ITJ 45-46/2022
Dear readers,
The flywheel of price increases is starting to claim its first victims in the transport and logistics industry, and unfortunately they definitely also include interesting players in special niches.
At the end of this golden October the state-owned Swedish railfreight operator Green Cargo was forced to pull the plug on its Norwegian subsidiary. A maelstrom of prices getting out of hand – electricity, diesel, staff – resulted in the decision to close Green Cargo Norge down in 2023, as CEO Bengt Fors explained. “The price of electricity has increased by almost 450% since 2020, and half of these additional costs couldn’t be passed on to customers for contractual reasons.”
This drastic measure will affect 120 people directly. More than half of them are engine drivers, with staff from handling terminals in Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim also included.
ITJ correspondent Jürg Streuli reports that Green Cargo Norge had grown successfully ever since it was established in 2016. It last transported almost 40% of Norway’s intermodal railfreight.
Sic transit gloria mundi!
Here’s to staying optimistic!
Christian Doepgen
Editor-in-chief
