Seafood supplier Sineurope is reducing energy consumption and improving space use at its -20˚C cold-chain facility in Singapore using supply-chain technology from German firm Körber.

Sineurope is investing in a multi-deep automated storage and retrieval system and software for its cold storage warehouse at Tuas Bay Walk.

“With business running at full capacity, coupled with the disruption of the global logistics services, we have had to arrange expensive external storage,” said Melvin Foo, CEO of Sineurope. “Additionally, as we’re expanding operations and capacity, the constraint of looking for more staff is becoming increasingly difficult in the current environment, especially when working in a cold room storage. The safety and health of our employees is extremely important, as well as reducing our carbon footprint and energy consumption, which is why we decided to partner with Körber. They proposed a holistic solution comprising of an automated system and software that would solve our problems and get us ahead of the competition.”

Körber is implementing an automated high-bay warehouse consisting of a 31-metre-high freezer-rated pallet stacker crane equipped with two autonomous satellite vehicles (ASVs). The multi-deep high-bay racking increases storage density and creates more than 2800 pallet locations within a small warehouse footprint of approximately 435 square metres.

As human intervention is not required here, heat loss can be prevented, and hence significant energy savings achieved. Additionally, the energy regenerative systems in the stacker cranes keep energy consumption low.

Further, Körber is deploying its K Motion warehouse management system (WMS) to optimise warehouse operations. It will interface with the user’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

This will result in annual savings for Sineurope. The automated system omits the need for external storage, increases land use and improves operational efficiency. Additionally, it lowers the cost for cooling, thanks to a lower volumetric footprint owing to higher storage density. It will also help Sineurope cope with labour shortages.

“Sustainability is becoming a growing focus in the supply chain,” said Win Thian Chai, Körber’s CEO for automation in Asia. “This may also be caused by consumers actively choosing eco-conscious companies over those that are not. With our solution, Sineurope can embrace its challenges and use it as a stepping stone to further business success.”

Sineurope is a supplier of frozen and dried seafood, such as sea cucumber, fish maw, abalone and shark fins. Established in 1981 by Melvin Foo, it has customers in China, Japan, Spain, Hong Kong, Taiwan and south-east Asia.