NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan. September 25, 2019. Prompted by the rapid rise in rail traffic between Europe and China, the Group of European TransEurasia Operators and Forwarders (GETO) has agreed to work more closely with the Coordination Council for Trans-Siberian Transportation (CCTT).
CCTT is an international Switzerland-based association founded in 1997 by Russian Railways (RZD), Deutsche Bahn, GETO and the Korean International Freight Forwarders Association (KIFFA). GETO was established in Basle a year later and is one of the initiators and founders of CCTT.
Both organisations say they want to promote a standard set of Customs rules and operating procedures along the 12,000 kms Eurasian railway that saw a 35 percent increase in the flow of goods between China and Europe last year, according to RZD.
“We have to develop a network of public authorities, industry as well as existing infrastructure – terminals and rail networks – to solve the main problem of bottlenecks in the coordination of the last mile to the consignee,” said GETO president Harm Sievers.
CCTT secretary general Gennady Bessonow added: “All partners involved along the Silk Road are indicating to us that they are willing to improve existing processes and to connect through us. There are no concerns at all about this partnership – we are being urged to put forward proposals by policy-makers, authorities and industry in all countries involved.”
Their main goal is to continue raising awareness among the governments of affected countries and to continue increasing the movement of goods in both directions. “This will allow us to tap into additional sectors and groups of commodities and to create lasting jobs along the corridor which goes through five countries as a result of these services,” Sievers added.
Pictured left to right: CCTT secretary general Gennady Bessonow and GETO president Harm Sievers.
BERLIN: September 09, 2019. Beginning in 2024, Deutsche Bahn Energie has signed a five-year, 25 MWh contract for the supply of green power with offshore wind farm Nordsee Ost, innogy SE and RWE Supply & Trading.
This is the first offshore wind corporate Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) in Germany. The power is produced at the offshore wind farm for a fixed price and used directly by Deutsche Bahn with RWE Supply & Trading acting as the contract and retail partner.
Deutsche Bahn (DB), already the largest green-power consumer in Germany, says it will be 100 percent 'green' powered by 2038. With 57 percent of its consumption from renewables, the company’s annual energy requirement is around ten terawatt hours, equivalent to the power consumption of Hamburg.
From 2024, the rail company will run trains with green electricity supplied by the Nordsee Ost offshore wind farm said Hans Bünting, COO Renewables innogy SE. “After the reduction of state subsidies, we are pleased to have agreed commercial terms for the supply of electricity from the first turbines at our wind farm and created scope for further investment in this way.” innogy hydropower plants have been supplying DB with around 900 million kilowatt hours of green power annually since 2011.
Andree Stracke, CCO RWE Supply & Trading added: “With this new agreement we want to contribute towards our long-term partner achieving their ambitious climate protection targets. Combining our expertise in industrial and municipal customers with the producers of renewable energy offers both sides huge opportunities for the future.”
DB Energie is a subsidiary of DB and supplies 20,000 trains and 5,400 train station networks from 50 power and inverter stations throughout the country. With a turnover of €2.8 billion and a sales volume of 25 TWh, the Frankfurt-based company is the fifth-largest energy provider in Germany.
DUISBURG, Germany: September 09, 2019. Multimodal European logistics company Samskip has launched a four-times weekly rail shuttle between Duisburg and Falköping, Sweden.
Under the terms of a new haulage agreement with Hector Rail, the new service takes the place of direct connections between Duisburg and Göteborg, although Samskip customers more local to the Swedish seaport will be supported through a dedicated link to Falköping.
“As the provider of the most extensive freight rail services connecting Sweden to Europe’s mainland, we are adjusting our network to reflect growing demand inland, at a time when new shortsea capacity concentrated at Göteborg is chasing ever scarce drivers for trailer services,” commented Gert-Jan Meijer, Samskip Trade manager Sweden. “We are enhancing reliability for inland industrial customers around Falköping and bringing loads closer to them for final delivery miles by road, also offering crossdocking services out of the terminal with immediate effect.”
Meijer noted the sustainable nature of the multimodal option, which will cut CO2 emissions by a minimum of 50 percent over its road service counterpart. Swedish exporters whose nearest unitised train connection was at Falköping could also take advantage of multimodal payload advantages available under EU law, he added.
“Falköping is ideally located for growing demand to move automotive parts into the Netherlands and Germany,” added Remco Leijgraaff, Samskip Sales manager Rail Network. “The potential is also there to develop 40ft ISO container transits between Sweden and China via daily services connecting at Duisburg to the ‘New Silk Road’. Overall, we think Falköping is going to attract a different type of customer to the multimodal option.”
Samskip offers pan-European, environmentally responsible combined transport services via shortsea, road, rail and inland waterway routes.
SEEIZE, Germany: August 27, 2019. DB Cargo is mid-way through digitising its freight fleet as the 34,000th wagon with state-of-the-art telematics and smart sensors rolled out of the refitting facility in Seelze near Hanover this week. The company expects to complete the programme by 2020.
DB Cargo says the new wagons use mobile telephony to transmit signals during the journey, such as when the wagon starts and stops or sensors detect an impact. This data can help to produce useful information about the load condition, temperature and humidity and about the movement of sensitive cargo inside the wagon.
"The smart freight wagons are modernising rail freight transport and making it fit for the future. Our customers are benefiting from more manageable logistics chains, higher-quality transport and predictable arrival times,” said Marek Staszek, member of the Management Board for Production at DB Cargo.
"The value chain at Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH relies heavily on efficient logistics processes. The digitalisation of our business processes, which is focusing on connectivity, real-time capability, high quality and excellent service, is becoming ever more important,” explained Jürgen Harland, head of Logistics and SCM at Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH. “The 'smart freight wagon' is the final piece in the puzzle. The new data will refine and improve forecasts and assumptions as it provides information not just on the consignment but on quality, too."
Pictured left to right: Marek Staszek, member of the Management Board for Production at DB Cargo and Jürgen Harland, head of Logistics and SCM at Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH.
GENT, Belgium: July 04, 2019. The first train with Volvo China car exports has arrived in Gent from Xi’an. Volume is forecast at 40,000 units a year based on several rail services a week.
Delivery is based on an integrated hybrid concept developed by automotive logistics company ARS Altmann and Intermodal Container Logistics Vienna (ICL).
ARS Altmann and ICL will operate covered, double-deck car transport wagons between Belgium and Poland and 40-foot containers between Poland and China. The service takes 18 days and routes via Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Poland.
"Customers benefit from the advantages of rail transport with more reliable and shorter throughput times and far greater sustainability and climate compatibility compared to sea freight with both solutions," commented Frank Lehner, ARS Altmann director of Internationalisation.
"In recent years, the Chinese automobile market has gained enormous importance for European OEMs. At the same time, the export volumes of vehicles produced in China by international manufacturers and the exports of electric vehicles by up-and-coming Chinese manufacturers are on the rise.,” he added.
The company’s medium-term goal is to establish covered automobile transport wagons as a fixed component of transports on the New Silk Road, according to Lehner: "We are currently in talks with potential customers from Europe and China, but also from Korea and Russia in order to win them over to the New Silk Road."
ROTTERDAM: July 24, 2019. APM Terminals Maasvlakte II’s new rail service between Rotterdam and Venlo, a key logistics hub on the Dutch-German border is increasing its frequency from five to eight times a week this month.
Because Venlo is ideally located for servicing the distribution centres of C&A, Primark, Tommy Hilfiger, Esprit, and Zalando, the company says it plans to operate up to 14 services a week in the near future.
While the terminal has a fully automated 500 metre barge berth (pictured), it takes six or seven days to Venlo compared to an overnight rail service said Roy De Haan, head of Commercial Management at Maasvlakte II.
“This is very appealing to customers in industries such as fast fashion, where speed to market is an essential competitive advantage,” he added.
Suitable for all types of containerized cargo, with the exception of IMO classifications 1 and 7, each rail departure has capacity for 96 TEU, which replaces around 48 trucks on the road, and is powered by electricity from renewable sources.
“With direct load and discharge windows at both terminals, speed and convenience are clear benefits,” explained de Haan. “As the rail operator, APM Terminals also has direct influence on both terminals (Maasvlakte II and Cabooter Berick), which enables the company to provide priority loading/discharge for urgent containers. The direct point-to-point service also offers increased reliability as there are no terminal stops that could bring potential delays."
APM Terminals said it will soon introduce a rail service to Duisburg, a destination for trains from China strategically located at the junction of the Rhine and Ruhr rivers and connected to North Sea German ports via the Rhine-Herne Canal.
NEW DELHI, India: July 03, 2019. APL Logistics VASCOR Automotive (APLL VASCOR) has taken delivery of its 16th 58-wagon rake.
In 2014 APLL VASCOR was the first 3PL to introduce rail transport of finished vehicles in India. This latest rake is the first of five to be introduced this year for the company’s AutoLinx product. Each wagons is designed to transport up to 318 passenger vehicles.
“Our continued investment in these rakes reflects the increased adoption of rail-based solutions for finished vehicles transport by automotive OEMs”, said Umesh Bhanot, managing director of APLL VASCOR.
AutoLinx provides a door-to-door solution with nearly 60 services a month across most of India combined with a fleet of car carrier trailers for factory pickups and last mile deliveries.
According to PWC Autofacts, India vehicle production is forecast to grow 36 percent over the next five years, from 4.7 million units in 2018 to 6.4 million units by 2023. “Continued growth of India’s auto sector depends in part on reliable, cost-efficient, environmentally-friendly distribution of finished vehicles that only rail transport can bring”, claimed Bhanot.
“Indian Railways’ positive policy environment coupled with India’s implementation of its Goods and Services Tax (GST) scheme in 2017 have created favorable conditions for increased adoption of long distance transport of finished vehicles by rail”, explained Bill Villalon, president of APL Logistics and chairman of APLL VASCOR.
He said GST has reduced the physical checkpoints of cargo at state borders and enabled the location of stockyards dictated by logistics considerations rather than interstate taxes. “Both automakers and consumers alike will benefit,” he added.
WOODLAND, CA: July 22, 2019. Genesee & Wyoming has put two low-emission locomotives into service with its subsidiary California Northern Railroad Company (CFNR).
The new units were purchased with a US$3.7 million grant provided by California’s Bay Area Air Quality Management District to encourage rail operators to adopt cleaner technologies.
Built by Knoxville Locomotive Works in Tennessee, the 2,400-horsepower diesel locomotives use selective catalytic reduction technology to provide fuel savings of 25 percent while reducing diesel emissions – carbon dioxide (CO2) and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) – by 80 percent compared to the two circa-1976 locomotives being replaced.
“Short line railroads such as the California Northern, which provide the ‘first and last mile’ of freight service linking local customers to the large national railroads, are small businesses with duty cycles that don’t require brand new locomotives,” said CFNR president Brad Ovitt.
Despite acknowledging the benefits to communities served by the railroad, Ovitt said the purchase “would not [have been] possible for us to do on a stand-alone basis”.
CFNR serves businesses on 256 miles of track between Los Banos and Tehama, California transporting approximately 25,000 annual carloads of agricultural products, animal feed, beer and wine, chemicals, cheese, construction products, lumber and steel. The company was acquired by G&W in 2012.
Earlier this month G&W announced it was being purchased by Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC in a transaction valued at US$8.4 billion, including debt.
DARIEN, CT: July 01, 2019. US rail company Genesee & Wyoming (G&W) is being purchased by Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC in a transaction valued at US$8.4 billion, including debt.
G&W owns a portfolio of 120 short line railroads, predominantly in North America, with operations in Europe and Australia. The business provides transportation infrastructure services over more than 26,000 kilometers of track.
“We believe this transaction is an excellent outcome for all G&W stakeholders,” said Jack Hellmann, G&W chairman and CEO. “For our current stockholders, the sale price realizes significant value and represents a 39.5 percent premium to our March 08 share price. And for long-term investors who have owned our shares for the past two decades, [it] represents a return of more than 5,400 percent.”
Brookfield CEO Sam Pollock said the deal was a “rare opportunity to acquire a large-scale transport infrastructure business in North America”. GIC Chief Investment Officer Ang Eng Seng added: “As a long-term investor GIC is confident G&W will continue to generate steady profitability, given its diversified operations and customer base.”
The deal is expected to close by the end of this year or in early 2020 subject to approval by G&W stockholders, the intra-agency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, the U.S. Surface Transportation Board and other government antitrust entities.
Brookfield Infrastructure is investing US$500 million in G&W stock with the balance owned by Brookfield Infrastructure’s institutional partners and GIC.
GIC, formerly the government of Singapore Investment Corporation, is a sovereign wealth fund established in 1981 to manage Singapore's foreign reserves.
DUDELANGE, Luxembourg GD: July 10, 2019. The Rail Freight Forward (RFF), a coalition of 18 European rail companies, is using container train ‘Noah’s Ark' to promote its goal of eliminating 290 million tons of transport-related CO2 by 2030.
This week the ‘Ark pulled in to Luxembourg to add two containers painted by local artists Daniel Mac Lloyd and Alain Welter to the existing 12 belonging to RFF members.
Founded after COP24 in Katowice, Poland last December, the RFF includes CFL cargo and CFL multimodal that are promoting rail freight transport in Europe with a goal of increasing the share from a current level of 18 percent to 30 percent by 2030.
In Luxembourg, CFL multimodal operates from the Bettembourg-Dudelange intermodal terminal in the Eurohub South Logistics Park. With an annual capacity of 600,000 TEUs, the facility is positioned on the Rail Freight Corridor 2 that links the North Sea with the Mediterranean and at the crossroads of the North-South and East-West transport routes.
Speaking at the RFF event, Luxembourg minister of Mobility and Public Works François Bausch underlined his government's determination to put logistics at the heart of the country’s economic diversification policy, to support investment in national logistics centres and to invest in efficient and innovative infrastructures.
CFL multimodal operates 12 companies in six European countries and together with CFL cargo provides combined and conventional rail freight, wagon maintenance and repairs, Customs clearance, as well as forwarding and logistics services.
Noah's Train left Katowice on December 14 and stopped in Vienna, Berlin, Paris, Brussels, Rome and Munich - for the transport logistic expo in June. The train will continue its journey through Europe until October when the containers will join COP25 between November 11 and 25 in Santiago de Chile.
MUNICH: June 10, 2019. A new rail link between Italy and China is planned following the signing of an MoU between Russia’s joint-stock Eurasian Rail Alliance (ERA), the Italy Consorzio ZAI Interporto Quadrante Europa logistics terminal in Verona, and the Port of Rostock, Germany.
The three organisations plan to send containers from Verona to Rostock and then ship them via a short-sea route to the Russian Baltic port of Kaliningrad where they will be transhipped onto the main ERA rail route to China.
“Multimodal solutions allow us to provide much sought door-to-door cargo delivery services to our clients. Besides this, they help solve the problems that arise, for example, due to bottlenecks that are caused by maintenance work on the tracks and that lead to slower train speeds,” explained Alexey Grom, ERA president.
“This new route makes it possible to offer a genuinely customer-oriented services with shorter delivery times. The port in Kaliningrad can currently process up to eight trains a day and is connected to the entire Baltic Sea region via short-sea links. As many as 40 trains passed through the port in December 2018 and we can further increase the traffic volume to help realize its full capacity,” he added.
Last year ERA transported 280,500 TEU on scheduled container trains in both directions between China and Europe via Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus on 1520 mm broad-gauge tracks. The overall yearly volume was 370,000 TEU, an increase of one third compared to 2017.
The alliance provides transport services between Europe and China along 57 routes. The new and most important hubs in Europe are Neumarkt, Barcelona, Bremerhaven and Luxembourg.
Pictured left to right in Munich wearing ties: UTLC ERA president Alexey Grom; Consorzio ZAI Interporto Quadrante Europa president Matteo Gasparato; and Rostock Port CEO Gernot Tesch.
