Private dockside cold storage? Now that’s unique
Large cold storage facilities directly attached to a private deep-water ocean dock are very unique and beneficial assets in the US.
For 75 years, this has been a major advantage to our customers. During longshoremen strikes and when the container supply is strained, this strategic feature has made BCS’ facility very special.
In the last 9 months our dock has seen more demand than ever: from existing and new customers, from different areas of the US for exports, and other countries for imports. Furthermore, we have seen a demand for the usual products that we routinely handle and for other food products. It seems like we get a new request every week.
Our own private dock gives us control of our own operation, allowing us to provide an excellent level of service. We customize to meet our customers’ needs. It is truly a personal touch.
”Public ports are not only more expensive, but less flexible and not as customer friendly. You must meet their strict rules, while BCS is able to customize its services to meet customer needs.”
José Roqués, Senior VP of Sales and Marketing
BCS is one of the largest portside cold storage complexes on the west coast. Our waterfront campus includes 14 warehouses, offering frozen, chilled, and dry storage. With warehouses right at the dock handling touches are minimum, reducing potential damage and temperature abuse.
Bellingham Cold Storage’s port is positioned efficiently in the Puget Sound, in the State of Washington, without the congestion of Seattle and Tacoma, perfect for 3PL import and export distribution to and from Canada and USA.
BCS’ facility also provides access to Burlington Northern Rail (BNSF), connecting vessels to trucks, containers, and rail.
In addition to BCS’ access to multiple transportation methods, it also has excellent support services onsite: US Department of Commerce (USDC), US Department of Agriculture (USDA), and several onsite inspection, grading, labeling, and value-added reprocessing and packaging companies.
A boat arrives at the dock, and its cargo is unloaded and moved into BCS warehouses.
Washington State has many agricultural and other manufacturing exports. BCS has always handled many seafood ships annually – exported from Washington State, and brought down from Alaska. We have also historically handled other meats and vegetables. The container supply chain crisis in 2021 has increased the demand for BCS to handle all of these products for major Seafood, Agriculture, 3PL Logistics, Distribution, and Restaurant Chains around the world. We have booked many more ships in 2022.
Existing regular customers have increased their utilization of specialty cargo ships. We believe that going forward a larger percentage of the supply chain will continue to utilize this alternative to containers as a hedge.
We are looking to explore other items that could benefit from utilizing our dock. Specialty reefer and cargo shipping is well suited to large containers and supersacks. We have heard recently that the volume of coffee, rice, sugar, cocoa, grain products, spices and ingredients has increased across docks like ours. We would be interested in discussing all other products.
For more info, contact us here.