CJ Logistics has started full-scale operations at a roughly 1.1 million-square-foot logistics center in Elwood, Illinois, bringing a major new Midwest warehouse into service as part of its wider U.S. infrastructure program with Korea Ocean Business Corporation.
The facility covers approximately 102,775 square meters and has 130 loading docks and 12-meter, or roughly 39-foot, clear height.
Its scale and location are central to its role.
Elwood sits within the Chicago-area intermodal logistics network, near terminals operated by BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad. CJ Logistics plans to use the facility as an inland inventory and distribution hub combining large-scale warehousing with rail and highway transportation.
The South Korean Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries independently confirmed the start of full-scale operations and puts the development on a site of approximately 295,000 square meters, with total floor area of about 103,000 square meters.
For warehouse operations, the 130-dock configuration gives the building substantial inbound and outbound capacity.
CJ Logistics says the docks are intended to accommodate large numbers of trucks simultaneously, including periods of concentrated shipping activity.
The 12-meter clear height also provides room for high-density vertical storage, although the company has not disclosed the building’s racking configuration or pallet capacity.
CJ Logistics is positioning the facility particularly toward advanced-industry supply chains, including batteries and battery raw materials.
That creates a different operating profile from a parcel-focused fulfillment center. The company expects Elwood to support storage, processing and outbound distribution of industrial products and imported components as it expands its customer base.
A proposed foreign-trade zone designation is part of that strategy.
CJ Logistics is pursuing FTZ status for the facility but has not announced that the designation has been granted.
If approved, the company plans to use the framework to hold imported products and components locally before processing and releasing inventory in response to customer demand.
CJ Logistics says that model could shorten supply lead times and make inventory more responsive to changing demand. Those benefits remain projections rather than measured results from the newly opened operation.
The company also says Elwood’s combination of rail and highway connectivity can support delivery to most U.S. destinations within one to two days.
It has not released operating data demonstrating that coverage from the new center.
The opening marks the completion of a project that broke ground in October 2024.
At the time, CJ Logistics America described the development as a 1.1 million-square-foot distribution center and identified ARCO/Murray as the developer.
The original timetable called for an opening during the first half of 2026. Full-scale operations ultimately began in September.
The project is also part of a larger U.S. logistics infrastructure partnership between CJ Logistics and KOBC.
When the program was announced in 2023, CJ Logistics outlined approximately $457 million of planned investment across three U.S. logistics developments totaling about 3.875 million square feet in Illinois and New Jersey.
That $457 million figure applies to the wider three-site program, not to the Elwood warehouse alone. CJ Logistics has not disclosed an Elwood-specific development cost.
Under the partnership structure announced in 2023, CJ Logistics was to contribute land and operate the facilities, while KOBC would support construction financing.
The strategy was designed in part to provide U.S. logistics infrastructure for South Korean and other companies handling import and export cargo.
Elwood now gives that program a large operating Midwest node.
It follows the October 2025 opening of the approximately 10,000-square-meter Secaucus Logistics Center in New Jersey, another CJ Logistics-KOBC project.
The two facilities have markedly different scales and intended roles.
Secaucus is positioned around East Coast import and export flows and access to the New York-area consumer market. Elwood has more than 10 times its disclosed floor area and is intended to support inland inventory and distribution through the Chicago-area rail and highway network.
Together, they give the program an East Coast logistics presence and a substantially larger inland warehousing platform.
CJ Logistics Global Division head Jonathan Song has described the facilities as strategic assets for supporting North American supply chains, including those of Korean companies in advanced industries such as batteries.
Several operational details at Elwood remain undisclosed.
CJ Logistics has not identified customers occupying the new warehouse or provided current utilization, inventory capacity, cargo throughput, daily truck volumes or rail volumes.
The status of warehouse automation is also unclear.
When the project broke ground in 2024, CJ Logistics America said the new distribution center would feature advanced automation technologies.
The September 2026 opening announcement does not identify what automation, if any, has been commissioned.
No AS/RS, pallet shuttle, AMR, AGV, automated forklift, conveyor, robotic handling system or automation supplier has been specified. The company also has not identified its WMS, WES or WCS technology for the building.
The completed facility therefore should not be characterized as an automated warehouse based on the information currently disclosed.
Its confirmed operational significance comes instead from physical scale and connectivity: roughly 1.1 million square feet of new logistics capacity, 130 loading docks, substantial vertical storage potential and access to a major U.S. intermodal market.
The planned FTZ designation could add another layer to that role by allowing imported industrial inventory to be held and processed closer to inland customers.
For now, however, the designation remains pending.
With Elwood operational, the next measures of the project’s significance will be how much of the building is occupied, what storage and automation systems CJ Logistics has installed, and whether the planned FTZ functionality moves from application to approval.