French wine to China by rail From Prague to Yiwu

Transcription

1 InterRail NO. 7-8 / 2017 French wine to China by rail From Prague to Yiwu

2 Dear Reader: In less than a month, the 26th Plenary Session of CCTT will be held in Beijing, hosted by China Railway Container Transport Co. Ltd., an affiliate of Chinese Railway. The venue underlines the increasing importance of Eurasian rail traffics. Representatives from InterRail s country units will attend the event. GETO (formerly: the Group of European TransSiberia Operators and Forwarders) has long been aware of the importance of the Eurasian corridors. In order to communicate this more clearly to the public, the members recently decided to change the name; it is now Group of European TransEurasia Operators and Forwarders. More on this on page 6. Contents French wine to China by rail 3 From Prague to Yiwu 4 More News 5 In this issue we also report on our cooperation with JF Hillebrand, an international service provider specialized in the logistics of beer, wine and spirits. Enjoy reading! Hans Reinhard Chairman of the Board InterRail Holding AG IMPRINT InterRail Holding AG, Winkelriedstr. 19, 9000 St. Gallen / Switzerland Telefon: , Telefax: info@interrail.ag, Source Cover image Shutterstock

3 NEWS FROM THE INTERRAIL GROUP Shipping French wine to China by rail The InterRail Gruppe and JF Hillebrand, an international service provider specialized in the logistics of beer, wine and spirits, handled a test transport of French wine via rail from Duisburg, Germany, to Yiwu, China. The train crossed six countries and covered a distance of 11,400 kilometers. At a press conference in Bordeaux during VinExpo this June, the evaluation results of the test run were presented. The objective of this transport had been to find out if wine can be transported safely via rail without packaging or product being damaged. Data concerning temperature, humidity, acceleration forces and differences in altitude were recorded, parameters that have to be taken into account in logistics solutions for sensitive products like wine. Along the route covered via rail by such containers, there can be extreme climate fluctuations. Therefore, a special focus was on the temperature during transit. For this first transport, the container was equipped with a special insulating foil, JF Hillebrand s so-called VinLiner. The foil regulates temperature and humidity and was optimally suited for the transport in May. For a year-round service, i.e. specifically for the winter months with extreme temperatures, European wine producers have to rely on temperaturecontrolled containers. Transport aboard a standard dry goods container is not an option. (from left) Pierre Corvisier, JF Hillebrand Group Service Development and Innovation Director, Carsten Pottharst, InterRail Managing Director Operations and Hendrik Wehlen, InterRail General Manager Sales & Operations JF Hillebrand has developed a very cost-effective solution to improve protection, designed entirely for the global wine, beer and spirits market: VinLiner. In the meantime, InterRail and JF Hillebrand have dispatched a second test container. Source photos: / JH Hillebrand) 3

4 NEWS FROM THE INTERRAIL GROUP No / 2017 From Prague to Yiwu Again, InterRail was the operator of a train between Europe and Yiwu in the coastal province of Zhejiang in Eastern China. This time, a container train went from Prague, Czech Republic, to Yiwu. The train reached Yiwu on August 4. The containers carried, among others, porcelain, crystal glass and automotive accessories. Moving to bigger premises After they have moved to a bigger office, our colleagues in Mumbai, India, have now more space to work on challenging customer projects. Contact: InterRail India Pvt. Ltd., Suite No. 211, A Wing, Sagar Tech Plaza, Andheri-Kurla Road, Sakinaka, Andheri (E), Mumbai, tel , mail: info.in@interrail.ag, 4

5 NEWS FROM THE INTERRAIL GROUP New Global Sales & Business Development Director The InterRail Group has reinforced its team: Igor Zhigora has been appointed to the new position of Global Sales & Business Development Directors. He works at the InterRail LLC Moscow office. Additionally to diverse tasks for the Russian Inter- Rail unit, Igor Zhigora also carries out superordinate tasks for the entire group. Thus, among other responsibilities, he is in charge of drawing up groupwide sales strategies, of promoting the further networking among the InterRail country units, and of developing and launching new products onto our markets. In Igor Zhigora, InterRail was able to win an internationally experienced logistics expert, who comes with the ideal prerequisites for his new tasks and has already held diverse management positions during his career so far. Igor Zhigora Bridge between Europe and Asia Under the motto «Multimodal 2017: bridge between Europe and Asia», VIVA CONSULT, supported by Hamburg Port, organized a two-day event in Hamburg. Carsten Pottharst was invited to speak about the chances and challenges of transports along the New Silk Road. The event proved to be a good platform for the exchange among logistics experts. The next, important event of the industry that InterRail is going to participate in is the DVZ congress The New Silk Road - The Next Big Thing in Logistics? business opportunities along the new transport corridor. It takes place in Dusseldorf on October 12. The following topics will be discussed: Chances for development offered by the New Silk Road Looking east: a new strategic perspective fort the German (logistics) industry The iron Silk Road; hubs, transport concepts and competition Business opportunities in Central Asia: country portraits, infrastructure and best practice 5

6 MORE NEWS For GETO: a new name So far, GETO was short for Gemeinschaft der Europäischen Transsibirien Operateure und Spediteure (Association of European TransSiberia Operators and Forwarders); as of now, GETO stands for the Group of European TransEurasia Operators and Forwarders. In the past, when the Eurasian landbridge was mentioned, it first of all denoted the Trans-Siberian railway corridor that GETO originally was named for. Yet this has changed completely since the Belt and Road Initiative was introduced in 2013 by the Chinese government. With its new name, GETO wants to take into account the eminent importance of the Eurasian landbridge. Revival of the Silk Road With the Belt and Road Initiative, transport costs were subsidized from the Silk Road Fund, which allowed many players in the market to win new business and to add to their portfolio. During these past twelve months, the number of railway connections between China and Europe kept rising enormously, and owing to numerous investments new routes are developed or old ones are revived. Railway lines, roads, even entire ports are being modernized to create an overland route to Russia, Iran and Europe, in the style of the old Silk Road. As a hub, Kazakhstan plays a major role here. The country, ninth in size globally, borders China, Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and the Caspian Sea and thus holds an important geostrategic position. Increasing the attraction of the Eurasian landbridge Also under its new name, or rather: now more than ever because of its new name, GETO will represent the interests of the operators and forwarders in the market, it will act as an information platform for its members and maintain important public relations work to market the Eurasian landbridge and to contribute to the increase of transport volumes along the new Silk Road. GETO demands and enforces further measures to heighten the attraction of these traffics, since the current, enormous growth rates are owed to the subventions from the Silk Road Fund. In view of this, GETO considers it indispensable to take steps to safeguard the train offers for the long term. This includes further reducing the rates for routes, wagons, containers in order to be able to keep the current, subsidized price level also in future. The GETO members also think it necessary to offer clocked departures with fixed schedules, to enforce a further reduction of transit times, to introduce endto-end IT structures to speed up handling, and to create attractive models for the return of empties, for which, in the long term, the only sensible solution is an increase in east bound volumes. In establishing so-called hub systems at the CIS entry and exit border points, GETO sees another measure to cut costs and thus increase competitiveness. It would allow bundling train traffics and thus help achieve a higher utilization of the broad gauge sections that are not fully utilized nowadays, as Europe and China have different rules concerning maximum train lengths. The CCTT s European pillar GETO was founded in Basel, Switzerland, in The group is among the initiators and founders of the international Coordinating Council on Transsiberian Transportation (CCTT) registered in Moscow, and plays an important role as the West-European presence of an international network for the support of rail traffics between Europe and Asia. The joint endeavors of CCTT and GETO to back international traffic along the Eurasians landbridge with various initiatives have substantially contributed to the development of the traffics along this important rail corridor. On September 20 and 21, GETO is taking part in the 26th Plenary Session of CCTT to represent the interests of its members at this significant convention. Appropriately enough, the meeting is held in Beijing, China, hosted by China Railway Container Transport Co. Ltd., an affiliate of Chinese Railway. More than 200 delegates from 25 countries will attend; among them representatives of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federa- 6

7 MORE NEWS tion, representatives of the railway companies of the CIS, the Baltic states, Europe and Asia, delegates of major associations and organizations such as the Organization for the Collaboration of Railways (OSJD), the International Union of Railways (UIC), the International Railway Traffic Committee (CIT), the International Forwarders Association (FI- ATA) as well as national forwarders associations and leading transport, logistics, insurance and IT companies. Oleg Belozerov, the President of the Russian Railways OJSC and chairman of CCTT, will give the opening speech. In the course of the first morning, Hans Reinhard, President of GETO and Vice Chairman of CCTT, will give a talk, too. Why become a member? GETO bundles know-how and competence of leading operators and forwarders in the Eurasian railway transportation. Not only does it enable an active information exchange on current developments in this regard, it also facilitates common innovations and their implementation. Are you interested? Then just write a to info@geto.ch. 7

8 NEWS FROM THE RAILWAY MARKET Train connection Baku-Tiflis-Kars soon to be inaugurated According to different media, the railway connection Baku-Tiflis-Kars (BTK) is finally to be opened for traffic this coming October. Owing to problems with the tunnels and to landslides, the opening had to be postponed again and again. In the meantime though, first test trains have been run successfully. The BTK is a new, 830-kilometer corridor connecting Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, creating a new Silk Road connection between the booming markets of Asia and of Europe. The railway route begins on the coast of the Caspian Sea in Azerbaijan, then crosses the capital of Georgia and is routed on to Turkey where it is connected to the Turkish railway network. The idea of such a railway route bypassing Armenia probably goes back to 1993 when the connection Turkey-Armenia was closed owing to political conflicts. Also in view of the Russia sanctions, this southern route is highly welcome, too. According to estimates, in the initial phase there will be a handling capacity oy five million freight tons and one million passengers per year. As soon as the railway line is fully functional, the three countries involved aim to mutually profit from enhanced trade and economic relations and to win additional foreign direct foreign. In order to make active use of the BTK line, Turkey is going to open a logistics center in Kars next year, a 26.6 million dollar project. The terminal is to be constructed on a 300,000 square meter area. According to the Ministry of Transport, the logistics center will be linked to the railway line with a 16-kilometer connecting line. The agreement on the erection of the logistics center was signed in July, when Javid Gurbanov, Head of Azerbaijan Railways, visited Kars Province. The logistics hub is to handle 412,000 tons of freight per year. Eurasian rail cargo transport to cross Latvia more often Latvian Russian intergovernmental commission meeting agreed on the promotion of Eurasian cargo transport, including container transports from China, using Latvian and Russian infrastructure. Besides, the signing of a contract on direct international railway transport is planned before the end of During the meeting, Uldis Augulis, Minister of Transport of the Republic of Latvia, called Russia to use the ports of Latvia more actively for cargo transport. One of the priorities of the Latvian transport sector is the development of the Eurasian transport corridors and attraction of new cargoes to the transit corridor via Latvia. We look at any new partnership in the context of the entire region. Therefore, cooperation between Latvia and Asian countries goes hand in hand with cooperation between Latvia and other countries involved in the transit corridor, including Russia, Augulis said, emphasising that cooperation with partner countries is currently especially important for Latvia s cargo transport industry. Russia has always been a very important partner to Latvian Railways and the entire Latvian transit and logistics industry. Therefore, we appreciate the commission meeting after a four-year break and the agreements reached during this time. Holding the meeting at a political level confirms the interest of both countries and provides a kind of assurance for further cooperation in the field of transit, including by jointly developing the Eurasian transport corridors and promoting cross-border cargo transport. Edvīns Bērziņš, President of Latvian Railways accentuated. Active cooperation between both countries will be implemented in order to increase the volumes of cargo transport also within the North South Transport Corridor providing cargo flows from India to Europe. (Source: railwaypro.com) 8