When I was first asked, I thought they were joking. Now I am quite proud that that bright green locomotive has got my name on it.
Lilian Dohmen,
Logistics Coordinator at Nyrstar Budel
Every weekday, 54 rail wagons containing zinc concentrate arrive at the Nyrstar sites in the Netherlands and Belgium from the Port of Antwerp: 27 in Budel and 27 in Balen. Since September, the wagons from Budel have also been going backloaded five days a week as the result of increased collaboration with terminal operator SEA-invest.
‘The trains loaded with zinc concentrate to supply our plants used to go back empty after they had been unloaded,’ says Lilian Dohmen, logistics coordinator at the Nyrstar site in Budel. ‘It’s fantastic that we now also fill them with a by-product from the zinc production at our Budel site for the return journey. By using the rail network for this, we have taken 7,200 truck journeys per annum off the road.The storage facility at the port is currently being adapted to accommodate the required number of tons of this by-product.’
In accordance with Portuguese custom – Ricardo Paulo, Global Head Logistics at Nyrstar is Portuguese – the locomotives used for the rail transport operations were
given female names. While one is called “Linda” after the logistics coordinator in Balen, the other was given the name “Lilian”.
‘When I was first asked, I thought they were joking. Now I am quite proud that that bright green locomotive has got my name on it. I see it as a nice recognition of my 41-year career at Nyrstar.’
