Records and lifesavers
Railway transport services from China to Europe are amongst the beneficiaries of the downturn. In April the firms Duisport, Imperial and RCG were involved in projects.
Railway connections between China and Europe are one of the important elements of the inland hub of Duisport’s overall range of services. At the beginning of the year, however, the gateway was hit by a decline in options arising from the Chinese government’s reactions to the Sars-CoV-2 outbreak (see also page 7 of ITJ 19-20 / 2020). This slump has been overcome in the meantime.
In April Duisport operated about 50 trains a week to and from China – a historic high. Normally, 35–40 trains run between China and Duisport a week. Duisport CEO Erich Staake was happy that “we registered a strong catch-up effect for trade to and from China in April.” The addition of Chinese stations offering services destined for the Ruhr Basin logistics locations was one of the important reasons cited for the increase. “In the ongoing downturn railfreight operations are proving an especially important alternative to sea freight options,” Staake added. Duisport had prepared carefully and was thus in a position to deal with the growth. Additional warehousing capacities as well as tailor-made solutions for on-forwarding were already in place.
Protective equipment for Thuringia
Duisport handles around 30% of all freight trains between Europe and China. Imperial Logistics, in turn, managed the logistics of a train that didn’t travel as far as western Germany. The firm was mandated by the medical doctors’ association of the federal state of Thuringia to organise the transportation of protective medical equipment from China to the city of Weimar. Three trains carrying a total of 45 containers took just 20 days to journey from Shenyang, in northeastern China, to Germany. The cargo was made up of 920,000 protective suits for medical workers. Imperial was in charge of the import authorisation procedures; it then transported the containers by lorry to a logistics centre it runs, where the goods were palletised and stored before being on-forwarded.
Other major players in the market successful too
The Rail Cargo Group reported a premiere. Late in April the subsidiary of the state-owned Austrian rail enterprise ÖBB welcomed the first train in a new service connecting the eastern Chinese city of Jinan to Budapest. It too transported equipment for health services.
Duisport wasn’t the only strong railfreight corporation in April. The state-run Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that said month represented a record operational period for the China State Railway Group too.
The news was that the firm ran 979 trains from China to Europe, which represents an increase of 46% vis-à-vis the previous month. These convoys transported 88,000 teu. It is striking to note that intercontinental railfreight operations in both directions was already doing well in the preceding months too. The 2,920 trains that ran between January and April carried 262,000 teu, a rise of 24% year-on-year. The share of westbound trains stood at 56%. Xinhua said that the freight trains played an important role in combatting the illness Covid-19. From the end of March to the end of April, 3,142 t of aid was delivered to Italy, Spain, Germany and Czechia.
