Thanks in large part to its central location and evolving transportation infrastructure, Belgium is strengthening its position against its EU rivals as a key site for U.S. manufacturers.

"We are able to grow our distribution services because they are located in regions like Flanders that make it easy for us to access large segments of the market," says Ralph Hendrikx, corporate business development manager for SKF Logistics Services.

Furthermore, SKF has linked a deal with U.S.-based Hydro-Gear Limited Partnership that enables the company to streamline its distribution across Europe from SKF's base in Belgium.

Under the agreement, SKF will use its global logistics network to ensure broad, fast availability of Hydro-Gear parts to the company's customers throughout the continent. In addition, SKF will have factory-trained personnel available to provide comprehensive product service support.

The operation will be based in Tongeren, in Belgium's northern Flanders region.

Ranked by economic development analysts as one of the top logistics locations for pan- European distribution, Belgium offers a central hub with a solid surface-transport system of road, rail, and waterways that facilitates a cost-effective distribution network.

SKF Logistics Services operates a global time-delivery network of approximately 7,000 distributors and dealers. It is utilized both by internal SKF operations and a growing number of external customers like Hydro-Gear. Logistics Service is a business unit of the company's service division.

Located in Sullivan, Ill., Hydro-Gear is a leading player in the design, manufacture, sale and service of hydrostatic drive systems for the lawn and garden industry. Its high-performance transmissions, gear reduction drives, piston pumps and wheel motors are produced for both consumer and commercial markets.

Through its affiliation with SKF Logistics Services, Hydro-Gear is leveraging one of the numerous third-party logistics providers that call Flanders home.

"It's a shrewd strategy," says industry analyst Ralph Plimpton. "While these kinds of partnerships are common in the U.S., its represents real innovation here in the EU. Belgium makes a perfect platform for this arrangement."

Plimpton, a partner with Brussels-based Eckhard Consulting, says the country's economic development agency is doing more to attract alliances like this.

"In a matter of a few years, we will be seeing more of these business deals come together all over Belgium," he says. "A number of universities and other institutions of higher learning are becoming involved now."

For SFK, meanwhile, the region's supply chain cluster extends across in-house and outside specialists, basic warehousing and dispatch through to robotic warehouses and e-logistics operations driven by supply and demand cycles.

"The inclusion of these two leading companies to our logistics sector demonstrates the strengths Flanders offers to this industry," says Luc Fabry, business development manager for the Flanders Foreign Investment Office. "This announcement is a perfect example of why Belgium is consistently ranked as a top logistics location--proximity, access infrastructure."

Another major reason for the nation's high ranking is its main port. Antwerp has long been regarded as a major bulk gateway, but it is now taking share away from its Dutch and German competitors on the breakbulk and container side as well.

"By sheer volume, the port is second in Europe and the fourth largest in the world," says Doug Shields, a freight forwarder working with Speed Logistics in Antwerp. "It handles 130 million tons of cargo per year (58 percent incoming; 42 percent outgoing), and is working to capture still more."

Slightly less than half of Antwerp's goods traffic consists of bulk such as coal, ores, fertilizers and grains. But it also handles large quantities of breakbulk cargo. The various port operators have invested heavily in specialized handling installations for trades such as iron and steel, fruit, forest products, automobiles, dangerous goods and sugar.

"Antwerp has responded positively to the 'utilized load' phenomenon," Shields says. "Currently, 65 percent of all general cargo is packed in containers. Antwerp's container terminal operators pride themselves on their productivity, and relatively low costs."

According to Shields, Antwerp offers the best quality-to-price ratio of all North Sea ports.

U.S. shippers of high-end perishables may start looking toward Brussels National Airport in the coming months for similar cost savings, says Eric Gysen, business development manager for Adelantex NV. His company is among the partners planning a new "state of the art" perishables center there.

"Right now, nothing of this scope exists anywhere in Europe," he says. "We hope to complete the entire center by May 2003."

The Brussels National Airport was well represented at The International Air Cargo Association's bi-annual meeting in Hong Kong last September, and interest in perishables was strong, Gysen says.

"We had many inquiries from American growers and shippers," he says. "Regulatory compliance is a major concern for many of them, and we hope to ease their concerns once we are up and running."

Once completed, the center will have four quarantine rooms; 12 loading docks and warehousing organized by a sophisticated information technology system.

"We will operate 24 hours, seven days a week," Gysen says, "We'll have direct access to main European markets."

For U.S. shippers reliant on air and sea, it is important to note the airport is only 30 minutes away from Antwerp by truck.

"This creates a fully coordinated flow for all perishables with quick road-air transfers," Gysen says.

The short distance and excellent surface connections linking Brussels to other industrial regions is another plus for U.S. manufacturers seeking to extend their reach throughout Europe. The Rhine-Rhuhr, the Saar, the South of the Netherlands, and Northern France are all within close proximity.

Sidebar: Comings and Goings in Antwerp

More than 16,000 ships under more than 100 countries' flags call in the Port of Antwerp annually. The passenger liner business alone offers some 300 regular services to 800 overseas destinations.

Every year Antwerp offers roughly 14,000 sailings. Every two months there is at least one sailing to 600 ports scattered throughout the world. Weekly sailings are on offer to no fewer than 325 ports, while there are daily sailings to 50 different ports. Every year foreign ports receive 75,000 calls from ships that sailed from Antwerp. One of the main reasons why so many shipping lines opt for Antwerp is the large volume of general cargo on offer in the port, thus ensuring a profitable return voyage.

Shippers of breakbulk and project cargoes value the numerous possibilities for conventional cargo. Whereas in most European port cargoes for certain destination must be containerized, Antwerp will accept virtually all conventional cargoes, regardless of where they're bound.