Pioneering transport projects of Contargo Intermodal Poland
The Contargo Group is continuing the construction project of a terminal in Łódź, while its Polish subsidiary, Contargo Intermodal Poland, established last year, is working on combining the potential of the Polish market with the group’s developed terminal and logistics network in Western Europe and participating in pioneering transport projects.
Contargo Intermodal Poland started its operations in November 2021 and one of its first projects was to participate in a pioneering transport chain using the Northern Sea Route in the Arctic, which is an alternative to traditional maritime and rail solutions for delivering freight from China. More than 700 containers from China reached the terminal in Rotterdam via the Northern Sea Route, from where Contargo organised the transport of containers on its own linear barges to the three inland terminals owned by the German logistics group, namely DiT Duisburg, Emmerich and Emmelsum.
“Such a distribution of the volume to three inland destinations allowed for quick removal of containers from the congested maritime terminal in Rotterdam, and also enabled efficient further transport by rail from the above-mentioned terminals to terminals in Sławków and Łódź. From there, the containers were transported to the recipient’s warehouses by trucks. Contargo Intermodal Poland was also responsible for arranging customs transit documents for the entire batch of containers, which, with a large one-off volume, a high value of freight and three means of transport involved in moving each container, was quite a challenge. We also offer similar trimodal solutions via Contargo terminals in the Ruhr Area in the opposite direction, we organise reloading in Duisburg, Emmerich and Emmelsum to barges, from where the containers reach the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam,” says Marcin Czachorowski, member of the management board of Contargo Intermodal Poland.
In March of the current year, Contargo transported 41 full containers by barge from its terminal in Valenciennes, France to Duisburg. Afterwards, the boxes travelled further east by rail. Currently, the company is working on combining the potential of the Polish market with the Contargo’s developed terminal and logistics network in Western Europe, also in the field of cargo deliveries previously serviced by road transport, thanks to which the volume of cargo transported by trains will increase.
New Silk Road runs despite EU sanctions against Russia
In recent weeks, the war in Ukraine has been overshadowing the transport of goods on rail routes between Russia and China and Europe. Most deliveries of freight from Europe to Russia, which were previously used to balance cargo flows from China to the West, were suspended. Furthermore, some importers and logistics operators have decided to transfer transport from the rail route via Russia and Belarus to alternative modes of transport. However, trains on the New Silk Road continue to run, and the transit time and punctuality of these services have been recently improved.
“The volumes reaching our terminals within the New Silk Road have decreased. Some operators handle 30-40 per cent of the volume in relation to the volume at the end of 2021. The general decrease in transport in this direction, paradoxically, is also confirmed by a much shorter transit time. Congestion at border points and intermediate transhipment terminals has mostly disappeared due to less traffic,” explains the representative of Contargo Intermodal Poland.
Investments in Łódź
Contargo Hatrans Łódź is going on the project of building an intermodal terminal in Łódź on a plot of 6.5 hectares in the north-west part of the city. The investor is trying to obtain additional financing from the EU funds for this project. “A certain delay derives from perturbations in the earlier grant process, as well as postponing the call for grant applications for the National Reconstruction Plan. Currently, the company runs a depot for empty containers at a part of the area of the future terminal. The company’s customers also order cross-docking of containers collected from the depo at nearby Hatrans warehouses along with customs clearance in export. The containers are then sent to seaports or via land terminals towards China,” states Marcin Czachorowski.