RLL Container Report - 25 June 2014
From: John Keir, Ross Learmont Ltd Email: john.keir@telia.com Date: 25 June 2014
A to B: from the Aegean to the Baltic.
Down in the Aegean Sea, a battle royale is being waged for Greece’s biggest port. Cosco, Maersk, ICTC of the Philippines and investment company, UEM are all bidding for the government’s share in the Port of Piraeus. Greece is selling its national transport assets, including the main rail operator and the northern port of Thessaloniki. However, it is Piraeus that has got everyone excited. Not only is it the first EU port of call north of the Suez Canal but it is also attracts tourists eager to view the cradle of European civilisation, while they soak up the Aegean sunshine. Undaunted by a six-year recession, the Port of Piraeus has just reported a 12% rise in profits, while it eagerly expects to receive a record 19 million tourists. Often viewed as the “consolation prize”, the northern port of Thessaloniki may well turn out to be an equally valuable transport asset. To appreciate the real value of this port facility, one need only look northwards to see the major transformation taking place to the rail network in eastern and central Europe.
By the end of 2014, Bulgarian, Romanian and Hungarian railways plan to launch a direct train service from Budapest to the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, making use of the new road-rail bridge over the Danube. The Danube Bridge 2, which links Vidin in Bulgaria with Calafat in Romania, is opening up this part of South East Europe to a rapid rise in cargo flows. This will be followed by a separate train service linking Sofia with Thessaloniki, providing the Greek port with a fast connection to the rail hub around Budapest.
Budapest has long been the natural crossroads of central Europe with roads, rivers and rail connections converging on the Hungarian capital from all four points of the compass. The route to the north-east, however, has to negotiate a major bottleneck as it passes through the Capathian Mountains. The Carpathians consist of a chain of mountain ranges that stretch in an arc from the Czech and Slovak republics in the north through Poland, Hungary and the Ukraine down to Romania in the east and on to the Iron Gates in the south that separate Romania from Serbia. The highest peaks reach 2,600 metres. A single-track rail line under the Carpathian mountains at Beskyd in Ukraine acts as a notorious bottleneck. The tunnel was constructed in 1886 and is in desperate need of upgrading. A new, double-track railway is being constructed alongside the existing Beskyd tunnel. The 1.8-kilometre tunnel was identified as a priority project by the European Union to improveinternational transport corridors. As a result, the European Investment Bank will provide a loan of Euro 102 million to part-fund the construction of the tunnel under the Eastern Partnership programme. The new tunnel is scheduled to open to faster freight services to Budapest in 2015.
Over the border in Slovakia, the state-owned rail freight operator, ZSSK Cargo announced that it would sell a 66% stake in its rail car fleet to AAE of Switzerland. Russian Railways’ subsidiary, TransContainer is negotiating the purchase of ZSSK Cargo Intermodal from Slovak Railways at a price of Euro 20 million. In the neighbouring Czech Republic, TFG Transfracht has expanded its intermodal services by linking its new terminal at Ostrava with the German seaports. TFG Transfracht is also building upon the success of its existing Czech terminal at Lovosice in northern Bohemia. At the same time, the cross-border railway between Aš in western Bohemia and Selb Plössberg in Bavaria is to be re-opened, providing another link between the two countries.
The European Investment Bank is heavily involved in improving rail network in Poland, where it has already invested Euro 1.9 Billion. The latest project involves an upgrade to the mainline between Katowice and Krakow. The EIB is providing a Euro 268 million loan, which will help raise the speed of passenger trains to 160 km per hour and 120 km/h for freight trains. Stante Logistics, who are based in Bari down at the heel of Italy, are taking advantage of all these upgrades to the Polish rail network to launch a new regular service to the Euroterminal at Slawkow in southern Poland. The new intermodal service will depart from the Marcianise Terminal near Naples on the 1,800 km journey to the rail terminal at Slawkow, which, in turn, has a direct connection to the 1520 rail network. Sixty kilometres to the west of Slawkow in Gliwice, the Silesian Logistics Centre is to be expanded to cope with the growing intermodal traffic. Container storage capacity will be increased from 1,650 to almost 3,000 teu. The upgrade includes two new gantry cranes and expanded warehouse space.
Up on the Baltic coast, the Port of Gdynia is rapidly expanding its storage facilities, the latest of which is an 18,840 m2 complex next to the BCT and GCT terminals. Gdynia commissioned its first warehouse, covering 8,000 m2 in 2010 and a third is already on the drawing board. At the same time, BCT Gdynia reports a 25% increase in container throughput, which reached 150,413 teu in the first quarter of 2014. In the neighbouring port of Gdansk, the Deepwater Container Terminal opened a new rail yard with an annual capacity of 700,000 teu. The project, which cost Euro 2.4 million, should raise the share of rail-borne from its current level of around one-third of all containers passing through the north Polish port. Gdansk is also upgrading intermodal facilities at the Szczecinskie Quay, which will raise the facility’s annual capacity to 100,000 teu. The additional storage capacity will be most welcome as box traffic in May rose to 109,375 teu, which is almost 25,000 teu more than in the same month last year.
From the Aegean in the south to the Baltic in the north, a new transport corridor is taking shape.
John Keir, Ross Learmont Ltd.
25 June 2014
Copyright ©, 2014, John Keir