Katoen Natie opens UP-served plastic packaging facility in Texas

Union Pacific Railroad and logistics and distribution services provider Katoen Natie last week held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at a new plastic packaging facility in the Prime Pointe Industrial Park in Dallas.

The Katoen Natie facility — which features 262,000 square feet of warehouse space — is the latest addition to the 3,000-acre industrial park, which has attracted new business opportunities as a result of the park's access to freight rail, according to a UP press release.

Future expansions of Katoen Natie's facility could increase capacity to 2.5 million feet, company officials said. The location will enable the company's customers to diversify export channels to global markets.

Producers will ship bulk rail cars filled with plastic resin pellets to the warehouse where the pellets will be packaged and loaded into intermodal containers. UP will then transport the containers to ocean ports via its Dallas-to-Dock intermodal service.

"Katoen Natie‘s Dallas location is a great example of freight-rail utilization to provide growth opportunities and overall economic development for this region," said Kari Kichhoefer, UP's vice president-industrial.

Adds Katoen Natie USA President Frank Vingerhoets: ”With this new Dallas-to-Dock location we continue to expand our local and international network of logistic hubs. It will provide our customers an alternative export solution and a back up to their current export flows.”