Kombiverkehr KG Experienced a Decline in 2019

The shareholders’ meeting of Kombiverkehr KG took place this time without physical presence due to Corona. For the financial year 2019, a traffic decline of 15 percent had to be announced due to economic conditions. The declines in the chemical and automotive industries played a significant role. In the current financial year, Kombiverkehr is feeling the impact of the Corona crisis.

(Frankfurt am Main) For the first time in the company’s history, the limited partners of Kombiverkehr KG made decisions regarding the company’s annual results in a virtual shareholders’ meeting due to the COVID-19 epidemic and simultaneously elected a new board of directors through a postal voting procedure. With a shipment result of nearly 900,000 transported truck shipments on the rail (one shipment corresponds to the capacity of a truck), the company concluded the past financial year. With a further increasing average distance of the transported loading units, the Frankfurt operator achieved a total transport tonnage of more than 20 million gross tons. The company’s customers actively contributed to climate protection by saving more than one million tons of carbon dioxide. 129 full-time employees generated a revenue of 411 million euros.

Economic Situation in Europe Influenced Traffic Development in 2019

With around 170 shuttle trains per day, Kombiverkehr operates one of the largest and densest intermodal networks in Europe for shifting transports from road to climate-friendly rail. In the financial year 2019, the company transported 884,168 truck shipments – or 1.77 million TEU (Twenty Foot Equivalent Unit) – in its network on 247 traffic days, thus falling short of the volume compared to 2018 by 5.7 percent. On the routes of the national network de.NETdirect+, 180,405 truck shipments were transported (-9.8 percent). The cross-border unaccompanied traffic in de.NETdirect+, including traffic with the German Baltic Sea ports, also suffered losses, but recorded a less severe decline of -4.6 percent and increased its share of the total volume to nearly 80 percent with 703,763 shipments. The company attributes this development to the consequences of the unstable political and economic situation in Europe and the escalating trade disputes between major economies, from which the transport industry, including Kombiverkehr, could not escape. Particularly in the second half of the financial year 2019, the automotive industry and its suppliers experienced a collapse of national and international markets due to trade barriers, the diesel scandal, and discussions about driving bans. Additionally, the chemical industry recorded a significant production decline. This had consequences for Kombiverkehr, given the high share of automotive and chemical transports in the volume of unaccompanied combined transport. By the end of the year, two of the most significant routes, namely traffic with the Iberian Peninsula and traffic with Italy via the Brenner corridor, were again affected by external factors. The prolonged national strike in France temporarily paralyzed rail freight transport with this country and in transit through France. Without the weeks-long strike, even higher growth would have been possible on this important intermodal corridor. Heavy snowfall in the Alps with avalanches led to days-long closures of the Brenner route.

“As a company operating across Europe, we cannot detach ourselves from the overall development,” says Robert Breuhahn, Managing Director of Kombiverkehr KG. “Despite the declining volume development, we have managed to maintain our extensive intermodal network for the benefit of freight forwarders and transporters in a highly competitive market environment.” A positive development trend was shown by the traffic to and from Sweden (+7.7 percent). In particular, the route via the fixed crossing through Denmark and the Øresund Bridge benefited from the increased transport volumes. Traffic to and from Spain (+7.7 percent), Denmark (+11.2 percent), and Hungary (+10.3 percent) also developed positively.

Stable Network in Times of COVID-19

The global spread of the coronavirus has presented the population, all industries, and logistics companies with a completely new situation. The rail transport mode has once again proven its positive characteristics and demonstrated its systemic relevance during these special times. During the transport process, interpersonal contact within the train traction can be minimized. With the transition to a one hundred percent digital processing of transport documents, a contactless agency processing at the terminals was also implemented in a very short time to ensure the best possible health protection for truck drivers and agency staff. Kombiverkehr has also taken precautions with an emergency plan to ensure the company’s operations in the event of a quarantine situation at the company headquarters or at terminal locations. Measures include the creation of temporary mobile workplaces, access to all of the company’s IT applications from external sources, and the organization of diversion traffic in the event of terminal closures. Especially in the early days of the epidemic in Central Europe, Kombiverkehr KG, together with its partner companies, its forwarding customers, and their truck drivers, maintained the nationwide and European goods flows between terminals, production sites, and trade. Since then, nearly the entire range of services has been offered within the product offerings of national and international transport. Due to the volume, some train departures are adjusted on certain connections, but without significant impacts on customer transports in cases where multiple daily departures exist at a terminal, and booked shipments are merely pushed to the next departure on the same day. With the high flexibility given in the networks in the so-called gateway traffic, where loading units switch at an intermediate terminal analogously to passenger rail traffic between two trains, Kombiverkehr also offers an extremely advantageous alternative processing option for the transports of customers from forwarding and logistics. “Overall, our traffic is running relatively well for the currently tense situation in logistics. Although we also adjust train departures at short notice to the anticipated daily volume, no customer is left behind with us,” assures Breuhahn. In April and May, the company lost about 15 percent of the volume across the entire network due to the economic downturn, after the shipment volumes had stabilized in the first quarter of 2020. Due to the exceptional situation at the borders between Germany and Poland as well as Austria and Hungary, intermodal rail traffic with Poland and Hungary increased disproportionately during this time. Through the increased transport of food and hygiene items, the operator was able to gain transports in the continuous Sweden traffic and increase the volume in the first eight weeks of the Corona crisis by almost ten percent. The highest volume declines were recorded by Kombiverkehr in national traffic (-20 percent) as well as on the routes with Spain (-20 percent) and Austria (-30 percent). On the main traffic axis of Kombiverkehr Germany – Italy via Brenner, the traffic decline was at the level of total traffic. In the first five months of the current year, a traffic decline in the single-digit percentage range is recorded due to the economic development in Germany and Europe.

The Capacity of Freight Space Has Increased Significantly Due to the Corona Crisis

“The significant increase in capacity for freight space due to the Corona crisis and the resulting price drop on the road will make it difficult for us to regain lost volume in the second half of 2020 and certainly also in 2021. Although we can currently convince one or the other new customer with a significantly improved service quality on the rail to shift parts of their volume from the road to the environmentally friendly rail. However, it is already clear that combined transport can only be competitive if the service quality and price offerings for users remain permanently attractive. In the interest of our customers, we will therefore do everything we can to work with the involved railway companies to develop solutions that are financially viable and sustainable.”

Strengthening Intermodal Transport as Industry Restarts

The Corona crisis has impressively shown that rail freight transport, and especially combined transport, is the stable and crisis-resistant backbone of goods transport in Germany and is therefore also considered systemically relevant. “For the restart after the crisis, however, it must apply: We seize the opportunity and sustainably restructure freight transport in Germany – and strengthen environmentally friendly and climate-protecting alternatives,” emphasizes managing director colleague Armin Riedl regarding the now necessary measures to strengthen the rail sector to achieve the politically pursued national and European climate goals. This also includes restoring equal opportunities between transport modes. After further promoting road transport – for example, through the complete extension of the toll exemption for gas trucks – something must now also be done for combined transport. “Therefore, we demand the toll exemption for pre- and post-haulage, a promotion of shipments on the rail by reducing terminal fees, and a start-up financing for the switch to combined transport. Now is the time to seize the opportunity to strengthen the most environmentally friendly and safest land transport mode,” says Riedl.

New 52-Foot Container Flatcars with 72-Ton Tank Containers Tested

Three years ago, Kombiverkehr KG decided to enter the market segment of tank containers with a total weight of up to 75 tons at a length of 52 feet with the help of a newly developed and modern container flatcar SGMNS. 100 short, weight-optimized container flatcars have supplemented the company’s existing fleet since the beginning of the year. “A first test of loading and continuous rail transport of the particularly long and heavy tank containers recently took place successfully between Ludwigshafen and Hamm. As Kombiverkehr, we actively support the chemical industry and its closely associated forwarding companies in successfully handling previous tank wagon transports within our nationwide and European intermodal network,” Riedl is convinced of the future market opportunities.

New Board of Directors for Three Years

In the context of the virtual shareholders’ meeting, a new board of directors was appointed by the shareholders of the limited partnership. Newly elected to the board were Kai Bode, Spedition Bode GmbH & Co. KG from Reinfeld, Christian Cornelius, Anhalt Logistics GmbH & Co. KG from Rehm-Flehde-Beargen, Mark Hazizowic, VTG Tanktainer GmbH from Hamburg, and Ulrich Maixner, HOYER GmbH Internationale Fachspedition from Mannheim. Long-standing members Carsten Hemme, Paneuropa Transport GmbH from Vechta, Hermann Lanfer, Lanfer Transporte GmbH & Co. KG from Meppen, and Werner Löblein, Löblein Transport GmbH from Schillingsfürst, complete the seven-member forwarding side of the board. DB Cargo AG, as a 50 percent shareholder, sends Dr. Sigrid Nikutta, DB Board Member for Freight Transport and Chairwoman of DB Cargo AG, as well as Pierre Timmermans, Board Member for Sales, to the board of Kombiverkehr KG. Thus, the board consists of nine members as per the articles of association, who will soon begin their joint work after the constitutive meeting in July and the election of a chairman from the forwarding circle. The deputy chair will continue to be held by DB Cargo AG.

Key Figures 2019 of Kombiverkehr KG at a Glance:

Photo: © Kombiverkehr KG

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