is preparing for the future, we see the car environment still very optimistic. We might not have the same growth rate as in the future. We know that the Chinese market is not growing double digit but the U.S. market is growing and will continue growing. Also the rest of the world will continuously grow, more slowly than expected but it will still grow.

 So the port of Bremerhaven has to get prepared for the future and that is what we have done for that investment.

Q It is more than 2 and half years since Mr. Dreeke assumed BLG office. What would be the major achievements from your perspective?

(Laughing) Normally I answer that should be evaluated by others because self-evaluation is always difficult. In my point of view, we have achieved decent growth for the last three years. We(Bremerhaven) are the largest automobile port in Europe and the gap between the largest and the second largest has even gone bigger.

 Further we have built up more profitable business in the contract division. We have acquired, for example,  the company called MOTEX handling hand made garments. Together with that company, we founded our new company ‘BLG sports and fashion’. So for the last 2 and half years, we have more concentrated on specific segments where we are really good at. We want to grow in those segments even further. But again all these things should be evaluated by others.