City Council of Saarlouis Stops Construction of Meguin’s Logistics Center

The city council of Saarlouis has halted the construction of a logistics center by the German lubricant manufacturer Meguin in the Saarhafen Dillingen/Saarlouis due to safety concerns in a water protection area. According to the Saarbrücker Zeitung, the committee also signals willingness to negotiate in its decision and indicates that an alternative location, such as in the industrial area ‘Lisdorfer Berg’, will be offered to Meguin.

(Saarlouis) After the city council opposed the approval of the central warehouse of the German motor oil manufacturer, Günter Hiermaier, managing director of Meguin, expressed his frustration but willingness to negotiate. “We regret the decision of the city council and cannot understand the reasoning. The economic location Saarlouis is weakened by this decision. We are ready for new discussions and a revision of the concept.” Meguin had applied for the construction of a modern central warehouse in the Saarhafen. With an investment of around 45 million euros, the oil producer aimed to create 50 new jobs.

The company, deeply rooted in the region, has already invested 25 million euros in the location in recent years – including the expansion of laboratories and tank storage with a capacity of around 18 million liters. In addition to the existing tank storage on the 71,300 square meter site in the Saarhafen, the company wanted to build a modern central warehouse with an area of 35,000 square meters. “Here, sealed containers of all sizes were to be stored, picked, and processed for logistics. And all of this regionally, right next to production,” said Christian Texter, site manager at Meguin. 98 percent of the stored products consist of small canisters ranging from 0.5 to 5 liters.

New Central Warehouse Urgently Needed

The construction of the central warehouse is necessary due to the significant growth of the corporate group (LIQUI MOLY GmbH and Meguin GmbH & Co. KG), which currently operates several small warehouses in collaboration with logistics companies. “The effort in the current form is enormous and not sustainable in the long run. With the new warehouse, we would save nearly 670,000 km of travel distance per year. This corresponds to almost 17 times around the world. Additionally, we would save 2,000 tons of CO2 emissions annually,” explains Hiermaier. With the reduced logistics effort, Meguin also expects a significant relief for residents and road traffic in Saarlouis.
Meguin states that it meets all legal requirements for water protection in the port.

Maintain Contact with the Municipality

“We place the highest value on environmental protection. Therefore, we have the construction as well as the entire operation regularly checked by experts,” assures Hiermaier. “We do not yet know how it will proceed. We urgently need the central warehouse. We hope to win the city council for further cooperation and to realize the plans together,” Hiermaier said optimistically.

Meguin anticipated around 50 new jobs that would have been created by the warehouse in Saarhafen Dillingen. Currently, the company already employs 275 workers at the location on Rodener Straße.

Photo: © Meguin