Big Lift Trucks's Jacksonville facilities

Jacksonville, FL-based Big Lift Trucks (BLT) recently hosted a 27-member trade delegation from West Africa.

Ryan Mouritzen, vice president of BLT, says the event recognised the company's significant presence in Africa.

"We felt is was appropriate for BLT ... to spotlight our distribution, warehousing and logistics advantages to African businessmen wanting to investigate and pursue opportunities for trade between the USA and the African continent," he says. "These delegates from Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, DRC, Guinea and Senegal represented elite companies in diverse sectors, including freight forwarding, mining, transport, public works and construction, as well as capital equipment.

"The delegates' objectives were to learn more about Jacksonville as a port city, to source and purchase trucks, cars and heavy equipment, and to find out about the roll-on roll-off transportation capabilities at the Jacksonville Port Authority."

Mouritzen says the visitors were impressed with BLT's expertise in booking cargo onto African trade lane ships out of Jacksonville, the company's ability to transload African cargo to containers in the BLT terminal, and with the sound relationships BLT has established with African port of call vessels.

"We are encouraged by the enthusiastic feedback from our visitors and we are committed to working closely with these African businesses. We hope to facilitate their international transactions by way of equipment sales, cargo handling and containerisation, to minimise ocean freight costs where applicable," he adds.

BLT has over 40 years' experience in logistics, warehousing, containerisation, storage, breakdown support and container handling equipment.