RLL Container Report - 16 July 2014
From: John Keir, Ross Learmont Ltd Email: john.keir@telia.com Date: 16 July 2014
Let the train take the strain.
The latest figures from Container Trades Statistics show that overall Asia-Europe volumes in April increased 5.2% year-on-year to 1.2 million teu. During the first four months of the year, traffic on this important trade route grew by 5.8% to reach 4.7 million teu. Concerned about the strain this will place on their terminals, major ports have opted to “let the train take the strain”. Longer trains capable of hauling large numbers of boxes at one time will deliver containers to and from all the major European terminals.
APM Terminals Gothenburg Is already the largest container terminal in Scandinavia but the company is not resting on its laurels. Last year, the Swedish West Coast port handled 860,000 teu and it plans to increase this figure by 50%. To this end, Gothenburg will introduce two new rail cranes and will add a sixth access track, allowing the port to accommodate three full trains of 750 metres in length. Already, the terminal receives half of its annual throughput by rail, which places the Swedish facility ahead of its peers in the rest of Europe. Like many of the major ports, Gothenburg views rail as the best way to cope with the projected increased volumes heading out of Asia to Europe. At present, there are 25 weekly rail shuttles serving the facility, linking the terminal with the main industrial and population centres in Sweden and Norway.
Another company investing heavily in Scandinavian terminals is the Turkish port operator, Yilport, which recently added the Gavle Container Terminal to its portfolio of box facilities, four of which are in Turkey and one in Malta. Having failed in its bid to purchase the Gothenburg terminal, Yilport immediately turned its attention to Gavle Container Terminal on the Swedish Baltic coast, 180 km to the north of Stockholm. The port is located at a crossroads on the North-South main rail and road axis as well as on the East-West railway and highway serving central Sweden and on to Oslo in Norway. The Turkish company is so confident of further expansion in the Scandinavian market that it concluded a contract to manage the container terminal in Oslo, which acts as the terminus for one of the Trans-European Transport Corridors. This would give Yilport control over half a million teu of port capacity in the two main consumer markets in Scandinavia. Meanwhile, three ports in the south of Sweden have also adopted a rail-centric strategy. Helsingborg, Trelleborg and Malmo have set up a direct intermodal rail service to the Arsta Kombiterminal in Stockholm. The operator, Green Cargo plans to run five trains per week with a transit time to the Swedish capital of under twenty-four hours.
Down on the south coast of the Baltic Sea, Gdynia handled 185,000 teu in the first half of 2014 - a rise of 18% on the previous year. Farther along the coast, the port of Szczecin registered a 23% increase in throughput during the first 4 months. Like its two compatriots, Gdansk continues to register large increases in container traffic with a highly creditable 109,000 teu in May. Growth in box traffic at all three Polish ports is being encouraged by significant investment in rail and road infrastructure, which allows the seaports to process ever-higher volumes of intermodal traffic. The Baltic ports will be further aided in their endeavours by plans to upgrade rail links from Poland to three of its neighbours.
First, a railway will be built from Lviv in Ukraine to Warsaw, while the line from Olsztyn in N Poland to Kaliningrad in the Russian Baltic enclave will be re-opened. This year, Kaliningrad recorded an 8.3% rise in box traffic totalling 79,265 teu. At the same time, Kaliningrad is preparing plans to raise throughput at Russia’s only ice-free port in the Baltic Sea. In addition, Polish Railways will start their section of the Rail Baltica line linking up with the three Baltic states to the north. In Riga, LDz (Latvian Railways) opened a new direct line to Kundzinsala in the Port of Riga, which will allow the port to raise capacity from 7.25 to 12.45 million tons. In Lithuania, the TEN-T corridor from Klaipeda to Belarus is to be electrified along its entire 230 km length. At the same time, the Pauosčio rail junction is to be upgraded and a second line will be built to Drugiste. When work is completed, the line’s annual capacity will rise from 30 to 50 million tons.
North European ports are also benefitting from improved rail links. DB, German Railways, has just completed a Euro 230 million renovation of the Maschen rail yard. With its 300 km of rail lines, Maschen serves the important ports of Hamburg and Bremerhaven. It is estimated that by 2030 cargo flows via Hamburg and Bremerhaven will grow by 74%. Maschen was opened in 1977 and the refurbishment will allow the marshalling yard to process up to 150 trains per day or one million wagons per annum. Europe’s biggest bix port, Rotterdam, is also upgrading its rail connections with a new service to Southern Germany. EGS and TX Logistics have increased the frequency of their intermodal services from the Dutch port to Munich and Nuremburg in Bavaria.
At the same time, DB Schenker is extending its intermodal rail services along the Balkan corridor to Turkey. Following on from its successful Bosphorus Shuttle launched in 2012, DB Schenker is introducing a weekly intermodal service between the Rhine port of Cologne and Cerkekoy in Turkey. During its 2,000 km journey, the new service takes five days to pass through Austria, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria before reaching its final destination in Turkey. The trains are equipped with double-pocket wagons to allow the carriage of semi-trailers. Coincidentally, RZD International is in discussion with Deutsche Bahn on a joint bid to construct rail lines in Bulgaria, which is in the process of upgrading the country’s rail infrastructure. RZD International is already involved in upgrading the rail network in Serbia and the head of RZD, Mr Yakinun recently paid a visit to Greece, where the company is also bidding for a number of rail and port assets.
John Keir, Ross Learmont Ltd.
16 July 2014
Copyright ©, 2014, John Keir