ITJInternationalTransportJournal

SpecialsEastern Europe& Central Asia 23

Turkey &Greece 39

Transcontinental shiftNew piracy hot-spotoff West African coast 16

Continental prospectsWill European airlinessurvive in future? 21

Intercontinental shiftKim Pedersen of GeodisWilson in an Interview 32

35 · 36 | 30 August 2013www.transportjournal.com

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3International Transport Journal 35-36 2013 Contents

5 Editorial

7 People & Companies / Job Market

13 Shipping & Ports13 The WCI is on the rise15 Cooperation agreement in New Zealand19 ILO sets a milestone

21 Aviation21 Cutting emissions by cutting takeoff weight22 Shining a light on airfreight in Linz

23 Eastern Europe and Central Asia Special24 ART Logistics delivers luxury25 Container throughput booming in Novorossiysk26 Good marks from AsstrA for Poland / Czechia27 New automotive location for Gefco30 Georgia wants to become a transit corridor31 Colossal opportunities in Kazakhstan

32 Forwarding & Logistics35 New terminal for Swiss Post36 GLS expanding in Southeast Europe37 Austria Post in the pharma wholesale segment38 Agility is on course

39 Rail / Inland Waterways /Road Haulage40 New Hannibal shuttle train

41 Turkey and Greece Special43 Turkish logistics market in flux45 Turkish Cargo on course for growth48 Greek shipowners want to contribute more49 Japanese industrial giant active in Turkey50 Bulgaria and Turkey find a solution

51 Regional Focus51 Central Europe52 Nordic Countries / Baltic States / Western Europe

53 Miscellaneous /Masthead

54 A Time for Reflection /Advertisers’ Index

Eastern Europe & Central Asia 23

Turkey and Greece 41

Specials in this issue

Profits for terminals 13

Transporting containers is currently anything buta lucrative business for many shipping lines. Forcontainer terminals, in contrast, there probablyremains plenty of potential in the handling of thesteel boxes.

Where to from here for TIR? 23

The Russian customs authority has provision-ally extended the validity of the Carnet TIR tomid-September. If a suspension were really totake place, then Russia would lose an importantlogistics trump.

Bosphorus ups and down 41

The economic upswing in Turkey has lost a littlesteam and Greece is developing better thanexpected. The country is planning to open itstransport sector and has received some unex-pected support from its shipowners.

Cover: A truck Photo: thinkstock

Last year the sky seemed to be the limit

for growth in the logistic sector in Turkey,

with exports – especially to Arab coun-

tries – booming, impressive infrastruc-

ture plans – such as the Marmaray rail

tunnel under the Bosphorus – nearing

completion and American investment

and consulting firms – such as Colliers

and Jones Lang Lasalle – celebrating the

country as the up and coming logistics

market in Europe.

During the same period the future

of Greece was considered bleak, and

the privileged position of the Greek

merchant navy was strongly criticised

by international partners. Now prime

minister Antonis Samaras has come to

an agreement with the Union of Greek

Shipowners, which represents 441 ship-

ping companies, under which their

special tax status was maintained in ex-

change for voluntary increases in dues

(see page 48).

Projections and growth areas

Euphoria in Turkey has slowly given

way to a more realistic assessment of the

national economy. At the end of June

the government in Ankara presented its

growth projection of 5.5% per annum to

2018. Annual growth projections to 2013

had previously stood at 10%, but in 2012

itself growth only came in at 2.1%, ac-

cording to the Turkish statistical office.

The transport and communications sec-

tors were not unaffected, with the tem-

pestuous growth of 10.5% in 2011 shrink-

ing to 3.2% in the following year.

In the first half of 2013 heavy vehi-

cles, machinery and plant equipment re-

mained the engines of growth for Turk-

ish exports. Demand for iron and steel

as well as jewellery sank, with exports in

these sectors declining by 37%. Deliver-

ies to the EU in these sectors, on the other

hand, rose by 3.8%, to 41% of all Turkish

exports.Turkish logistics companies, such as

Ekol Logistics, traditionally focused on

the European market, continue to regis-

ter high turnover figures in their busi-

ness with Germany, for example. The

takeover of Mars Logistics, an Istanbul-

based transporter with a fleet of around

1,000 vehicles, by the Japanese multi-

national Hitachi in July proves that the

Turkish logistics sector continues to be

interesting.Greece has grown strongly to the end

of the first half of 2013. Observers consid-

ered the contraction of GDP by just 4.6%

vis-à-vis the previous year to be positively

low, and a reduction in the national budg-

et deficit by EUR 1.9 billion (or 1% of

GDP) was simultaneously achieved.

In the past year the Greek economy al-

so proved to be better than its reputation

in the export sector. With 8.8% annual

growth, results proved very respectable,

and a degree of market differentiation

was achieved. This was evidenced by the

fact that the decline in exports to EU

countries was more than compensated

for by improved sales to the USA, Russia,

Turkey and the Middle East.

Privatisation still on the agenda

Greece is also counting on liberalisation

of its transport sector. The newly-issued

road freight concessions came into opera-

tion on 30 June, the first round of the

tender for the sale of the Greek railways

Trainose is running till 16 September,

and the process of privatising two of the

country’s large port operators, in Thessa-

loniki (THPA) and Piraeus (PPA), is about

to begin. One of the companies interested

in an acquisition is the Chinese shipping

company Cosco, which already operates

a container terminal in Piraeus.Christian Doepgen

www.tuik.gov.tr

www.statistics.gr

Turkish boom and Greek bust both loose momentum

Joy and sorrow on the BosphorusSo far the boom that Turkey experienced in 2012 has not continued into 2013, as demand in the Near and Middle East declined by

nearly 10%, strongly affecting Turkey. Exports to European markets on the other hand picked up strongly. The recession in Greece,

on the other hand, has seemed to bottom out, and the country is benefiting from the growing support of its shipping companies.

Photo: thinkstock

TURKEY &

GREECE

The transport and communications sec-

tors were not unaffected, with the tem-

pestuous growth of 10.5% in 2011 shrink-

In the first half of 2013 heavy vehi-

cles, machinery and plant equipment re-

mained the engines of growth for Turk-

ish exports. Demand for iron and steel

as well as jewellery sank, with exports in

these sectors declining by 37%. Deliver-

ies to the EU in these sectors, on the other

hand, rose by 3.8%, to 41% of all Turkish

Turkish logistics companies, such as

Ekol Logistics, traditionally focused on

the European market, continue to regis-

ter high turnover figures in their busi-

ness with Germany, for example. The

take over of Mars Logistics, an Istanbul-

based transporter with a fleet of around

1,000 vehicles, by the Japanese multi-

national Hitachi in July proves that the

Turkish logistics sector continues to be

Greece has grown strongly to the end

of the first half of 2013. Observers consid-

ered the contraction of GDP by just 4.6%

vis-à-vis the previous year to be positively

low, and a reduction in the national budg-

et deficit by EUR 1.9 billion (or 1% of

GDP) was simultaneously achieved.

In the past year the Greek economy al-

so proved to be better than its reputation

in the export sector. With 8.8% annual

growth, results proved very respectable,

and a degree of market differentiation

was achieved. This was evidenced by the

fact that the decline in exports to EU

countries was more than compensated

for by improved sales to the USA, Russia,

Turkey and the Middle East.

Privatisation still on the agenda

Greece is also counting on liberalisation

of its transport sector. The newly-issued

road freight concessions came into opera-

tion on 30 June, the first round of the

tender for the sale of the Greek railways

Trainose is running till 16 September,

and the process of privatising two of the

country’s large port operators, in Thessa-

loniki (THPA) and Piraeus (PPA), is about

to begin. One of the companies interested

in an acquisition is the Chinese shipping

company Cosco, which already operates

a container terminal in Piraeus.Christian Doepgen

www.tuik.gov.tr

www.statistics.gr

Joy and sorrow on the BosphorusSo far the boom that Turkey experienced in 2012 has not continued into 2013, as demand in the Near and Middle East declined by

nearly 10%, strongly affecting Turkey. Exports to European markets on the other hand picked up strongly. The recession in Greece,

on the other hand, has seemed to bottom out, and the country is benefiting from the growing support of its shipping companies.

Photo: thinkstock

MAN Truck & Bus’ so-called consist-ently efficient tour 2013 has now arrivedin Russia, having covered more than90,000 km in Western Europe in 2011and South Africa in 2012. The commer-cial vehicle manufacturer is now touringthrough the European part of Russia.The road show started in the southernRussian town of Sochi, venue of the nextWinter Olympics, and proceeded to thecapital Moscow via the Ural metropolisof Yekaterinburg. A MAN TGS truckand a comparison model visited elevenstations between the Black Sea and theUral mountains, and were displayed tocustomers there. The 10,000 km journeyalso enabled the German company to geta picture of road conditions in Russia.Road congestion...Freight transportation is one of the big-gest challenges facing Russia, as routesoften cover thousands of kilometres, Mi-chael Otto told the German press agencydpa in Moscow. The chairman of thesupervisory board of the Otto Group, atrading and services company, reportedon 20 August that it was set to investEUR 50 million in Russia, above all indoubling the size of its existing logisticcentre in Tver, 170 km northwest of Mos-

cow. Otto complained that «things don’talways run smoothly with the Russianpost office.» Sometimes shipments tookseveral weeks, he said. «But of course thestate post office faces enormous logisticschallenges,» he conceded. Bureaucracy isalso an obstacle. «We’ve always been ableto cope, however. In an initial phase cus-toms clearance was incredibly tiresome,as our heavy goods vehicles were alwaysheld up at the border.»

...and bureaucratic backlogsThis could be repeated if the Russian cus-toms authorities were to suspend accept-ance of the TIR carnet. Russia’s federalcustoms service announced on its websiteearly in July that it planned to changethe conditions for the application of theTIR process on 14 August. These condi-tions were adopted in the Convention onthe International Transport of Goods in1975. They also describe the use of theTIR carnet, amongst other things. Thecustoms authorities claimed that pay-ment difficulties on the part of the na-tional association of international roadcarriers (Asmap) were responsible for thesuspension of the process. The Russianbody, which monitors the TIR systemin the country, denied these allegations

vigorously. Meanwhile, the acceptance ofthe TIR carnet at the country’s borderswas extended until 14 September.

Dormant potentialHomemade circumstances may have leadto this situation, such as the fact that Rus-sian GDP grew by just 1.8% in the firstfive months of this year, significantly lessthan in the preceding three years, whengrowth oscillated between 3.4 and 4.5%.Rosstat has predicted growth of 2.5% forthe whole year, however, a figure whichmany economies in Europe can onlydream of.The economy in Kazakhstan is setto be even stronger – the InternationalMonetary Fund predicts GDP growth of5.7% in the second largest country in theregion, which also did not experience arecession in 2009 (GDP +1.2%).

Andreas Haugwww.asmap.ru

Foreign trade may be weak, but long-term prospects are intactSome stumbling blocksWas this mere sabre-rattling in the summer lull? In any event, the validity of the TIR car-net for HGV cross-border traffic has been provisionally extended by the Russian customs.However, the giant country must take care not to play all of its logistical trump cards.

MAN was on the road in Russia in August,displaying its new tractors.

Phot

o:M

AN

Photo: thinkstock

EASTERN EUROPE &CENTRAL ASIA

5International Transport Journal 35-36 2013 Editorial

Dear readers,For many years now international capital has invested

occasionally gigantic sums of money in the so-called Bric

states – Brazil, Russia, India and China. Emerging markets

seemed to hold great promise from an economic point of

view. They offered high returns on investments, the promise

of new and virgin markets and seemingly unlimited pros-

pects for growth – also for logistics enterprises. It seemed as

if the future of many an undertaking was firmly chained to

the emerging economies, particularly when they were com-

pared to the frequently saturated industrialised countries of

Europe and North America. Read our Geodis Wilson inter-

view on this subject on pages 32-33.

But in the meantime the wind seems to have changed.

There would appear to be some rather large spanners in

the works of the growth engines in the Bric states, with the

capital invested there partially already moving on again, in

search of better returns. The Chinese economy is growing

more slowly than was hoped for, and exports are stagnant.

India, too, is currently experiencing an economic downturn,

and in Brazil the same scenario is looming, partly also be-

cause the prices paid for raw materials are in decline across

the world, which has a direct impact on the largest South

American economy. In Russia, too, GDP in the first five

months of 2013 grew by a «mere» 1.8% – substantially less

than in the last three years, when the rate

oscillated between the more satisfying

figures of 3.4% and 4.5% (see page 23).

The prices of shares traded on the

emerging economies’ exchanges

fell by the same amount in the

first half of 2013 as they rose by

in the second half of 2012.

The bottom line is that the

economic boom in the Bric

states is over – at least for the

time being.

Robert AltermattHead of forwarding & logistics

Piazza Galeazzo Alessi, 2/916128 Genoa - Italy

Phone: +39 010 5991.1Fax: +39 010 5991 230E-Mail: ymi@finsea.it

ymibookingexp@finsea.it

LIVORNO (OPERATION):Via Roma, 70 - 57126 LivornoPhone +39 0586 266 411Fax +39 0586 266 456E-Mail ymileg@finsea.it

LA SPEZIA (OPERATION):Via XXIV Maggio, 2619124 La SpeziaPhone +39 0187 021 161Fax +39 0187 021 170E-Mail ymilsp@finsea.it

NAPOLI: Via Melisurgo, 480133 NapoliPhone +39 081 551 2529Fax +39 081 551 9786E-Mail yminap@finsea.it

ST.

CLA

UD

IAC

ELL

A•

GE

Europe

News from Contship ItaliaThe directors of the Contship Italia grouphave appointed Thomas Eckelmann aschairman of the La Spezia container ter-minal, with Enrico Ravano retaining therole of group vice-president for adminis-tration, finance and subsidiaries. MicheleGiromini, general manager of the La Spezia containerterminal since 2009, is now its managing director. MarcoSimonetti, group vice-president for maritime containerterminals in charge of facilities in Gioia Tauro, Cagliari,La Spezia, Ravenna and Tangier, remains a director ofthe La Spezia facility. As a board member, he has as-sumed the role of vice-president. Franco Nicola Cupolowas promoted from general manager to managing direc-tor of the firm’s Cagliari terminal.

Denis Ilin to head ABCDenis Ilin was named executive president of AirBridge-Cargo Airlines at the beginning of August. Ilin spent thelast five years as the head of aviation of Basic Element,a Russian finance and industry holding. Prior to that,he held several top-level positions in the Volga-DneprGroup, including that of general director of ABC andsenior vice-president for strategy, marketing and sales.He played a key role in establishing the Volga-DneprGroup’s scheduled services. Ilin’s tasks include central-ising AirBridgeCargo’s global business management,amongst other duties.

C.H. Robinson focuses on EuropeC.H. Robinson has appointed Ivo Aris as director ofglobal forwarding in Europe. He is in charge of the globalforwarding division and its strategy. Aris held sales, op-erations and management positions at Road Air, whichwas acquired by the Rhenus Group in 2007. He becameRhenus’s country manager for air and ocean freight inthe Netherlands, was a member of the global air andocean management team and shouldered responsibilityfor several Rhenus Group companies. Aris is also chair-man of the Dutch airfreight forwarders’ association. Hereports to Stephane Rambaud, C.H. Robinson’s seniorvice-president of global forwarding. C.H. Robinson re-cently added Rotterdam and Istanbul to its Europeannetwork, expanding it to 51 offices on the continent,with more than 1,000 employees working there.

Air Serbia CEO appointedDane Kondic has been appointed chiefexecutive officer of Air Serbia. Kondic,who has dual Australian and Serbiancitizenship, will lead the airline, formerlyknown as JatAirways, once regulatory ap-proval for the re-launch of the carrier isgiven. Kondic gained his aviation indus-try experience with Malaysia Airlines andQantas, amongst others. Between August2012 and August 2013 he was Sabre AirlineSolutions’ regional director for SoutheastAsia. Prior to that he was commercial vice-

president in Asia at Abacus International. JatAirways,which will be rebranded as Air Serbia in October, re-cently sold 49% of its shares to the Abu Dhabi-basedEmirati airline Etihad Airways.

Michele GirominiPhoto: Contship

Dane KondicPhoto: Air Serbia

7International Transport Journal 35-36 2013 People & Companies

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Luis Simõesnames directorThe Portuguese logisticscompany Luis Simões hasappointed Luís Miguel daSilva e Freitas as directorof distribution. The movesimultaneously heralds Simões’ merging its Portugueseand Spanish distribution departments. Freitas was oneof the managers in charge of the Simões operations cen-tre in Carregado (Portugal) and was previously a projectmanager in the company’s financial department.

Change for Hansa Heavy LiftHansa Heavy Lift appointed board member Roger Iliffeas interim CEO with effect from 23 August, while itsearches for a replacement for Tomas Dyrbye, who hasleft the company. Canadian national Iliffe is senior vice-president of the US investment fund Oaktree CapitalManagement, the 100% owner of Hansa Heavy Lift.Oaktree has said that it will continue to make significantinvestments in the heavylift market and further expandHansa Heavy Lift’s f leet, with a focus on the oil and gassector, EPCs and other demanding engineering sectors.

Alliance for ship investmentsThe shipping lines E.R. Capital (Erck Rickmers) and theBernhard Schulte group have formed a joint ship invest-ment venture called Quayside Maritime Partners (QMP).The JV will be managed by Philipp Wünschmann andDietrich Schleicher. It will aim to take advantage of in-ternational overcapacities to purchase vessels at attrac-tive prices and sell them when the market improves. Thetwo firms manage about 800 vessels between them andemploy around 20,000 people. QMP’s first transactionconcerned a panamax containership. (nau)

Internal slution for Kuehne+NagelDetlef Trefzger is the new CEO of Kuehne+Nagel International. Trefzger joined K+N’sboard in March, as member for contractand integrated logistics, a charge that he willcontinue to hold. Trefzger was previously amember of the executive board of Schenker(2004 to 2012) in charge of contract logis-tics and supply chain management, and lat-terly also global air and ocean freight. Untilthe offer from Switzerland arrived, Trefzgerwas considered Schenker board chairmanThomas Lieb’s «crown prince».

Luís Miguel da Silva Photo: Luis Simões

Detlef TrefzgerPhoto: Schenker

8 People & Companies International Transport Journal 35-36 2013

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9International Transport Journal 35-36 2013 People & Companies

Berlin Brandenburg airportMatthias Platzeck, prime minister of the German state ofBrandenburg, resigned his chairmanship of the supervi-sory board of the firm Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg forpolitical reasons on 19 August. He will be replaced by hisdeputy, Klaus Wowereit, the mayor of Berlin. The headsof the two German federal states made the announce-ment at a board meeting of the operating company ofBerlin’s projected new airport. Platzeck had only justtaken over from Wowereit in January.

Africa

Emirates strengthened in DurbanEmirates SkyCargo has selected Kuben Pillay as the car-go manager of its operations in Durban (South Africa).Amongst others, Pillay gained experience in the air cargobusiness at King Shaka international airport in Durbanand at O. R. Tambo international airport in Johannes-burg. King Shaka, also known as La Mercy airport, wasopened for the football World Cup in 2010.

New vice-president for LISCRThe Liberian International Ship and Corporate Registry(LISCR), the world’s second largest registry that includesmore than 3,750 ships with a total of more than 133million grt (11% of the world’s ocean-going fleet), haspromoted Christian Mollitor to the newly-created posi-tion of vice-president.

Asia

Changes at ABC inJapan and KoreaNagakazu Sagara has joinedAirBridgeCargo Airlines asvice-president, for Japan andKorea. His predecessor, Katsu-hiko Sagami, will support himas consultant to the firm untilthe end of the year. Sagara formerly worked for JapanAirlines for decades, progressing from a cargo trafficmanager to senior vice-president for exports. In 2010,Sagara joined TAS Express, a Toyota affiliate, as execu-tive strategist, and in 2012 became deputy general man-ager of Mitsui-Soko Express (MSE), after the former wassold to the latter.

Nagakazu SagaraPhoto: ABC

Prüfung • Treuhand • Beratung

Kaderselektion

HUPAC ist der Pionier im kombinierten Verkehr Strasse/Schiene. Dank ihres intermodalen Netzwerks und deneigenen Ressourcen an Rollmaterial und Bahn-Terminalsist sie die Nummer zwei im europäischen Markt. DerHauptsitz und Arbeitsort ist in Chiasso. HUPAC hatNiederlassungen in Italien, Niederlande, Belgien, Deutsch-land und Russland. Zur Verstärkung der Geschäftsleitungsuchen wir fur HUPAC eine pragmatische, erfahrene,fuhrungs- und durchsetzungsstarke

Unternehmerpersönlichkeit alsMitglied der GLIhre Aufgabe: Direkt dem CEO unterstellt sind Sie nacheiner systematischen Einarbeitung verantwortlich fur dieUnternehmensentwicklung, erarbeiten Expansionsstrate-gien, optimieren die operativen Geschäftsprozesse undrichten das aktuelle Geschäftsmodell auf die verändertenMarktbedurfnisse aus. Neben der strategischen Markt-ausrichtung verantworten Sie den strategischen Einkauffur die gesamte Gruppe.

Ihr Profil: Sie verfugen uber eine mehrjährige, ausge-wiesene operative Fuhrungserfahrung im Transport-,Speditions- und Logistiksektor, haben sich betriebswirt-schaftlich oder in der Logistik weitergebildet und sindzwischen 35 und 45 Jahre alt. Ihre strategisch-konzeptio-nellen und analytischen Fähigkeiten erlauben Ihnen, sichrasch und systematisch in die verschiedenen Funktionender HUPAC und deren Fuhrung einzuarbeiten. Sie werdeninnerhalb der GL ein anerkanntes Mitglied, das das Teamwirkungsvoll ergänzt und bereichert. Ihre Auslanderfah-rung, Ihr Verhandlungsgeschick in Deutsch, Englisch undnach Möglichkeit Italienisch, Ihre Reisebereitschaft sowiedie Bereitschaft, ins Tessin umzuziehen sind weitere,wichtige Anforderungen.

Ihr nächster Schritt:Wenn Sie in dieser entwicklungs-fähigen Position eine längerfristige Herausforderungerkennen und Ihre berufliche Zukunft jetzt in die Handnehmen wollen, freut sich Daniel Bläsi, Direktwahl032 624 65 18, auf Ihren Anruf oder Ihre vollständigenBewerbungsunterlagen mit Foto.

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Americas

Crowley affiliate Jensen expandingJensen Maritime Consultants, a Seattle-based US navalarchitecture and marine engineering subsidiary of theCrowley Maritime Corporation, has employed eight newnaval architecture, marine engineering and administra-tive professionals for its Seattle, New Orleans and Jack-sonville offices. They will support Jensen’s productionand electrical engineering, as well as construction man-agement services, which were added to the its portfolioin 2012. Jensen’s owner, Crowley Maritime, runs a fleetof 200 vessels and has around 5,300 employees.

New Geodis Wilson head in USAMichael Greco has been named as the new MD of theGeodis Wilson group in the USA. He will report to JohnGallahan, regional director for the USA. Greco movedto Geodis from Panalpina in New York, where he was adivisional head and VP. The appointment signals GeodisWilson’s ambitions in the USA. See also our interviewwith Geodis Wilson’s Kim Pedersen on pages 32-33).

Johnson to stayBill Johnson, who hadsought to become CEO ofBeacon council, the eco-nomic development agencyof the county of Miami-Dade FL, will remain at thehead of the port of MiamiFL (USA). Larry K. Wil-liams was chosen for the

Beacon job. Johnson has been port director for twelveyears, and launched important projects scheduled toopen when the expanded Panama Canal does in 2014.They include the re-introduction of on-dock railfreightservices and the deepening of the port’s channel to 50 ft.PortMiami handles approximately 1 million teu a year.

UTi Americas sales bossUTi Worldwide has appointed Mike Valentine as itsregional sales VP for the Americas. He reports to EdFeitzinger, executive VP in charge of global operations.Valentine, who joined UTi in 2009, was named regionalVP for automotive activities in the Americas in 2012.Valentine will lead the firm’s integrated forwarding, con-tract logistics and distribution sales force.

Barack Obama, Bill JohnsonPhoto: Miami-Dade County

10 People & Companies International Transport Journal 35-36 2013

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Change of address and name

Anniversa

Birthday partyProfessor Armin Schwolgin,the head of the forwarding,transportation and logisticscourse at Lörrach’s Baden-Württemberg cooperative stateuniversity celebrated his 60th birthday with universitycolleagues and the Lörrach logistics forum. Besides hostHerbert Boll, of Streck Transport, Karlhuber Dischinger,Axel Salzmann, of Kravag, and Professor Egon Trumpall proposed a toast.

Obituary

Doyen passes awayDavid Cheslin, the founder and managingdirector of London-based Dunelm PublicRelations, passed away on 5 August. Fromthe 1970s onwards Cheslin, a pioneer ofcommunications in the shipping industry,worked as a journalist, and then set up aPR agency for the shipping industry in1981. Dunelm also organised conferencesand collaborated with the shipping linesEvergreen and Rickmers, amongst others,as well as the P&I Club in the UnitedKingdom. In 2004 he founded Coastlink,through which he also served the shortseasegment. A memorial service in his honour will be heldin London on Friday 27 September at 2 pm in St MaryAbchurch, in Abchurch Lane, London EC4.

Armin Schwolgin Photo: Juri Junkov

David CheslinPhoto: Dunelm Public Relations

CommentHow many legacy carriersdoes a country need?

The merger of American Airlines andUS Airways (see ITJ 9-10/2013, page40), which has been in the pipeline formonths now, seemed to be home anddry not so long ago. Even the EuropeanCommission, the continent’s highest com-petition authority, said at the beginningof August that – in the light of the compet-itive dynamic in transatlantic air traffic– it had no objections to the move. But amere ten days after getting the green lightfrom Brussels it was none other than the US departmentof justice (together with seven attorney generals) that fileda lawsuit against the plans on 13 August. The creation ofthe USA’s (and the world’s) largest airline was once againon thin ice. It is the largest airline by passengers, but notby freight carried. The «New American» cargo segmentwould nevertheless not be a quantité negligéable. If youadd American Airlines’ and US Airways’ 2012 freightperformance (1.6 + 0.5 billion tkm = 2.1 billion tkm),then the result places the new entity third behind United(3.6 billion tkm) and Delta (3.5 billion tkm). Of course,they also attained their places thanks to mergers (in 2010,United with Continental and Delta with Northwest).

But Washington has now put a stop to industryconsolidation – for a change, now that six of the ten UScarriers that operated international f lights in 1938 havedisappeared from the skies. They are Braniff (1982), East-ern and PanAm (bankrupt in 1991), Western (mergedwith Northwest 23 years before Delta), TWA (acquiredby American in 2001). The lawsuit stated that additionalbenefits for clients were not immediately apparent, air-ports would have to fear for their status as hubs and themerger candidates had shown that they could also survivealone. But how long for?

A French government body has looked further intothe future than is usually the case for political decisions.You can read about its report on page 21. It says that newbusiness models (such as LCCs) and Chinese and PersianGulf competitors are putting so much pressure on Europe’shistoric airlines that only the three big European play-ers – AF-KLM, IAG and Lufthansa – may be left in themarket in 20 years. If at all, I might add...

AndreasHaug

ITJ editor

11International Transport Journal 35-36 2013 People & Companies

Zürich · Basel · St. Gallen

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Many container terminals were pleasedto present positive H1 figures upon com-pletion of the first half of the year, re-f lecting the fact that they were able tohandle greater volumes in comparison tothe same period last year (see also pages15 and 19). The English analyst Drewrybelieves that this trend is set to continue.

Drewry’s container analysis team washappy to note a profitable and dynamicbusiness environment in its latest reporton the state of the international containerterminal industry. The sector neverthe-less faces two substantial challenges, theanalysts believe: growing ship sizes, andincreasing demand for containers.

There is no arguing with the fact,however, that growth will not be of theilk seen in the boom years of the 1990sas well as the noughties. Drewry’s pre-diction is that it will still not be bad,though. The company has projected an-nual growth of a little over 5% through to2017. This would bring global demand for

containers in 2017 to around 800 millionteu. The 186 million teu which this analy-sis sees as being additionally demandedglobally in future corresponds roughlyto the throughput of all Chinese portstogether last year. Or, to put it slightlydifferently, to more than the combinedannual throughput registered in Europe,the Middle East and the USA last year.

Small cause, great effectHandling the steel boxes is a huge busi-ness. There are nigh-on 1,300 containerterminals worldwide, but this fact is fre-quently overlooked, as their locationsare so highly fragmented, geographicallyspeaking.

If a terminal registers even a small per-centage rise in demand, this could triggera very substantial increase in absolute fig-ures. Singapore or Shanghai (China), forexample, could handle almost 10millionteu more by 2017, even if their growthfigures were only average by global stand-

ards. Or in other words, with just a smallimprovement in percentage terms theycould improve their throughput by morethan the annual volume of goods han-dled in the UK, India or Brazil.

Double the capacityShip sizes are simultaneously increasingrapidly. The capacities of the world’s larg-est containerships have quadrupled since1992. The volume of goods carried in theAsia–Europe trade lane has doubled inthe last ten years. This development trig-gered the cascading of larger ships intosecondary trade lanes.

The new P3 operational alliance be-tween Maersk Line, MSC and CMACGM is expected to once more give thistrend a strong impetus in the near future,as the P3 partnership is due to deploy atleast 20 triple E ships in the next fewyears. This means that ports around theworld have to modernise their infrastruc-ture in order to be able to handle the big-ger vessels.

avwww.drewry.co.uk

The development of throughput volumes

800 million teu a year –good prospects for terminalsPositive market predictions for the container shipping industry are rare these days. Whilst

there is no end to lines’ overcapacities on the horizon, container terminal analysts expect

growing demand. They also face some challenges, however.

Larger ships require larger cranes – quite achallenge for many a terminal.

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Hopes pinned on the US peak seasonDrewry Shipping Consultants and theCleartrade Exchange’s World ContainerIndex (WCI) reported a rates rise of justunder 15% at the beginning of August, incomparison with the previous month. Thereason can be found in the rate increasesimplemented by most of the large linershipping companies from the beginningof August (see ITJ 27-30/2013, page13).Analysts do not believe that this level willbe maintained, however, as volumes arecurrently not as high as is usually the casein the peak season. Freight volumes in theMediterranean region in particular havealready started to decline again.

Transpacific rates are also under in-creasing pressure. The analyst Alphalinerhas said that the price for the transporta-tion of a 40 ft container from Shanghai

to the US west coast stood at USD1,941in mid-August, in comparison withUSD2,680 at the same time last year. Aplanned peak season surcharge could not

be implemented in this trade so far, butmay follow in September. av

www.drewry.co.ukwww.alphaliner.com

World Container Index – Shanghai–Rotterdam container freight rates (USD/feu)

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2012 2013

13International Transport Journal 35-36 2013 Shipping & Ports

IF there Is water,we’ll be there.

15International Transport Journal 35-36 2013 Shipping & Ports

The port of Tauranga, located on thenorthern coast of New Zealand’s NorthIsland, is set to provide substantial as-sistance to the port of Timaru, on theeast coast of the South Island. The ob-jective of the exercise is to strengthenTimaru’s position as a marshalling pointfor South Island cargo. Tauranga handledmore boxes than the North Island’s portof Auckland for the first time last year,when its throughput stood at roughly563,000 teu. The new leader is now set toinvest almost EUR13 million in a newstrategic alliance. This sum will enable itto acquire a 50% shareholding in PrimePorts, the operator of the Timaru hub,lease PrimePort’s container terminal forup to 35 years and acquire the containerterminal’s operating assets. The port ofTauranga will set up a wholly-owned sub-

sidiary, Timaru ContainerTerminal Limited, to op-erate the facility. Thetransaction is subject toa Timaru district councilpublic consultation.

The partners said thatthey expect their collabo-ration efforts to hasten theconsolidation of freightroutes in New Zealand,by facilitating a more extensive scheduleof coastal shipping and railway options.The number of vessels calling directly atSouth Island ports has declined recently,as shipping lines have increasingly ration-alised their services.

New Zealand’s economy is now do-ing relatively well. Though the countryentered a recession in 2009, as a result

of the economic downturn that startedin 2008, it again registered steady growthfrom 2010 onwards, with the improve-ment registering at 3% in 2012. Exportsaccount for about 30% of GDP. Milkand dairy products, above all, as well asmeat and timber, are exported, mainly toAustralia, China and the USA. av

www.port-tauranga.co.nz

New Zealand islands move a little closer together

A strategic North-South alliance

Timaru (pictured) is set to benefit from Tauranga’s experience.

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Hamburg benefits from Baltic servicesThe port of Hamburg is once again looking up. Germany’s larg-est gateway registered a total throughput of 68.1million t in thefirst six months of 2013, a 3.5% rise compared to the like-for-like period last year. The container handling that predominatesin the universal port of Hamburg accounted for 46.5million tthereof. The 4.5million teu turned around represented a 2.1%improvement in the period under review. The satisfying con-tainer throughput was attributed to 2.6% growth in exports,bringing the total figure for the segment to 2.2million teu. Im-ports rose by 1.7% to 2.3million teu. The throughput of loadedcontainers, which came in at 3.9million teu, was 2.4% higherthan in the same period last year. The handling of empty con-tainers, which fell for the past two years in Hamburg, stabilisedat 600,000 teu, or 0.2% up.

These results show that Hamburg has successfully beaten thetrend registered in the largest seaports in the northern Europeanrange. They reported average downturns of 0.4% in throughputand 1.2% in the number of boxes. The positive recent develop-ments in Hamburg’s Baltic Sea container services contributedsubstantially to these developments. A total of 1.1million teuwere transported between Hamburg and the Baltic Sea regionin H1, a plus of 8%. Seven new feeder services to and from theGerman hub now offer additional capacities, bringing the rangeof liner services to and from the Baltic Sea to more than 150feeder sailings a week. av

www.hafen-hamburg.de

Surprising second quarter resultsFor some shipping lines there might be a light at the end ofthe tunnel at the conclusion of the second quarter of the cur-rent year. Market leader Maersk Line improved its profits fromUSD227million in Q2/2012 to USD439million at the end ofthe same quarter this year. The corporation said that the resultcould be attributed to lower bunker prices and vessel networkefficiencies. Whilst the line’s volumes rose by 2.1% its averagefreight rate fell by 13.1%.

The USD 146 million loss reported by APL, the containertransport division of the Singaporean enterprise NOL may notlook very impressive, but the corporation was at least able toimprove the negative result registered in the like-for-like periodlast year by 39%.

Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd group, in contrast, returned to theblack in the second quarter of the current financial year. Itreported a group profit of EUR20.9million for the monthsApril to June 2013. It had made a loss of EUR7.3million in thesame quarter of 2012. The operating result of EUR66.7millionwas more than twice as high as last year’s EUR30.8million.Although intense competition in the industry led to unsatisfac-tory rate levels, substantial cuts and a slight drop in the bunkerconsumption price were the main factors underlying the positivenet result. av

www.maersk.comwww.nol.com.sg

www.hapag-lloyd.com

Container handling in New Zealand takes place mainly on the North

Island. A new deal between the North Island’s port of Tauranga and the

South Island’s port of Timaru is now set to change this state of affairs.

16 Shipping & Ports International Transport Journal 35-36 2013

At the end of last year it seemed as if theoverall situation for international ship-ping had become less tense. The lull inpiracy around the Horn of Africa wasjust a short breather, however. In recentmonths the zone around the Gulf ofGuinea has increasingly become a keyfocus of activity.

The International Maritime Bureau(IMB) registered a total of 31 attacks inand around the Gulf of Guinea in thefirst six months of this year. Addition-ally, the area in which pirates operate isexpanding. «We have noticed a worryingtrend, namely that crew members arenow also being kidnapped far beyond the

territorial waters of coastal states in theGulf of Guinea,» IMB director PottengalMukundan says.

More ships in their sightIn this region pirates generally use smallerships for their attacks, units which weredesigned as support vessels for offshoreships. The attackers take control of thesesmall vessels and use them to attack tank-ers, as well as other cargo ships, such ascontainerships or bulk freighters. A totalof 56 sailors have been taken hostage sofar this year. «However, it continues tobe the case that only a small fraction of

the attacks in this region are reported,»Mukundan continued. «The authoritiesare thus not in a position to react appro-priately, and other ships in the region aresimultaneously not aware of the actual ex-tent of the danger.» The majority of theraids in West Africa, 22 of the 31 attacksin the region, took place off the coast ofoil-rich Nigeria.

Code of conduct for the regionThe affected countries in West Africaurgently want to bring the situation offtheir coasts under control. In June 201322 West and Central African states issued

IMB warns of growing danger in West Africa

«A worrying trend»The presence of the EU’s mission Atalanta and the use of private security guards on board ships sailing along the east coast of Africa

are proving to be effective measures against piracy. The number of attacks in the Gulf of Guinea, on the other hand, is rapidly growing.

One problem in combatting piracy is that only a few of the incidents in this region are reported.

a code of conduct, in which rules regarding the suppres-sion of piracy and armed robbery aboard ships are laidout. They also opened a coordination centre in Yaoundé(Cameroon). The group of states concerned said that thedeployment of more marine forces in the region wouldbe a more effective short-term option, however.

Tension abating in SomaliaThe situation off the coast of Somalia is quite the oppo-site. With just six reported attacks this year, the numberis lower than at any time since 2006. Two of the attacksled to ships being hijacked. Marines were able to recap-ture the hijacked vessels, however. At the end of June,Somali pirates held a total of 57 crew members hostageon four ships. The whereabouts of eleven other sailorswho had been kidnapped in 2010 is still unknown at thetime of going to press, however.

In the first half of 2013 the IMB registered a total of138 attacks worldwide. The figure for the same period inthe previous year, in comparison, was 177. The numberof kidnapped sailors also came down substantially, from334 in the first half of 2012 to 127 mariners abductedso far this year.

Anti-piracy measures having an effectAccording to the IMB the reason for the decline in pi-racy is the presence of international marine units in EastAfrica, as well as the security measures being taken bythe shipping lines to protect their ships, including thedeployment of private armed security guards on boardvessels.

«International marine units continue to play animportant role in keeping the danger under control,»Mukundan explains. The European Union Naval ForceSomalia Operation Atalanta has been actively participat-ing in efforts to combat piracy in the region since 2008.Operation Atalanta, which takes its name from a Greekgoddess of the hunt, is the first marine operation everundertaken by the EU.

The deployment of private security guards, on theother hand, remains controversial, and the fear of rogueelements remains high. To deal with this danger the

The number of incidents of piracy may be declining in East Africa, but the situationin the Gulf of Guinea has deteriorated.

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International Organization for Standardization (ISO) developed guide-lines for private security service providers aboard cargo ships last year.

In June this year a number of companies began participating in a vol-untary audit programme. In May the EU also announced a further EUR37 million in support for its regional maritime security programme(Mase), to fight piracy and promote maritime security. The funds willgo into the further development of legal systems and the enforcementof justice in the region and support the prosecution of pirates.

Antje Vereggewww.icc-ccs.org/icc/imb

Increased security measuresInternational shipping not only faces the threat of pi-racy, but simultaneously also continues to be exposedto the potential threat of terrorist attacks, mainly fromal-Qaeda or its splinter groups. At the beginning ofAugust the Yemeni government announced that it hadpreempted an attack by said network on various targets,including an oil terminal in Mina al-Dhaba, east of Aden(Yemen). There is some dispute concerning how seriousthe threat actually was. After an Interpol alert issued atthe same time, Malta recently increased security at itsports and airports, in order to prevent an attack possiblybeing planned by al-Qaeda. av

17International Transport Journal 35-36 2013 Shipping & Ports

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19International Transport Journal 35-36 2013 Shipping & Ports

20 August this year was an importantday for international maritime shipping.With the entry into force of the MaritimeLabour Convention 2006 (MLC) for the30 states that had ratified it by 20 August2012, a new bill of fundamental rights forseafarers became binding internationallaw on that date this year.

«This marks the beginning of a new erafor the world’s 1.5 million seafarers,» saysGuy Rider, the ILO’s director general. Inaddition, the new standard is expected togive rise to fairer competitive conditionsbetween shipping lines around the world.The so-called race to the bottom – which,according to the ILO, caused workingconditions on international freighters tocontinue to plummet dramatically in therecent past – is now expected to come toan end.

The MLC covers almost every aspectof the working environment, includingthe work itself, and food and lodgingon board a ship. Employment contractconditions are now also regulated, forexample. Requirements regarding medi-cal care, occupational health and socialsecurity are also codified in the MLC.The law augments key conventions ofthe International Maritime Organiza-tion (IMO) and consolidates or updates36 treaties and several ILO recommenda-tions and protocols.

A total of 45 ILO member states haveratified the law in the meantime, withGermany also adding its signature re-cently. These countries represent more

than 70% of the global gross tonnage.Participating countries include importantflag states such as the Marshall Islands,Singapore, Liberia and Cyprus, amongstothers. In addition the Philippines, homecountry to a third of all crew memberswhen they are not at sea, is a signatory.

Scope extends to non-signatories tooEven ships from flag states that have notratified the MLC must adhere to the con-vention’s requirements once they enter aport of a state which has ratified the con-vention. Here, state authorities are enti-tled to carry out checks on board shipsto see whether MLC standards are beingmet. If this is not the case, the authoritiescan detain the ship. Thus the scope ofthe law extends beyond the 45 ratifyingcountries to other flag states.

To call the new ILO law a milestone iscertainly no exaggeration. There is stillone serious problem, however – not allseafarers have so far been informed abouttheir additional rights. Students of ship-ping and chartering at Bremen’s univer-sity of the applied sciences found in a sur-vey conducted in six international portsthat only 16% of 116 seafarers questionedfelt that they were fully informed aboutthe MLC.

Even if the study only portrays asnapshot of the situation in the ship-ping industry, it nevertheless illustratesthat much educational work remains tobe done before the seafarers’ charter offundamental rights can fully unfold itseffect. Antje Veregge

www.ilo.orgwww.hs-bremen.de

A bill of rights for seafarers

Better working conditions on boardThe International Labour Organization’s new minimum standards regarding the conditions of seafarers on board entered into effect

recently. The ILO is optimistic that the 1.5 million seafarers worldwide can now insist on compliance with their rights. It is, however,

unclear how many of them effectively know about this new achievement.

The new MLC 2006 is also expected to make competition between shipping lines fairer.

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In briefGrowth in Dunkirk. The French North Seaport of Dunkirk handled 9% more loadedcontainers in the first six months of 2013 thanin the same period of the previous year. Thenumber of containership calls rose by 7% inthe period under review. The port authoritiessaid that the favourable figures could primarilybe ascribed to additional scheduled shortseaservices. www.dunkerque-port.fr

Green power in Hamburg. Eurogate hasstarted operating its own wind turbine at itsHamburg container terminal. The new 200 mturbine with its 59 m rotor blades is Hamburg’stallest such wind generator. It is expectedto provide between 25 and 50% of the totalenergy requirements of the facility. The equip-ment is expected to save approximately 4,600 tof CO2 a year. www.eurogate.de

Positive trend in Long Beach. The Califor-nian port of Long Beach reported 15.7% moreimports, 9.5% more exports and 12% moreempties in the first seven months of 2013,compared to the same period in 2012. A portspokesperson said that these improvementswere primarily due to the fact that larger shipshave tended to call at the port more frequentlyrecently. www.polb.com

21International Transport Journal 35-36 2013 Aviation

Jean Pisani-Ferry, the commissioner gen-eral of France’s Commissariat général àla stratégie et à la prospective (office ofthe general commissioner for strategy andfuture studies CGSP), which succeededthe Centre d’analyse stratégique (CAS) inApril 2013, summarises the current chal-lenges facing large European airlines asfollows.• As a result of the effects of globalisation

and the rising aspirations of some emerg-ing markets, the regulatory framework isin the midst of a modification process.

• Competition is increasing dramaticallyon every route.

• The tariff structure integrates externalenvironmental costs, and the tax bur-den weighs ever more heavily on com-pany decisions.

• Financing needs are significant in thiscapital-intensive sector, in which anydelay in fleet modernisation reduces anairline’s ability to compete.

Nightmares and solutionsIn its report, entitled «Are European air-lines mortal?», the commission did notexclude the fate that even befell airlinessuch as Swissair, which was believed tohave solid foundations. Three countries– France, Germany, and the United King-dom – have so far been able to preservetheir historical air carriers – Air France,Lufthansa and British Airways. Each car-rier has grown stronger and entered intoalliances with partners from around theworld. Financial difficulties are neverthe-less also an undeniable part of operations.

«The role of governments,» according tothe strategy council, «is not to limit com-petition in order to protect existing air-lines.» They do need to take care that theconditions of competition are fair, how-ever, both within European airspace andbetween European and non-Europeancompanies. Thus the CGSP recommends• that the fees and taxes due from Euro-

pean airlines are not further increased,• that a greater degree of fairness should

rule competition, and• that the risks and opportunities of the

general and systematic opening of theEuropean long-haul market be analysedmarket for market before any negotia-tions on traffic rights are entered into.

Andreas Haugwww.strategie.gouv.fr

French government authority questions European airlines’ ability to survive

The limits of liberalisationThirty years ago, every European country took pride in having its own flag carrier. Following the waves of privatisation and liberalisa-

tion that sloshed across the Atlantic from the USA, many illustrious representatives have been washed away and new providers have

appeared in the market. The future is more uncertain than ever. What will European airspace look like in 20 years?

An international player at any price: Olympic Airlines was absorbed into Olmypic Air in 2009. National trauma: Swissair was grounded in 2001.

Dutch netting reduces CO2 emissionsAir France-KLM-Martinair Cargo hasstarted using unique airfreight netting,thereby reducing its annual emissions ofcarbon dioxide. The all-cargo divisionhas cut its annual kerosene consumptionby 800 l, by replacing some conventionalpallet netting made of PET fibres withlightweight netting weighing approxi-mately half as much – only about 9 kgper net. The move has enabled it to cutits CO2 emissions by 2.5 t a year.

The first nets of this type were deliv-ered to Amsterdam on 9 July. They aremade of a synthetic chemical fibre basedon polyethylene with ultra-high molecu-lar weight (UHMW-PE). The fibres are

manufactured by the Dutch companyDSM, under the brand name Dyneema,and the netting is produced by AmsafeBridport, a British specialist for safetytechnologies in air transport. Air France-KLM-Martinair Cargo will be the firstlarge airfreight group to successivelyequip its entire freight business with thenew airfreight netting.

«We’re very proud to be the first largeair-cargo service provider to introducethis ultralight Dyneema netting to opera-tions,» KLM’s CEO Camiel Eurlings saidwhen attending the delivery of the firstnets. «Our efforts to reduce the impactof our activities on the environment have

been publicly recognised. For the eighthyear in a row we have led the field of air-lines listed in Dow Jones’ sustainabilityindex.» www.afklcargo.com

www.dyneema.com; www.amsafe.biz

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KLM CEO Camiel Eurlings inspectingthe unique new nets.

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22 Aviation International Transport Journal 35-36 2013

A new large scanner that carries out se-curity checks on airfreight consignmentsentered full operations in the cargo di-vision of Linz airport (Austria) recently.The new piece of equipment can carryout security checks on pallets and cargounits up to 1.7m high, 10m long andweighing up to 2 t. Modern technologyenables staff to inspect cargo from vari-ous points of view in a single process.

Short processing times and the con-comitant optimisation of handling pro-cedures are the substantial advantagesthat the new equipment offers. DietmarSchram, the head of freight activities atthe airport, told the media that «flexibil-ity and rapid processing are important forour customers, and it is precisely thesequalities that we offer them, thanks to thenew scanner. It augments our two existingscanners perfectly and puts us in a posi-tion to carry out the necessary security

checks even more efficiently than waspreviously the case. This not only savestime, but also quite a bit of money.»

The centre’s operator will also offer itssecurity services to external customerswho do not have any facilities of theirown – as is foreseen in the framework ofnew legal regulations concerning securitychecks on airfreight consignments. Thisoption is already used by clients, as is con-firmed by Christian Hangl, DHL GlobalForwarding Austria’s head of airfreight inLinz.

«Linz airport has lived up to its reputa-tion for professionalism. There have beenno delays in handling at the airport orhurdles to the collaboration with airlinesin Linz from the first day that the newordinance – which resulted in a screeningprocess for so-called unknown shippers –entered into force,» Hangl said.

www.linz-airport.com

Here’s looking through you, boxes

Linz has improved airport security by investing substantially in a new freight scanner.

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Berlin airport opens ... a new cargo centreAn aeroplane flying for UPS and ownedby the Basel-based Swiss freighter op-erator Farnair, a logistics and expressspecialist, transported the first cargo toGermany’s Berlin Brandenburg airporton 1 August. The ATR72F took offfrom Cologne/Bonn airport and landedon time in Berlin early in the morning.The hub’s cargo centre, which had beeninaugurated four weeks previously, canhandle around 100,000 t of freight annu-ally. It also has a separate direct accessto the apron. Besides UPS and FedEx,airlines that carry belly-hold cargo willbe the first users of the facility. The first

tenants in the complex, which is oper-ated by the company Air Cargo CenterBerlin, include Air Logistics (the freightsales department of Qatar Airways) thefreight forwarder Müller & Partner andthe freight handler Wisag Cargo Service.

Excellent freight volume growth in Ber-lin continues. The Tegel and Schönefeldhubs registered an 8.7% improvement inJuly in comparison with the like-for-likemonth last year, bringing the figure to3,133 t. The date for the opening of thenew airport – in phases or all at once – isstill shrouded in mystery, however. ah

www.berlin-airport.de

In briefReturn. Air India returned to Australia 16years after it suspended links to the fifthcontinent. The Indian flag carrier planned toresume a service from New Delhi via Sydneyto Melbourne and back four times a weekon 29 August. A thrice-weekly link connect-ing the two Australian cities to the Indiancapital in the opposite order was due tostart the following day. Boeing B787s will bedeployed on the routes. www.airindia.com

Second – part I. Japan Airlines (JAL) is setto become the second operator after Air In-dia to fly Dreamliners to and from Australia.It is planning to start a Tokyo Narita–Sydneylink on 1 December, with a JAL B787 serviceto Bangkok (Thailand) beginning on the fol-lowing day. www.cargo.jal.co.jp

Sweet and sour. The budget carrier AirA-sia Japan is being rebranded Vanilla Air, itwas announced in Tokyo this week. AirAsiaJapan was the result of a merger last Octo-ber between Malaysia’s AirAsia and Japan’sAll Nippon Airways (ANA). The cooperationfell apart in June, however, and the formerJV went fully to ANA. The new brand is setto take off in December. AirAsia also offersbelly-hold capacities on its Airbus A330-300s (10 t) and A320-200s (2.5 t).

www.ana.co.jp

Second – part II. Cathay Pacific recentlyannounced the start of a full-freighter con-nection linking Hong Kong and Guadalajara(see also ITJ 31-34/2013, page 31). Before itcould start, however, the second-largest cityin Mexico saw the landing of an aeroplaneflying the same route on 21 August, butoperated by another Asian airline – namelyKorean Air Cargo. The latter’s offering seesa Boeing B747-400F heading for the CentralAmerican country twice a week, with astopover in Dallas TX (USA) on the schedule.

cargo.koreanair.com

First. 341,000 t of airfreight were handledat the world’s leading cargo hub Hong Kongin July, 1.9% more than in July 2012. The in-crease was partially owed to a 5% increasein export volumes, driven by success to andfrom North America, amongst other places.

www.hongkongairport.com

Re-opened. Jomo Kenyatta airport in theKenyan capital Nairobi, large parts of whichwere destroyed by fire on 7 August, wasonce again operating at 100% capacity from19 August, with services having successivelybeen reinstated. www.kaa.go.ke

MAN Truck & Bus’ so-called consist-ently efficient tour 2013 has now arrivedin Russia, having covered more than90,000 km in Western Europe in 2011and South Africa in 2012. The commer-cial vehicle manufacturer is now touringthrough the European part of Russia.The road show started in the southernRussian town of Sochi, venue of the nextWinter Olympics, and proceeded to thecapital Moscow via the Ural metropolisof Yekaterinburg. A MAN TGS truckand a comparison model visited elevenstations between the Black Sea and theUral mountains, and were displayed tocustomers there. The 10,000 km journeyalso enabled the German company to geta picture of road conditions in Russia.

Road congestion...Freight transportation is one of the big-gest challenges facing Russia, as routesoften cover thousands of kilometres, Mi-chael Otto told the German press agencydpa in Moscow. The chairman of thesupervisory board of the Otto Group, atrading and services company, reportedon 20 August that it was set to investEUR 50 million in Russia, above all indoubling the size of its existing logisticcentre in Tver, 170 km northwest of Mos-

cow. Otto complained that «things don’talways run smoothly with the Russianpost office.» Sometimes shipments tookseveral weeks, he said. «But of course thestate post office faces enormous logisticschallenges,» he conceded. Bureaucracy isalso an obstacle. «We’ve always been ableto cope, however. In an initial phase cus-toms clearance was incredibly tiresome,as our heavy goods vehicles were alwaysheld up at the border.»

...and bureaucratic backlogsThis could be repeated if the Russian cus-toms authorities were to suspend accept-ance of the TIR carnet. Russia’s federalcustoms service announced on its websiteearly in July that it planned to changethe conditions for the application of theTIR process on 14 August. These condi-tions were adopted in the Convention onthe International Transport of Goods in1975. They also describe the use of theTIR carnet, amongst other things. Thecustoms authorities claimed that pay-ment difficulties on the part of the na-tional association of international roadcarriers (Asmap) were responsible for thesuspension of the process. The Russianbody, which monitors the TIR systemin the country, denied these allegations

vigorously. Meanwhile, the acceptance ofthe TIR carnet at the country’s borderswas extended until 14 September.

Dormant potentialHomemade circumstances may have leadto this situation, such as the fact that Rus-sian GDP grew by just 1.8% in the firstfive months of this year, significantly lessthan in the preceding three years, whengrowth oscillated between 3.4 and 4.5%.Rosstat has predicted growth of 2.5% forthe whole year, however, a figure whichmany economies in Europe can onlydream of.

The economy in Kazakhstan is setto be even stronger – the InternationalMonetary Fund predicts GDP growth of5.7% in the second largest country in theregion, which also did not experience arecession in 2009 (GDP +1.2%).

Andreas Haugwww.asmap.ru

Foreign trade may be weak, but long-term prospects are intact

Some stumbling blocksWas this mere sabre-rattling in the summer lull? In any event, the validity of the TIR car-

net for HGV cross-border traffic has been provisionally extended by the Russian customs.

However, the giant country must take care not to play all of its logistical trump cards.

MAN was on the road in Russia in August,displaying its new tractors.

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CENTRAL ASIA

24 Eastern Europe and Central Asia Special International Transport Journal 35-36 2013

The country’s logistics sector is developing as rapidlyas Kazakhstan’s imports, which grew by 21% last year.A.R.T. Logistics is well-known as a LTL and container lo-gistics specialist, and last year we introduced a new mul-timodal freight service, connecting Singapore, Malaysia,Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand with Kazakhstan andCentral Asia. Cargo is shipped from regional ports, androuted through China by rail, from the northeasternport of Lianyungang to Dostyk, the Kazakh border,and then to Almaty, as well as onwards to Uzbekistan,Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan. Our second new link is anairfreight service carrying imported European fashionproducts and luxury goods to Kazakhstan, for whichwe’ve also designed and implemented a unique localhandling and document formalisation option.

How big is the Kazakh luxury goods segment?The local luxury goods market is worth around USD900million annually – and its growing strongly. Globalbrand names have opened many new shops in Kazakh-stan. Our jewellery and fashion customers require thesecure and time-definite delivery of their products.

Is airfreight the solution of choice in this field?Airfreight plays a critical role for all high-value products,particularly for medical equipment, telecommunicationequipment and luxury goods, as well as for heavyliftoperations in the oil and gas industry.

How do you cope with the security challenges?Inbound cargo is under video surveillance from the mo-ment it lands. The goods are transported to customersin bullet-proof trucks. Importing such products requirescertification and coordination between various govern-ment departments. In Kazakhstan, every item of jewel-lery has to be assayed, certified and stamped by the assayoffice. These kind of services are still in their infancy inthe country, and not many companies can supply them.

What developments do you expect in this segment?The retail sector is growing exponentially in Kazakh-stan. In the next few years there is going to be increas-ingly strong demand for foreign brands, because peoplein Kazakhstan are keen to buy the original article.

www.art-businessgroup.com

Kazakhstan – a promising market

Luxury logisticsAliya Mussina, the head of A.R.T. Logistics in Kazakhstan, talks to the ITJ

about importing fashion and luxury goods into Kazakhstan.

Mrs Mussina, A.R.T. Logistics currently has six affiliates. How im-portant is the branch in Almaty (Kazakhstan)?We’ll soon have seven branches, you know! A new office is opening inChengdu (China) in September. Our Almaty centre was the first affili-ate A.R.T. Logistics established and I would say that, in the light of thelocal opportunities open to us, it plays strategic role for the company.

What services does your company offer in Kazakhstan itself, aswell as in the neighbouring countries?

Aliya Mussina manages the ART Logistics branch in Almaty,which was established as the firm’s Central Asian hub in 2005.

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connecting Worlds.

Whether heavy lift from the Netherlands to Tajikistan orhigh tech from Germany to Russia: For every project,the cooperation between our country units is minutelycoordinated to run. Make use of the dense Militzer & Münchnetwork of 100 locations in over 30 countries and convinceyourself of our precision.

www.mumnet.com

25International Transport Journal 35-36 2013 Eastern Europe and Central Asia Special

The port of Novorossiysk on Russia’sBlack Sea coast is one of the most im-portant maritime gateways in the coun-try. For a long time the oil sector playedthe key role in the hub’s throughput.Though the black gold remains the larg-est export item by far, ever more contain-ers have been handled at the quays in«Novo» in the past few years.

Volumes could rise even more substan-tially in future, as analysts believe thatthe degree of containerisation in Russia,as well as in the Black Sea region in gen-eral, has not yet reached its limits – incontrast to many other global regions.This is reason enough for Russia’s Delogroup of companies to believe that thisyear it can achieve 13–15% growth in itscontainer terminal.

The holding company Delo operatesand owns said container facility, as wellas a grain and a ro-ro terminal in Novo-rossiysk. The total annual throughput inthese centres together comes to about4.7million t. Over and above this, thefirm’s portfolio includes bunkering ser-vice offerings. Besides owning Nutep –the first specialised container terminalin the port of Novorossiysk, whose namestands for Novorossiysk transport and lo-gistics hub in Russian – Delo also holds amajority stake in Global Container Ser-vice (GCS), a liner shipping, intermodaland agency specialist, also known for itssubsidiary Ruscon, which provides trans-port and logistics services in Russian andformer Soviet Union ports.

Critical sizeNutepregisteredpositive results in the firsthalf of 2013. Total container throughputrose to approximately 148,000 teu, a 33%improvement over the like-for-like periodin the previous year. Overall the figurefor the number of containers handled lastyear stood at approximately 215,000 teu.The operator assumes that this yeararound 75% of the hub’s annual capac-ity of 400,000 teu will be utilised. Thisis considered the critical threshold con-

cerning potential congestion. To preventbottlenecks, Nutep is set to commencewith the construction of a new berth inthe existing terminal next year, on a plotof land that has especially been reclaimedfrom the sea.

It is expected to be completed bythe end of 2016 and will be able tohandle ships with space for more than8,000 teu and overall lengths of approxi-mately 310m. Its capacities will come to250,000 teu a year, thus enabling the ter-minal to handle 650,000 teu.

The maximum size of containershipsthat can call at Nutep stands at 4,500 teu,primarily on account of the fact that noship longer than 265m can berth in thehub. Nutep’s basin is only 300m wide,after all. Around 30 to 40 vessels call atthe container terminal every month, in-cluding units from shipping lines suchas Maersk Line, CMA CGM Evergreenand Admiral and feeder operators suchas Xpress, Emes and UFS.

Room for improvementMost of the exports handled in Nutepreach the port by rail. Only 9% of thisfreight is transported in boxes, however,whilst the largest proportion is hauledin conventional railfreight wagons. This

is changing now, as Nutep has investedheavily in the expansion of its rail con-nections. The construction of an impor-tant section of a new port railway trackwas completed recently, enabling thecentre to handle two blocktrains a daycarrying 112 teu each.

Over and above this Russian Railwaysis also investing in rail links to the portof Novorossiysk. Approximately 55kmof new tracks are currently being laid,and a new shunting yard is simultane-ously being established. These measuresare designed to bring the capacity ofthe railfreight handling station to over50million t a year, an improvement ofmore than 50% on current volumes. Theplans are due for completion by 2016.

Russian economic growth slowingSo Nutep is not likely to lack capacities inthe immediate future. Russia’s economicprospects, in contrast, are not very rosy atthe moment. The World Bank has estab-lished a decline in industrial productionin 2013, for the first time since 2009. Theorganisation expects the Russian econo-my to grow by 3.3% in 2013, which is onepercentage point less than was recordedin the previous year. Antje Vereggewww.deloports.com; www.delo-group.com

Container handling in the Black Sea

From black gold to steel boxesThe Russian port of Novorossiysk has recorded rapid growth in its container volumes in the past few years. Nutep, a container port

owned by the Delo group of companies, is banking strongly on this trend continuing and is investing in expansion. The group is

planning to increase the capacities of its container terminals to 650,000 teu by 2016.

Nutep is set to start building a new berth for 8,000 teu containerships in 2014.

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Which markets do you think offer the best opportu-nities? Take Ukraine. It has risen to 66th place on theWorld Bank’s logistics performance index.The infrastructure and purchasing power in Ukraine arecurrently 20% below the level in Belarus, leaving plentyof room for improvement. With our 80 employees therewe have the same number of personnel in Kiev as wehave in Moscow, but so far we have only managed togenerate half the revenue compared to Moscow. We’reseeing interesting developments in Poland and Czechia,where freight forwarders with competitive truck fleetsare increasingly present and the export potential is grow-ing. There are also opportunities in the regions of Turkeyand the former Yugoslavia.

Does the heavylift and project-logistics niche holdany appeal?Acquiring the equipment requires big investments, andin the core Russian market such projects are plannedand contracted out at short notice. We help to plan largeprojects and transports with weights of up to 300 t, butbeing an asset-light firm is still our motto.

The key to corporate development today is IT. Wheredoes AsstrA stand in this regard?We opted for the solutions offered by Oracle and haveinvested a great deal in IT. We have a digital orderingsystem and we can now manage the complete transportprocess for customers from a single interface.

AsstrA was founded in 1993. What is your vision ofhow the company will position itself in the future?AsstrA is at a crossroads. We could either develop a lucra-tive niche strategy, or adopt a volume business model. Inmy view, however, we could increase our current turn-over from approximately EUR 240 million a year nowto EUR 1 billion annually over the next five to ten yearsthrough organic growth alone.

What is your personal motto?Success depends on people and strategies. Our greatstrength at AsstrA – apart from our efficient cost struc-tures – is our average employee age of 29. That createsdynamism!

www.asstra.com

Twenty years of AsstrA Associated Traffic AG

Markets in the eastAsstrA CEO Frank Müller spoke to ITJ editor-in-chief Christian Doepgen

about the slow start to Russia’s 2013 logistics market, new opportunities

in southeastern Europe and how AsstrA is positioned.

Mr Müller, the Russian market isn’t making any great strides rightnow. What is your sense of how it is developing?You’re right, Russia didn’t really get off to a running start this year. Itstotal foreign trade for the first half of 2013 shrunk by 0.5%, and exportsdropped by 2.7%. Investments by private entities have been scaled backand the state is stepping in once again to pick up the slack.

How is your main line of business going?Our core business – international trucking to and from Russia – isholding steady. Project teams in niche markets, such as metal, gas, anddrinks logistics are doing good work. Traffic to central Europe and theNordic countries contributes to the 7,000 full-truck loads and 1,000container loads we ship every month. Approximately 20% of our busi-ness consists of services for mid-sized shippers who are seeking riskmitigation, cash-to-cash optimisation and rapid market positioning byoutsourcing their supply-chain activities. We’re looking to increase ourinternal annual growth guidance to 25%.

AsstrA believes there is great potential in Poland and Czechia,thanks also to forwarders with competitive fleets.

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26 Eastern Europe and Central Asia Special International Transport Journal 35-36 2013

27International Transport Journal 35-36 2013 Eastern Europe and Central Asia Special

Gefco’s national branch in Russia, GefcoRussia, is set to offer customers weeklydelivery services for vehicles and sparecar parts from a new 12,000 sqm site inNovorossiysk. Gefco sees the option asan advantageous alternative to the tradi-tional sea freight route via St Petersburgand Llichevsk (Ukraine), which will allowcarmakers to significantly reduce their lo-gistics expenditure whilst simultaneouslyoptimising delivery times, the corpora-tion said.

The new Gefco office at Novorossiyskwill be in charge of goods management,customs clearance and vehicle warehous-ing in the terminals of the NovorossiyskCommercial Sea Port (NCSP). Gefco andthe NCSP also have plans to develop thero-ro infrastructure at Novorossiysk inthe near future.

First-ever callThe opening of this new automotivesite coincided with the first ever call tothe port of Novorossiysk by the NeptuneOdyssey, one of the largest ro-ro vesselsfor transporting vehicles that the porthas ever received. The vessel delivered afull/part load of PSA vehicles (CitroënC-Elysée, Peugeot 301, Peugeot Partnerand Citroën Berlingo), coming from theSpanish port of Vigo. Gefco has chosenthe company TMBC Logistics as its han-dling agent for all PSA cargo arriving atNovorossiysk.

Robert Altermattwww.gefco.net

Gefco opens second Russian automobile distribution centre

An alternative to St PetersburgGefco, an international transport and logistics corporation that belongs to the Russian Railways RZD, recently opened a second site in

Russia, which is to be used to deliver vehicles coming from Europe and Asia via the commercial port of Novorossiysk. The new facility

in the maritime port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea is considered by Gefco to be an alternative to using its St Petersburg centre.

Gefco has expanded its automobile and spare parts distribution activities in Russia.

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In briefHigher ART Logistics frequencies. The inter-national forwarding enterprise ART Logisticshas added a monthly LTL connection betweenVilnius (Lithuania) and Ulan Bator (Mongolia)to the two it already offered. (See also ourinterview with Aliya Mussina, head of ARTLogistics in Kazakhstan, on page 24.)

www.art-businessgroup.com

DHL Express in St Petersburg. The courier,express and parcel service provider DHLExpress recently commenced operations in anew 3,700 sqm logistics centre in the Russianmetropolis of St Petersburg. www.dhl.com

New joint venture in Russia. The Frenchtransport and logistics enterprise NorbertDentressangle has founded a new 50:50 jointventure in Russia, together with the Frenchfood producer Danone. The new company willoffer temperature-controlled logistics servicesas well as fresh produce transportation inRussia. www.norbert-dentressangle.com

Meyer QSL expanding. The owner-managedGerman logistics service provider Meyer QuickService Logistics (Meyer QSL) has opened twonew temperature-controlled logistics ware-houses in the Russian cities of Krasnodar andNovosibirsk.

www.quick-service-logistics.de

WAREHOUSE LOGISTIC Safe and economical storage of your goods in our ownwarehouse of 31 500 qm2

EUROPEAN SERVICE Groupage and full load traffic with subsequent distributionIMPORT/EXPORT and logistic: Germany/Switzerland/Benelux/France/

England/Italy/Turkey/Eastern and Southeastern Europe

FULL LOAD SERVICE Europeanwide timely and safe delivery of full loads andhazardous cargos

DOMESTIC SERVICE Austriawide full load and partload cargo door-to-door

Speditions Ges.m.b.H.TVS-Strasse 2A-2353 GuntramsdorfTel.: +43/2236/8004-0Fax: +43/2236/8004-60 + 70E-Mail: www.import@tvs-europa.at

FACTS ABOUT LDZ CARGO

LDZ Cargo is one of the biggest railway cargo carrier inthe Baltic States.

LDZ Cargo is a subsidiary company of the State Joint StockCompany “Latvijas Dzelzceļš” (Latvian Railway), providingcargo transportation services to and from Baltic States, CISand Western Europe.

LDZ Cargo is a reliable partner in the railway market of the Balticregion. The company is well-known for its successful projects intransportation of various types of cargo, including containerisedcargo, for example:

Container train Baltica – Transit delivering goods fromthe Baltic seaports to the Central Asia, stable and reliable ser-vice successfully operating since 2003.

Container train Riga’s Express connects Riga and Moscow,operating since 2010.

THE MISSION OF LDZ CARGO IS“MOVING FORWARD YOUR BUSINESS”

The mission of LDZ Cargo outlines the role of the enterprise intransportation chain and servicing business clients.

The mission is carried out by LDZ Cargo employees, whose ex-perience, knowledge and inspiration facilitate integrated work ofthe enterprise.

THE MAIN VALUES OF LDZ CARGO AREITS CLIENTS AND PARTNERS

The total number of LDZ Cargo clients is close to 3000, whereofmore than 1000 are strategic clients.

LDZ Cargo believes that each client and partner is unique andspecial, therefore work of the enterprise is directed towardsprovision of the most appropriate solution of cargo transpor-tation for each client.

LDZ CARGO IN FIGURES

The amount of cargo transported by LDZ Cargo in the year 2012has reached a record and comprised 60,6 millions tons. For the lastseveral years the transportation tendency shows steady increase.

The total number of LDZ Cargo employees is 2790.

LDZ Cargo has 6731 freight wagons as well as 146 main-line andshunting locomotives.

FACTS ABOUT LDZ CARGO LOĢISTIKA

LDZ Cargo Loģistika is a subsidiary company of LDZ Cargo andthe official agent of the TransContainer in Latvia.

The company provides broad spectrum of services related to thecargo transportation, including intermodal service based on the“door to door” principle. The company constantly elaborates newservices and develops new products for convenience of its clientsIn the year 2009 LDZ Cargo Loģistika in cooperation with part-ners has launched into operation new container train ZUBR. Thecontainer train ZUBR connects Tallinn, Riga, Minsk, Kiev and theUkrain’s Black Sea ports Odessa and Ilyichevsk, providing a stronglink between the Baltic and the Black Sea regions.

LDZ Cargo Loģistika works in close cooperation with LDZ Cargo,ports and terminals in order to provide its clients the best com-petitive solutions in cargo transportation.

LDZ CARGO IN ACTION

Wide transport geography, including the largest East-West andNorth-South transportation corridors.

Transportation of the whole range of goods, including dangerousgoods.

Services are provided at 86 stations, including 9 port stations withwell-developed infrastructure.

Operation within the legal framework of SMGS and CIM.

FURTHER STEPS TOWARDS COOPERATION

Cooperation is characterised by faithful clients confident in ourservices – always provided in due time, precisely, and with a senseof responsibility.

LDZ Cargo and LDZ Cargo Loģistika are looking forward tofruitful cooperation with you.

30 Eastern Europe and Central Asia Special International Transport Journal 35-36 2013

The Georgian state railway company,Sakartvelos Rkinigza, has set itself someambitious goals. Not only does it want toincrease its revenues from railfreight, butit also wants to boost the overall healthof the nation’s economy through con-tinued expansion of the infrastructurelinking the capital city Tbilisi with otherregions of the country. The new agendawas announced in Tbilisi recently by therail company’s new director, ManukaBakhtadze, who has been running thecompany since March.

Key Traceca corridorAt the core of the expansion plans forthe 1,600km railway network is a connec-tion between Tbilisi and the two BlackSea ports of Batumi and Poti. The sea-ports are critical transhipment points forinternational trade, and at the same timetransit points for goods flowing fromEurope to Central Asia.

Freight trains travel at 30 km per houralong a main European line, a compo-nent of the Traceca corridor from Europeacross the Black Sea, through Georgia andbound for Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan andChina. Europeans have declared theirgoal of transporting more goods by rail

along this corridor in the coming years.The Georgian railway wants to make itscontribution to ensure the success of theplan, Bakhtadze said at a presentation ofthe expansion plan in Tbilisi.

Expansion projects in GeorgiaGeorgia is pinning its hopes on the con-struction of a new 178 km rail line be-tween Turkey and Georgia. Once the con-nection between the railway networks ofthe two countries is completed, the firstfreight trains are slated to roll by 2015,transporting more goods from Turkey viaGeorgia to Azerbaijan and other coun-tries in the region.

In concrete terms, the line will runfrom Akhalkalaki in Georgia to Kars inTurkey. Along the way, the railway trackwill traverse the inhospitable terrain ofthe Lesser Caucasus mountains, whichseparate the two countries. According toBakhtadze the new stretch of track willincrease rail cargo by 2 million t a year.Currently, such cargo would be truckedfrom Turkey to Georgia via the bordercrossing at Hopa, and it usually ends upstuck in traffic jams at the border.

The second largest project is a bypassin the greater Tbilisi area, designed to

route freight trains around the edge ofthe city, rather than directly throughthe capital. The project will require theconstruction of a 30 km northern bypassaround the capital city, which will thenlink up with the trunk line to the portsof Poti and Batumi.

Growth in questionIn 2012, some 4.5 million t of goodswere transported by rail in Georgia, andin 2013 the figure is expected to increaseby 900,000 t to 5.4 million t. The growthis expected to come from countries onthe other side of the Black Sea – namely,Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Turkey andRussia.

These are ambitious hopes. Althoughcountries such as Afghanistan as wellas Uzbekistan are interested in transitthrough Georgia and offer special feesfor cotton transportation from CentralAsia, the technical performance of theGeorgian railway is subject to a numberof limitations.

One example of these limitations isthe port of Batumi in the autonomousrepublic of Adjara. The rail line actuallyruns all the way up to the port but has tocross a main thoroughfare in the city onits way. The road has to be closed regu-larly to make way for freight trains. IliaTsivadze, head of marketing for the port,told the ITJ that the port authority is cur-rently planning a flyover, which wouldelevate the roadway above the railroadtrack and enable trains to move moreefficiently to their destination withoutdisrupting traffic.

The oil, bulk, and railroad port hasa container terminal which has beenleased to operator ICTSI until 2055. Upto 100,000 teu can theoretically be tran-shipped through the terminal annually,but in practice the figure is significantlylower than that. The port is owned byKazakhstan’s KazTransOil, a subsidiaryof the energy group KazMunaiGaz.

Josef Müllerwww.railway.ge

Expansion plans for transhipment capacities in the Caucasus

Georgia embraces its railwaysGeorgia’s railway wants to make the most of the opportunity arising from being a part of the Traceca corridor connecting Western

and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. In addition to links to Turkey, improvements to domestic railway lines are also on the agenda.

The railway still has some technical hurdles to overcome, however, as ITJ correspondent Josef Müller found out in Tbilisi and Batumi.

Railway links to and from Georgia’s Black Sea port of Batumi are set to be improved.

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31International Transport Journal 35-36 2013 Eastern Europe and Central Asia Special

The project cargo business in Kazakhstan

Colossal opportunities

have only a small stakein the rail segment. Natu-rally we nevertheless offerour foreign customers rail-freight options, however.We’re also planning to ac-quire a railway terminal inAlmaty and construct a facility at Korgas-Altynkol, on the Kazakh-China border.Our studies of the rail market have shownthat there is currently demand for about500 rw-platforms for containers. We’renow working on getting a loan for this.

Which of your project transportationtasks are particularly noteworthy?The firm’s key personnel was alreadyinvolved in providing logistics servicesfor an Agip KCO project for the devel-opment of the Kashagan field in westernKazakhstan between 2004 and 2008, aswell as for the Karagandinskaya powerstation project, where we cooperated withinternational partners. Ongoing effortsinclude delivering cargo for firms suchas Kazstroiservice, Sinopec and Saipem.

One of our most interesting projects in2012 was arranging for the transportationof equipment required for the reconstruc-tion of the Russian coal-fired power plantTroitskaya Gres. In 2011, IFC Colos spe-cialists surveyed the freight routes, ana-lysed the transport routes and modes andnegotiated with administrative represent-atives. Transportation of the main metalstructures from China to Russia startedin 2012 and this year we’re providingthe transportation for high-technologyequipment on the same route.

How does membership in the IFLN af-fect your international business?IFC Colos joined the InternationalForwarder Logistics Network (IFLN)in 2010. We analysed many forward-ing associations and chose IFLN, as ithas many young, dynamic and efficientmembers. Relations between membersare very good, and all the members have

common traits, such as a full openness,mutual readiness to help, and not least,promptness. In addition our membershipin a register of potential suppliers to theSamruk-Kazyna National Welfare Fund(from 2011), as well as our role in FirstPoint Kazakhstan, a register of potentialsupplier to the Kazakhstan oil and gasindustry (from 2012), are also very im-portant for the company.

«One of our most interesting projects isthe transporting of equipment to

Russia’s Troitskaya Gres power plant.»

WTO director general Pascal Lamysaid that Kazakhstan may join theWTO this year. What are your expec-tations of the benefits this may bring?Kazakhstan’s accession to the WTO rais-es positive and negative expectations. Asa logistician I see the situation positively,because many Euro–Asian transport cor-ridors run through Kazakhstan, as didthe well-known Silk Road, so there maywell be new impulses. We assume thatrouting schemes will initially change,and that some decline in freight trafficwill take place, but then things may wellchange cardinally. According to an analy-sis presented by the Post-Crisis World In-stitute, a Russian think-tank, Kazakhstanmay become a new Asian tiger by 2050.

What is the secret of your success?We don’t have a special secret, but whilerunning the company I assign primaryimportance to business values that focuson quality, professionalism, commit-ment, dependability, team spirit, self-reliance and discipline. www.colos.kz

IFC Colos was officially established afew years ago, but I believe you’ve beenactive since 2005, haven’t you?MunaiTrans, a specialist for the transportof oil and oil products, was founded in2005, but we soon reinvented our firmas a freight forwarder in 2007 and 2008.In October 2008 we joined the TSSer-vice group, which had offices in Russia,Germany and China. 2011 saw our break-through, when the restructuring of TS ledthe management to embark on a path ofindependent development. Our nameIFC Colos is an acronym of our sloganCOmprehensive LOgistic Solutions.

How have your key performance indi-cators developed since your founding?It’s symbolic that from the moment webegan work as IFC Colos, turnover in-creased heavily, namely by 78% in 2011vis-à-vis the previous year and by an-other 96% in 2012, bringing the figureto USD37.9million. The company andits branch and representative offices cur-rently employ 79 people.

Your headquarters are in Almaty andyou have branch offices in Astana,Altynkol, Aktau, Sary-Agash, Chim-kent and Dostyk. Are you planning toset up any more branch offices?Yes, we’re planning to expand our net-work to other regions of Kazakhstan andopen new offices in Kyzyl-Orda, Aktobe,Ust-Kamenogorsk, Uralsk and Kokshetau.One of the key segments we’ll target areWestern European clients who need ourservices and experience in Kazakhstan.

«We’re planning to acquire a railterminal in the medium term.»

Transportation in Kazakhstan is heav-ily dominated by the railways. Howimportant is railfreight for IFC Colos?As IFC Colos specialises in out-of-gauge,oversized, fragile and heavy cargo, we

CEO Kamill Gafurov’s company IFC Colos is involved in many alogistics project linked to raw materials extraction in Kazakhstan.

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Kazakhstan’s raw materials are the basis on which many a logistics

project has been built. In an interview with Christian Doepgen, Kamill

Gafurov, CEO of the freight forwarder IFC Colos, describes his company’s

range of activities and gives us an insight into IFC Colos’ future potential.

32 Forwarding & Logistics International Transport Journal 35-36 2013

What is your latest corporate news topresent our readers with, Mr Pedersen?Well, maybe we can say that the fact thatI became Geodis Wilson’s executive vice-president on 1 March this year is relevantnews, at least in such regard that in thisrelatively short time, I’ve made a newmark on the firm in the way of doingbusiness. What this means is that we’reseeking answers to questions concerningthe activities that Geodis Wilson needsto develop, questions about where do wewant to invest in future, and how much?

The answer in a nutshell is that wewant to and will gradually see growthcoming from outside Europe. NaturallyGeodis Wilson will not quit Europe com-pletely, for 65% of our activities still takeplace in this region of the world. I’m verysure, however, that the future holds exact-ly the opposite equation for us, namelythat around 65% of our business activitieswill be carried out outside Europe in thecoming years.

Which regions of the world or whichcountries is Geodis Wilson set to focuson mainly?We’ll increasingly extend our feelers toemerging economies such as Brazil, India

and China. Let me give you a concreteexample. One of our customers fromSweden has been doing business withBrazil for many years now. Because itsproduction facilities have been movedfrom Sweden to China in the meantime,the company’s entire business now takesplace between China and Brazil. What,in turn, does this mean for Geodis Wil-son? If we don’t have our own strongpresence in these emerging markets, thenwe’ll simultaneously weaken our businessactivities in Europe too. Growth is cur-rently not being generated in Europe, butrather outside of the old continent.

To what extent does Geodis Wilsonbenefit from its parent company,France’s Geodis group?Being part of the large Geodis fam-ily brings several advantages with it, themost important one being that, thanks toGeodis, we can offer genuine end-to-endsolutions, including warehouse manage-ment options, road distribution, final-mile services and international transportsolutions for every mode of transport.Geodis is a genuine multimodal opera-tor, and we naturally benefit substantiallyfrom its comprehensive network.

What is your assessment of GeodisWilson’s recent business developments?Basically, we’re satisfied. The enormousgrowth registered before the globalfinancial and economic downturn in2008 won’t be attained any more in myopinion, however. As I mentioned above,we now generate our growth primar-ily outside Europe. In India, China orIndonesia we’re improving in the double-digit percentage range, whilst business isstagnating in Europe. This will continueto be the trend.

Can you still feel the after-effects ofthe worldwide economic and financialdownturn of 2008/2009 – or was thecrisis overcome a long time ago byGeodis Wilson?No, it isn’t over by a long way yet. We’restill feeling certain repercussions of thecrisis, particularly in Europe, where we’vepartially encountered stagnation or evenrecession, and thus increased fierce com-petition. My opinion of the current eco-nomic situation in Europe is that thecontinent isn’t in a temporary trough,but that it has rather slipped into a long-lasting recession.

The fashion and lifestyle segment, thatis to say the textiles, fashion accessoriesand clothing sector, is one of our most im-portant fields of activity. Developmentsin this segment are weak in Europe, oreven in decline. So it’s clear to us that wecan’t continue like this.

May I rephrase one of the points fromabove here – Europe remains the mostimportant market for Geodis Wilson,doesn’t it?In case I didn’t make myself completelyclear before, please let me clarify every-thing once more. The network businessthat we’re active in is necessarily alwayslinked to the points of origin of the goodsconcerned and to our customers’ desti-nations. About 65% of our net sales aregenerated in Europe, and our activities

Geodis Wilson banking on expansion in emerging markets

The future lies outside EuropeGeodis Wilson, a logistics subsidiary of the French transport and logistics group Geodis, has developed into an important

global service provider. The ITJ’s Robert Altermatt spoke to Kim Pedersen, Geodis Wilson’s Danish executive vice-president,

about the state of the company and its future prospects.

Kim Pedersen, Geodis Wilson’s executive vice-president.

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33International Transport Journal 35-36 2013 Forwarding & Logistics

to and from Europe and North America,particularly the USA, are also important– but the flows of goods that are growingat the strongest rates today are primarilythose to and from Brazil, India or China.

And a propos of booming markets andemerging economies – the talk today is ofthe E7 group, the emerging seven. Besidesthe BRIC states (Brazil, Russia, India andChina, as we all know very well by now)the E7 also includes Turkey, Indonesiaand South Africa.

Are there any white areas left on theworld map if we look at Geodis Wilson’sglobal geographic presence?Yes, there are some white areas left. Wearen’t the largest player in the market, likeDHL, DB Schenker or Kuehne+Nagel,we’re totally aware of that. But we could– or should I even say we have to – con-tinue to expand our presence in NorthAmerica, for example. Even if we alreadyhave around 20 branch offices in theUSA, Geodis Wilson isn’t a member ofthe top league there, mainly in terms ofsize. Perhaps we’ll attempt to attain agreater market share in North America

through acquisitions in future. The mostimportant trade route today is the trans-pacific one between China and the USA,and I have to admit that we’re still a bitsmall there at the moment. But basicallyI’m very proud that we cover more than90% of all of the important global eco-nomic regions. We’re present there whereour customers need us.

What is the overall strategy that yourcompany is set to pursue in future – or-ganic growth or through acquisitions?Our strategy is primarily to develop or-ganically. If a suitable opportunity wereto arise, however, then acquisitions areentirely conceivable, at any time. We’lldefinitely grow in Brazil, India and China.Those are the growth markets par excel-lence for us. We have to proceed highlyselectively and carefully. We recently in-vested a substantial sum in a 36,000sqmwarehouse near São Paulo (Brazil). We’vepumped a lot of money into this locationbecause we’re convinced of the opportu-nities in Brazil, as well as in India andChina, and that the future lies in thesethree countries.

Who are Geodis Wilson’s customers?Our most important fields of businessare the fashion and lifestyle segment, aswell as the industrial sector (heavylift andproject cargo logistics and the oil and gasindustry). Over and above this the auto-motive industry, particularly tier 1 andtier 2 suppliers to the automobile manu-facturing segment, and the pharmaceuti-cals industry also play an important role.

What is it about the forwarding andlogistics industry that fascinates you?Even as a young boy I already dreamedof working in Hong Kong or Singaporeone day, and of finding out for myselfwhat keeps the world economy ticking.I’ve been active in the forwarding andlogistics industry for more than 25 yearsnow, and still tackle every day with pas-sion and curiosity! The industry is trulyinternational and multicultural, and thebig wide world is open for us to get toknow it. I also consider the constantchange that the industry is subject to, onaccount of the ongoing globalisation ofthe economy, to be extremely interesting.

www.geodiswilson.com

Supported by:

35International Transport Journal 35-36 2013 Forwarding & Logistics

PostLogistics, which belongs to Swiss Post,

recently opened a new logistics centre

in the Zurich region of Switzerland. This

strengthens the organisation’s market

position in eastern Switzerland as well

as in southern Germany.

At its new location in Pfungen (cantonof Zurich), Swiss Post receives incomingconsignments which it delivers overnightor on the same day. With a service calledSwiss Express Innight, the goods are de-livered to customers before the start oftheir working day, and on the same dayin the case of the option called SwissExpress Day. Swiss Post also transportssmall consignments from Pfungen, andoffers warehousing logistics facilities cov-ering more than 5,800 sqm, together withadditional services such as returns han-dling/disposals or cross-docking. An areaof 5,700 sqm is available for the handlingof goods at the new location.

«The new logistics centre in Pfungenis a key pillar for the future of our trans-port business, and ideally complementsour existing transport network. Throughits establishment eastern Switzerlandand southern Germany are linked morestrongly to our network. The new loca-tion makes us more flexible in the provi-sion of services and brings us closer to

our customers,» says Roland Heizmann,head of express, freight, and warehous-ing at PostLogistics. Every day, 44 deliv-ery rounds are made from Pfungen forSwiss Express Innight, and twelve deliv-ery rounds for Swiss Express, as well asroughly 30 small consignment rounds.For transport, PostLogistics uses mainly3.5 t delivery vans, light trailers with lift-ing platforms and trucks.

Sophisticated distribution activitiesFrom Pfungen, the postal services organi-sation delivers to smaller customers lo-cated east of Gubrist, and to Innight cus-tomers east of Baregg. Transport shuttlesconnect the new Pfungen logistics centrewith facilities in Niederbipp (canton of

Bern), Fétigny (canton of Fribourg), Din-tikon (canton of Aargau) and Daillens(canton of Vaud). Shuttle operations re-duce the number of transport kilometrestravelled, resulting in a correspondingdiminution of CO2 emissions.

As a multifunctional hub the Pfungenlogistics centre has a total of 57 loadingand unloading bays. These include fourdocks whose ramps are at a height of1.2m, which are intended for trucks andswap bodies. 26 loading dock ramps are1m high and suitable for the handlingof trucks and light trailers. The remain-ing 27 docking bays with 0.4m ramps areintended for 3.5 t delivery vans.

edited by Robert Altermattwww.post.ch/logistik

Swiss Post inaugurates new logistics terminal

«A crucial pillar of the future»

The Swiss post office is continuously expanding its network of services.

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• Loading bays 57• Handling area 5,700 sqm• Warehousing 5,900 sqm

PostLogistics, a business unit of the Swisscompany Post CH AG, offers overnight andsame-day deliveries and conventional parcelservices. With its Swiss Express Innightproduct, customers receive their goods be-fore the start of their working day. With theoption called Swiss Express Day, the goodsare delivered on the same day. PostLogisticsalso transports small consignments andoffers warehousing logistics. These productssupplement the organisation’s core courier,express and parcels operations, and areaimed primarily at business customers.

PostLogistics and its newcentre in Pfungen at a glance

BDP International, a leading global lo-gistics and transportation solutions com-pany from the USA, has taken a major-ity equity stake in the Swedish firm PolarLogistics. The latter has been a partner inBDP’s global network for some time al-ready. The resulting joint venture will beheadquartered in Stockholm and operateas BDP International Sweden. The entitywill retain its current management team,led by Slava Caisin.

Besides its presence in Sweden, BDP In-ternational also subsidiaries in the otherNordic countries of Denmark, Norwayand Finland. Polar Logistics, which wasestablished in 2002, operates facilitiesin Sweden at Arlanda airport and in theports of Stockholm and Gothenburg. Thefirm’s broad range of services includescustoms clearance options. ra

www.bdpinternational.comwww.polarlog.com

BDP takes majority stake in Polar Logistics

36 Forwarding & Logistics International Transport Journal 35-36 2013

Just one short month after Croatia joinedthe EU on 1 July 2013, GLS is alreadypresent in the country with its own pan-national network. The CEP service pro-vider will initially operate from four loca-tions, namely in Zagreb, Rijeka, Split andOsijek. These centres have been set up inthe time since GLS Croatia was foundedin late May. The GLS Group had previ-ously served Croatia as part of a coopera-tion deal with a network partner.

GLS believes that Croatia offers greatopportunities, as its economy is likelyto benefit from membership of the EU,amongst other reasons. Rico Back, theCEO of the GLS group, said that it isusually the case that «demand for just-in-time deliveries rises as soon as customsformalities are done away with. That is

why it’s important that we’re able to offerour international customers in the easternand southern EU short delivery times andcomprehensive services.» Gergely Farkas,the managing director of GLS EuropeEast, manages the new GLS subsidiary.

Short delivery timesGLS’s Popovec depot (near Zagreb) is thefirm’s national distribution centre. Farkassaid that «GLS will deliver national par-cels in Croatia with a standard deliverytime of 24 hours right from the start.Numerous additional services, such ascash on delivery and notifying private re-cipients of imminent deliveries, are natu-rally also available right from the outset.»

International transports will be routedthrough Zagreb from September. Sched-

uled daily westbound connections toLjubljana (Slovenia), Ansfelden (Austria)and GLS’s European hub in Neuenstein(Germany) are augmented by links tothe east via GLS’s own hub in Budapest(Hungary). Daily GLS runs from Croatiato Hungary and Slovenia, for example,will offer standard delivery times of be-tween 24 and 48 hours. edited by ra

www.gls-group.eu

The Southeast European courier, express and parcels market

New GLS company in CroatiaThe pan-European parcels service provider GLS has expanded its own network in

southeastern Europe. At the beginning of August the firm’s Croatian national

subsidiary GLS Croatia started operations in the newest EU member state.

GLS vans are set to become a familiar sight onCroatia’s roads in the near future.

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LS

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37International Transport Journal 35-36 2013 Forwarding & Logistics

Europa Worldwide Groupchanges handsThe Europa Worldwide Group, one ofthe UK’s largest privately-owned trans-port and freight forwarding enterprises,has been acquired by Andrew Baxter.Baxter was previously the joint owner ofthe Nottingham-based family-owned firmRHFreight, another large independent UKtransport company and forwarder that wassold to the logistics giant Kuehne+Nagelin March 2011. Baxter, who will assumethe position of managing director, has ac-quired a 90% stake in Europa Worldwidefrom the three former owners – RussellKeep, Andrew Kennedy and GrenvilleTurner. Keep will maintain a 10% interestin the company and become the group’sfinance director.

Europa Worldwide, which is head-quartered in Erith in Kent, employs 500people at nine branches in the UK. Thefirm also has an office in Hong Kong.In 2012 Europa Worldwide reported aturnover of GBP 73 million and carriedapproximately 500,000 consignments. ra

www.europa-worldwide.com

Austria Post a pharma­ceuticals wholesalerÖsterreichische Post, the Austrian postoffice, is entering the pharmaceuticalproducts wholesaler fray. The corpora-tion is one of the main investors (40%)in AEP, a new pharmaceutical wholesalerfor German chemists which is due to startoperations in Q4. AEP customers will beserved from a central storage facility inAlzenau (Germany). AEP was launchedby two former Celesio managers, MarkusEckermann and Jens Graefe. The formerAustrian minister for trade and industry,Martin Bartenstein, is also a co-owner.

The Austrian post office is already pre-sent in the pharmaceutical products mar-ket through its logistics subsidiary Trans-o-flex. Trans-o-flex’s 1,320 employees gen-erated sales amounting to EUR527millionin 2012. Trans-o-flex, which delivers con-signments to more than 12,000 chemistsevery day, has a market share of around70% in the market for direct deliveriesfrom pharmaceuticals manufacturers tochemists in Germany. ra

www.post.at; www.trans-o-f lex.com

In brief30th anniversary of SBS. The global for-warding and logistics specialist SBS World-wide, which is headquartered in Dartfordin Kent, celebrated its 30th anniversarythis year. Company founder and chairmanSteve Walker launched the business underthe name of S Black Shipping in 1983. SBSWorldwide has more than 250 members ofstaff today. www.sbsworldwide.com

Ceva figures down. The supply chainmanagement and logistics service providerCeva reported a decline in sales in thesecond quarter of 2013. Its turnover sankto USD 2.148 billion, 6.2% less than theUSD 2.291 billion noted in Q2/2012. Ceva’searnings before interest, tax, deprecia-tion and amortisation (ebitda) fell fromUSD 82 million in Q2/2012 to USD 80 millionthis year. www.cevalogistics.com

GeoPost investing. GeoPost, the courier,express and parcels subsidiary of the Frenchstate-owned postal service provider LaPoste, has acquired a 63.75% majority stakein the Hong Kong-based logistics providerTigers Ltd. www.geopostgroup.com

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38 Forwarding & Logistics International Transport Journal 35-36 2013

Online business givesDP DHL strengthSteady growth in the e-commerce seg-ment in Germany and rising income fromexpress activities contributed strongly toDeutsche Post DHL’s good quarterly andsix-month results. The group’s consoli-dated net profits climbed from EUR196million in Q2/2012 to EUR422 millionin Q2/2013, due in part to one-off effects.Its consolidated ebit jumped by 14% vis-à-vis the previous period, from EUR543to 619 million. Revenues produced by thegroup totalled EUR13.6 billion betweenApril and June, a slight 0.6% dip com-pared with the EUR13.7 billion recordedin the same period last year.

The group’s operating profit (ebit) inH1/2013 rose by 7.8%, compared withH1/2012, climbing to EUR1.3 billion.H1’s consolidated net profit climbed by27%, to EUR920 million in the year sofar. In the first half of the year consoli-dated revenues remained at the previousyear’s level of EUR27.1 billion. ra

www.dp-dhl.de

Agility is doing well

The global transport and logistics corpo-ration Agility, which is based in Kuwait,reported excellent results for H1/2013.The company boosted its net profit byjust under 50% vis-à-vis the same periodlast year, reporting a figure of KWD21.6million (EUR56.8 million). The corpora-tion’s earnings before interest, tax, depre-ciation and amortisation (ebitda) grew by31%, to KWD45.3 million (EUR119 mil-lion). The group’s turnover grew by 5.5%to KWD708 million (EUR1.86 billion).Agility’s chairman and managing directorTarek Sultan believes that his company is«on a very healthy growth path.»

www.agilitylogistics.com

Agility is on course for success.

Phot

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ility

In briefDSV stable. DSV, a Danish transport andlogistics company based in Brøndby nearCopenhagen, improved its turnover slightlyin the first half of the 2013 business year,namely by 0.9% to DKK 22.39 billion (aboutEUR 3 billion). The company’s operatingprofit (ebit) dropped by 4%, however,from DKK 1.242 billion (EUR 166 million) toDKK 1.189 billion (EUR 159 million).

www.dsv.com

Kerry expanding in Mexico. The HongKong-based firm Kerry Logistics has boughta majority stake in the Cargo Master’sGroup (CMG), a Mexican logistician andforwarder. www.kerrylogistics.com

www.cargomastersgroup.com

La Poste profits down. La Poste, France’sstate-owned post office, improved its salesby 0.6% in the first half of 2013 vis-à-vis thesame period last year, to EUR 10.95 billion.Its operating and net profits declined by23.6% and 9.3% respectively, to EUR 483million and EUR 396 million respectively.

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39International Transport Journal 35-36 2013 Rail / Inland Shipping / Road Haulage

In briefInlandLinks in Rotterdam. The coverage ofthe InlandLinks network, an online platformfor box terminals in Rotterdam’s hinterland,is now complete in the port of Rotterdam,thanks to the registration of the Rotterdamcontainer terminal (RCT), in the Maasvlakte,and of Combi Terminal Twente’s Rotterdamfacility, in Pernis (Rotterdam). UWT inthe Waalhaven and the Steinweg Beatrixterminal in Eemhaven also joined the systemrecently. Inland Links covers 40 terminals inthe Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Poland,Italy and Hungary. www.inlandlinks.eu

Reorientation for CFNR. The French inlandwaterway operator Compagnie Française deNavigation Rhénane (CFNR) sold its barg-ing unit to De Grave-Antverpia (DGA), amajor Belgian push-boat and barge player,in July. CFNR’s barges and its Antwerp staffwill be transferred to DGA. The sale marksa significant change for CFNR, which wasan important player in push-barge shippingon the Rhine and had set the tone for thelatter’s development. www.cfnr.fr

New broad-gauge rail-freight corridor plansThe next step towards a new broad-gaugerailfreight corridor from Russia via Slo-vakia to Vienna (Austria) was announcedrecently by the national rail enterprisesof Russia, Slovakia, Austria and Ukraine,members of a partnership called Breit-spur Planungsgesellschaft (broad-gaugeplanning company). A tender to assessthe technical and environmental aspectsof the project, which is due to be com-pleted by 2025, will be announced soon.

430 km of tracks linking Košice (Slo-vakia) to Vienna are needed to completean 11,000km (1,520 mm gauge) main linefrom Russia’s Pacific coast and Asia’s rap-idly-growing markets to Eastern and Cen-tral Europe. The annual volume of goodstraded between these two areas is thoughtto be worth EUR 458 billion. Estimatespublished by the Asia-Pacific EconomicCooperation group (Apec) state that thetrans-Siberian corridor may increase itsvolume of goods five-fold. ah

www.rzd.ru

Stable traffic volumesfor Hupac in H1Hupac, a Swiss intermodal transport pro-vider, was able to maintain the volumeof goods handled at the previous year’slevel, registering only a slight 1.4% de-cline. The company’s traffic volumecame in at 327,366 unaccompanied com-bined transport road consignments. Therecessionary economy since the end of2011 and reduced demand for transportservices, continued in H1/2013, accord-ing to Hupac. It expects the stable trafficsituation to continue to the end of theyear. However, in the recessionary envi-ronment the rising cost of rail operationsare problematic, especially when roadtransport costs are declining. The situa-tion is particularly difficult in Italy, themain Hupac destination. Hupac empha-sised the crucial importance of the exten-sion of the 4 m corridor to major termi-nals in the south via Luino and Chiasso,in order to make full use of the potentialof the Gotthard base tunnel, which is dueto be opened by 2016. www.hupac.ch

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A new Frenkendorf–Melzo shuttle start-ed operations recently. It is a joint ven-ture between the Basel-based neutral in-termodal operator IMS Rail Switzerlandand the Italian logistics service providerHannibal (part of the Contship Italiagroup). The twice-weekly unaccompa-nied combined transport service willbe operated with rolling stock from the

Swiss rail transport provider BLS, andwill run between the container terminalsin Frenkendorf (near Basel, Switzerland)and Melzo (east of Milan, Italy).

The transhipment options offeredthere and the new shuttle train’s schedulewill take advantage of networks run bySogemar. From Melzo locomotives oper-ated by Oceanogate Italia, which is part

New intermodal terminal for Contargo

New unaccompanied Basel–Milan train

Italy’s maritime ports can be reached very easily from the terminal in Melzo.

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The German firm Contargo, a neutralservice provider for container logisticsin the European hinterland that is basedin Duisburg, has signed a contract topurchase the Neuss intermodal terminal(NIT) from APM Terminals (APMT).

By acquiring the terminal in Neuss(Germany), Contargo has augmented itsnetwork in one of the busiest locations

between Duisburg and Koblenz (bothGermany). The firm can now offer bothtrain and barge connections to and fromthe seaports of Rotterdam and Antwerpfrom Neuss.

The Neuss terminal will be steadilyexpanded by Contargo in coming years,in order to cater adequately to growth inthe Düsseldorf and Neuss region.

The conflict between employees of Ger-many’s Wasser und Schifffahrtsverwal-tung (the national waterway and ship-ping authority WSV) and the ministriesin charge of the body, which has been onthe back burner since mid-July, escalatedin August.

The trade union Verdi has again calledfor a strike. Many locks have been affect-ed, including some in the Kiel Canal, oneof the most highly-frequented inland wa-terways in the world. At the time this is-sue of the ITJ went to press workers wereregularly downing tools and the strikesin the waterway authorities of the statesof Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern had been extended.

On 22 August inland waterway enterpris-es reacted by applying for an injunction,claiming that the action taken by lockkeepers was illegal. The strike situationwas discussed in a one-on-one meetingbetween Georg Hötte, the president ofthe country’s inland waterway transpor-tation association (Bundesverband derDeutschen Binnenschifffahrt BDB), andFrank Bsirske, the chairman of Verdi’sboard, but they agreed not to divulge thecontents of their talks. Verdi had previ-ously stated that the strikes may contin-ue until the national elections, due on22September.

The inland waterway transportationassociation BDB said that the shipping

No détente in sight on Germany’s inland waterways

of the Contship Italia group (just as Han-nibal and Sogemar are), offer scheduleddirect connections to and from terminalsin the Italian seaports of Genoa (VoltriMare and Sech), La Spezia (LSCT) andRavenna on a daily basis – and partiallyeven more frequently than that.

Transfer from north to southThe Frenkendorf–Melzo shuttle fulfilsa long-sought-after requirement of theSwiss economy and of Swiss freight for-warders, to link Italian terminals by aseamless rail link to Switzerland. This isimportant to enable the country to relyless heavily on carrying out its maritimetraffic via the northern ports of Rotter-dam, Hamburg and Antwerp and simul-taneously enables forwarders to benefitfrom the much shorter overseas routesfrom the Far East to the MediterraneanSea as compared to the North Sea. ah

www.contshipitalia.comwww.imscargo.com

40 Rail / Inland Shipping / Road Haulage International Transport Journal 35-36 2013

The sale of the facility is part of APMT’snew hinterland strategy for northwesternEurope. Instead of investing in propertyand buildings, APMT will concentrateon partnerships to improve its hinter-land links. NIT was founded in 2010 byAPMT. It carries out around 100,000 con-tainer movements annually. av

www.contargo.net

industry had already lost millions as aresult of the strikes. Small family-run in-land waterway enterprises, already strug-gling as a result of May and June’s floods,had been particularly hard hit, the asso-ciation added.

The strike arose due to union demandsfor talks on a collective agreement, whichthey hoped would lessen the negativeimpact of the reforming the WSV. Verdifears that after the elections in Septem-ber, as many as 3,000 (out of 12,000) jobsmay be lost nationally, despite assurancesto the contrary made by the country’stransport minister Peter Ramsauer. av

www.wsv.dewww.binnenschiff.de

Last year the sky seemed to be the limitfor growth in the logistic sector in Turkey,with exports – especially to Arab coun-tries – booming, impressive infrastruc-ture plans – such as the Marmaray railtunnel under the Bosphorus – nearingcompletion and American investmentand consulting firms – such as Colliersand Jones Lang Lasalle – celebrating thecountry as an up-and-coming logisticsmarket in Europe.

During the same period the futureof Greece was considered bleak, andthe privileged position of the Greekmerchant navy was strongly criticisedby international partners. Now primeminister Antonis Samaras has been ableto come to an understanding with theUnion of Greek Shipowners, which rep-resents 441 shipping companies. Theyhave voluntarily agreed to increase thedues they pay to the government (seepage 48).

Projections and growth areasEuphoria in Turkey has slowly givenway to a more realistic assessment of thenational economy. At the end of Junethe government in Ankara presented itsgrowth projection of 5.5% per annum to2018. Annual growth projections to 2013

had previously stood at 10%, but in 2012,growth only came in at 2.1%, accord-ing to the Turkish statistical office. Thetransport and communications sectorswere not unaffected, with the tempestu-ous growth of 10.5% in 2011 shrinking to3.2% in the following year.

In the first half of 2013 heavy vehi-cles, machinery and plant equipment re-mained the engines of growth for Turkishexports, whilst demand for iron and steelsank. The export of jewellery to Arabiccountries declined by 37%. Deliveries tothe EU, on the other hand, rose by almost4%, to account for approximately 41% ofall Turkish exports.

Turkish logistics companies, such asEkol Logistics, traditionally focused onthe European market, continue to regis-ter high turnover figures in their busi-ness with Germany, for example. Thetakeover of Mars Logistics, an Istanbul-based transporter with a fleet of around1,000 vehicles, by the Japanese multi-national Hitachi in July proves that theTurkish logistics sector continues to beinteresting.

Greece has grown strongly to the endof the first half of 2013. Observers con-sidered the contraction of GDP by just4.6% vis-à-vis the previous year to be

good news, and a EUR 1.9 billion (or 1%of GDP) reduction in the national budgetdeficit was simultaneously achieved.

In the past year the Greek economy al-so proved to be better than its reputationin the export sector. With 8.8% annualgrowth, results proved very respectable,and a degree of market differentiationwas achieved. This was evidenced by thefact that the decline in exports to EUcountries was more than compensatedfor by improved sales to the USA, Russia,Turkey and the Middle East.

Privatisation still on the agendaGreece is also counting on liberalisationof its transport sector. The newly-issuedroad freight concessions came into opera-tion on 30 June, the first round of thetender for the sale of the Greek railwaycompany Trainose is running till 16 Sep-tember, and the process of privatising twoof the country’s large port operators, inThessaloniki (THPA) and Piraeus (PPA),is about to begin. One of the companiesinterested in an acquisition is the Chineseshipping company Cosco, which alreadyoperates a container terminal in Piraeus.

Christian Doepgenwww.tuik.gov.tr

www.statistics.gr

Turkish boom and Greek bust both loose momentum

Joy and sorrow on the BosphorusSo far the boom that Turkey experienced in 2012 has not continued into 2013, as demand in the Middle East declined by almost 10%,

strongly affecting Turkey. Exports to European markets on the other hand picked up strongly. The recession in Greece, on the other

hand, has seemed to bottom out, and the country is benefiting from the growing support of its shipping companies.

Photo: thinkstock

TURKEY &GREECE

43International Transport Journal 35-36 2013 Turkey and Greece Special

The Turkish subsidiary of HellmannWorldwide Logistics has become the fifthHellmann company to join the generalcargo network System Alliance Europe.It can thus now offer additional directtransport options to and from Istanbuland new links to and from Izmir. Thealliance said that the move has broughtits membership to 54 partners in 27 coun-tries, and that it now offers a total of 188branches.

Over and above this, another SystemAlliance partner, the German enterpriseDeutsche Transport-Compagnie (DTC),is opening a Turkey gateway at its Nurem-berg headquarters in September. The hubwill offer daily transportation of consign-ments to partner Hellmann WorldwideLogistics’ branch in Istanbul.

Sertrans partner in TurkeyAnd last but not least, the entity WimBosman Expeditie, the Dutch nationalbranch of the Wim Bosman group, whichin turn is a part of the Mainfreight logis-tics corporation from New Zealand, hasstarted a new collaboration deal with theTurkish transport and logistics enterpriseSertrans in the overland segment. Thepartnership between Wim Bosman andSertrans will focus on international op-tions – primarily road haulage, but also

including intermodal transport solutions– between the Netherlands and Turkey.Wim Bosman said that the frequencyof departures from the Netherlands toTurkey will be expanded thanks to thecollaboration deal with the new partner.Specifically the firms will provide dailyLTL and FTL services to the Bosphorus,and over and above this there will be twoweekly groupage services available too.Road haulage to the customs authorityoffices will generally be completed in fivedays. If customers wish for the transpor-

tation tasks to be executed intermodally,then the transit time is two days longer.

The family-owned enterprise Sertrans,which is headquartered in Istanbul, is amember of the general cargo and groupagenetwork System Alliance Europe – just asWim Bosman is. Sertrans has a total ofeight branch offices in Turkey.

Robert Altermattwww.systemallianceeurope.net

www.hellmann.net; www.dtc.dewww.wimbosman.com

www.sertrans.com.tr

General cargo and overland transport options to and from Turkey being expanded

Sertrans, Hellmann, Bosman, DTCThere is a spate of new activities in the Turkish logistics market. Hellmann has joined the general cargo network System Alliance Europe

in Turkey, and the Dutch forwarding and logistics group Wim Bosman has started a new partnership with the Turkish service provider

Sertrans. And last but not least, the German firm Deutsche Transport-Compagnie launched its new Turkey options early in September.

The general cargo network System Alliance Europe has expanded its options to and from Turkey.

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Transit via TURKEY to IRAQinfo@geneltransport.com.trinfo@geneltransport.com.tr

45International Transport Journal 35-36 2013 Turkey and Greece Special

Mr Kizilkaya, you’ve been workingfor Turkish Airlines for a decade now.What has changed in the company’scorporate culture in this long time?A lot. I vaguely recall our 2004 summerflight schedule. We operated around 60aircraft at the time, which carried out2,000 flights a week, serving approxi-mately 70 international destinations.Turkish Airlines transported 10 millionpassengers that year. There wasn’t muchtalk of the freight division at that time.We handled an annual volume of lessthan 100,000 t back then.

Today we operate 8,000 flights a weekto 237 destinations in 103 countries,deploying 213 units. Moreover, we’vetargeted a volume of 539,000 t of cargofor this year. In another ten years we’llhave 400 aircraft in our fleet – a worldrecord. Whilst we’ve quadrupled our vi-tal statistics, our staffing levels have risenby a mere 40%. So as you can see, we’vesimultaneously also become much moreproductive.

«We serve 103 countries –more than any otherairline in the world.»

Turkish Airlines became a memberof the century club in May, with thelaunch of a service to Malta, the 100thcountry the airline serves. Have youset yourselves a limit to growth?No, the sky’s the limit! Basically we wantto reach as many destinations as we pos-sibly can. There are several factors drivingour development. Turkey is a large coun-try with a growing home market. The na-tion’s gross domestic product tripled be-tween 2002 and 2012, and the purchasingpower of the man in the street has risenaccordingly. Then there is the fact thatTurkey is both a strong importer as well asan important producer. Companies fromTurkey have carved themselves many aniche market, creating export volumesworth approximately USD 150 billion.

By the time the founding of the modernstate of Turkey celebrates its centenaryin 2023, this figure has been projectedby some to rise as high as USD500 bil-lion. Of course you know that one third(by value) of all imports and exports aretransported by air.

It is this dynamic that has promptedTurkey to plan a new airport, with state-of-the-art infrastructure, in Istanbul, ourmost important economic metropolis.

Tell us more!The new airport will be located northof Istanbul and will have a total of sixrunways. It will have the very best inter-modal links, including new road and railconnections, maritime ports on the BlackSea as well as the Bosphorus, and a newinland waterways canal for the transpor-tation of hazardous goods. The projectwill benefit from Istanbul’s excellentgeographical position – at the crossroadsbetween Europe, Africa and Asia.

What are relations with Turkey’s im-mediate neighbours like these days?We’ve just established a new freighterconnection to Erbil, in northern Iraq.It’s working very well. The same can besaid of our Central African destinationsof Entebbe and Kigali.

It’s this approach, above all, namelythat we open up new windows of oppor-

tunity for trade – and not only Turkishtrade – that perfectly illustrates our roleas a global airline. We’ve made a namefor ourselves by serving niche destina-tions such as Tblisi (Georgia), Ashgabat(Turkmenistan), Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) aswell as other Central Asian cities.

«The axes of world tradeare continually shifting.»

Turkish Cargo’s marketing presencereminds me a little of that of your com-petitors from the Persian Gulf...Every company has its own targets. Weobserve what our competitors are up to,and respect their approach. The axes ofworld trade are continually shifting. It’sour task to make sure that the strongEuro–Asian trade route continues to runthrough our region for as long as possible.

To this end we’re continuing to investmassively in our hub at Istanbul Atatürk,where we’ll establish 10,000 sqm of ware-housing space this year, and another50,000sqm next year. This may appearto be a waste of money in the light of thenew airport, but it is essential to tide usover until the latter is ready.

In what other fields are you investing?

In conversation with Turkish Cargo’s Mehmet Kizilkaya

A world record holder going placesThe freight carrier Turkish Cargo has been set on a solid growth path for ten years now. Mehmet Kizilkaya has been on board

since 2003. He is Turkish Cargo’s regional director for Central and Southern Europe, one of the airline’s two European regions.

The ITJ spoke to Mehmet Kizilkaya in Munich recently.

Mehmet Kizilkaya (on the left) talking to the ITJ’s Christian Doepgen and Andreas Haug.

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continued on page 47

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47International Transport Journal 35-36 2013 Turkey and Greece Special

The quality of our services has to be top notch so that wecan provide specialist logistics markets – such as thosein the pharmaceuticals or the express delivery industries,for example – with suitable offerings. That’s why we’veinvested both in our own warehouses as well as in theexpansion of our network and fleet. The capacity of ourfull-freighter fleet has doubled in four years. It now en-compasses three Airbus A310s and six A330s. Overall,our fleet is one of the newest in Europe.

That’s the hardware we need for success, and we’resimultaneously modernising our IT software. We alsopromote staff training, and networking between the sixregions into which our global activities have been di-vided, with their headquarters in New York, Frankfurt,Vienna, Dubai, Nairobi and Hong Kong.

We can see that you’re thinking big! But to comeback to the new Istanbul airport and the dimensionsof that project – bearing the problems at the hugebuilding site in Berlin or at the hub in Doha in mind,wouldn’t you say that it’s a bit optimistic to talk aboutinaugurating your new hub «in four or five years»?No, I don’t think so. You see, in Istanbul we rather tendto finish such projects faster. The construction of SabihaGökçen airport, Istanbul’s second hub, located on theAsian side of the Bosphorus, was originally supposed totake four years, but it was completed in 2001 after justtwo years. When the plans are realistic, the funds areavailable and a degree of experience is available, thensuch an undertaking is entirely feasible.

«Turkish Airlines is ready to deliver the servicesto help businesses grow. There are many

profitable niches in the new markets for us.»

Allow me to comment on the situation in Berlin – Iworked there for three years, after all. The plans for thehub lay dormant for many years, and were partially outof date. I also have the feeling that Berlin is different.If the project had been planned for Frankfurt, then itwould have been completed a long time ago – for thelatter has a different significance for German aviation.But I want to underline that I haven’t lost my «Vertrauen»(Kizilkaya uses the German word for faith – ed.) in Ger-many’s engineering skills!

What is your assessment of the current economic andfinancial situation in Europe?Ask me an easier one! The fact remains that, while thegrowth rate of world aviation has been in decline, avia-tion in Turkey has risen amazingly. At a time of globalrecession, Turkey has been one of the fastest-growingeconomies for the last years. Today, with emerging econ-omies looking to expand their offerings, Turkish Airlinesis ready to deliver the services and support needed tohelp businesses grow. There is a great potential for aircargo and many profitable niches in the new markets forus. www.turkishcargo.com.tr

Loxx set to cooperate withMilitzer&Münch in TurkeyThe German logistics provider Loxx announced recently that it had start-ed a collaboration deal with Militzer&Münch in Turkey on 1 June. Theagreement between Militzer&Münch Uluslararasi Nakliyat ve LojistikHizmetler, to give the national branch its full name, and Loxx initiallyoffered export and import options to and from stations in Bursa andIstanbul, in the Marmara region. The partners offer three general cargoruns a week from each destination. Istanbul is simultaneously Loxx’s hubfor the Middle East, the Caucasus and Turkmenistan. Departures wereincreased early in August, and in the medium term the collaboration willbe extended to the stations in Izmir, Mersin and Ankara. ra

www.loxx.de; www.mumnet.com

continued from page 45

Greek post office paring down networkPost Elta, the state-owned Greek postal service provider, recently an-nounced plans to restructure its network of post offices. It is set to handover 80 of the 730 branches Elta runs nationwide to private franchisees.The reduction in the number of post offices is due to commence inautumn this year and be completed by early 2014. Elta CEO KostisMelachroinos said that the corporation would be able to save aroundEUR 2.5 million annually thanks to the move. The private franchiseeswill be expected to provide the same services as Elta in the branchesthey take over, according to Melachroinos. www.elta.gr

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48 Turkey and Greece Special International Transport Journal 35-36 2013

Butnowshipownershavedecided to provide thestate with more funds,with the Union of GreekShipowners announcingplans to give greater sup-port to the economy. Forthe next three years, 441shipping industry firms are setto make voluntary payments to statecoffers that exceed the legally prescribed levelsby up to 50%. Between them, these 441 entitiesmanage a fleet of 2,769 vessels, which representsmore than half of the Greek-controlled fleet largerthan 10,000 dwt. The government believes that it willnet EUR75 million this year and EUR140 million ineach of the next two years through the measure.

Greek shipowners control approximately 15% of theworldwide merchant navy fleet, thus accounting formore than any other nationality in the market. Theyare frequently long on cash too. In the first six monthsof this year, Greek shipping lines have already investedmore than EUR 4 billion in orders for newbuildings.Since the German KG financing model ran into diffi-culties, they have not only been buying the proven bulkcarriers, but containerships too. av

Paying in instead of avoiding tax

Greek shipowners digdeep for the stateThe Greek economy remains in the doldrums. Now Hellenic shipping

firms have proposed voluntary payments to the state coffers, in order

to make a contribution to the improvement of the country’s overall

financial situation.

The citizens of Greece have repeatedly subjected their country’s ship-ping companies to heavy criticism in the recent past. Even thoughthe Greek merchant shipping industry already enjoys many special taxbreaks in Greece – as is the case in several other European countriestoo – shipping firms often register their vessels under foreign flags.This allows shipowners to make additional tax savings. This has causedincreasing resentment against shipping companies from large parts ofthe population, which is suffering from the country’s sixth straight yearof recession. The government has made many drastic spending cuts asa result. It was with this background in mind that the Greek govern-ment amended a law in May, forcing those ships that do not sail underthe Greek flag to come pay higher levies (see ITJ 23-26/2013, page 17).

Greek shipowners havedecided to supportthe national economywith more thanis legallyexpected ofthem.

Photo: Thinkstock

Work starts on Petkim’s newTurkish container terminal

Construction work on the Petkim Petrochemical Hold-ing’s new container port in Nemrut Bay near Izmir (Tur-key) started early this month. The first phase is due to becompleted by 2015, with the second scheduled for com-pletion a year later. Petkim, a chemical products manu-facturer, is a joint venture between Azerbaijan’s state-owned energy corporation Socar and APM Terminals(APMT), a subsidiary of Denmark’s A.P. Moller-Maerskgroup. The partners will initially invest approximatelyEUR300 million in the new port, which will then havean annual capacity of 1.5 million teu. This figure willsuccessively be expanded to 4 million teu. APMT willoperate the port for up to 28 years.

Izmir is Turkey’s second-largest industrial city, and itspopulation of around 4 million people is growing fast.The Aegean Sea with its almost 10 million inhabitantsis also part of the port’s large catchment area. av

www.petkim.com.tr

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49International Transport Journal 35-36 2013 Turkey and Greece Special

The Japanese industrial production giantHitachi, which has been in business for103 years, has gained a foothold in theTurkish logistics market. Hitachi Trans-port System, the transport and logisticsdivision of the corporation, recently ac-quired 51% of the shares in Mars Lojistik,a leading Turkish transport service pro-vider. The transaction is scheduled forcompletion in October. Yauso Nakatani,Hitachi Transport System’s chairman ofthe board and CEO, said that the pur-chase would enable his company to sub-stantially improve its position in logisticsmarkets in Asia, Africa and Europe (in-cluding Russia).

Mars Lojistik generated sales worthEUR 224 million in the 2012 financialyear. This year the company plans toachieve a sales figure of approximatelyEUR 275 million. Mars Lojistik is pre-sent in every important centre of tradeand industry in its home country. Its cor-porate headquarters in Istanbul managesbranch offices in Bursa, Izmir, Adana,Ankara, Mersin, Tuzla and Ambarli. The

firm also has stations at key internationaland national airports, including IstanbulAtatürk, Izmir Adnan Menderes andAnkara Esenboga. The service provideralso has centres in Luxembourg, Italy andChina. Mars Lojistik has a fleet of 1,000modern trucks.

The industrial giant Hitachi generatesannual sales of approximately USD108billion, which the magazine Fortune saysputs it in 38th place amongst all com-panies worldwide. Hitachi has around326,000 employees.

Robert Altermattwww.marslogistics.com

Hitachi takes majority stake in Mars Lojistik

Mars Lojistik operates a fleet of approximately1,000 owned lorries.

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In briefDefacto banks on TGW. The Turkish fash-ion retailer Defacto has asked the Austrianintralogistics service provider TGW to installthe necessary intralogistics equipment andfacilities in its new 55,000 sqm distributioncentre in Çerkezköy, Tekirdag (100 km westof Istanbul). TGW will establish a twelve-lane automated warehouse for Defactothere, with nigh-on 200,000 slots.

www.tgw-group.com

New air route. The Greek transport minis-try announced in March that the country isset to create a network of seadromes. It willhave a hub near Athens and twelve regionalstations. The charter provider K2 Smart Jets,which has teamed up with the companyWater Airports, has said that it wants tooffer an integrated route network from 2014onwards, whilst Hellenic Seaplanes, whichalready transports freight consignmentsweighing up to 30 kg, is assessing no lessthan 100 potential destinations. ah

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50 Turkey and Greece Special International Transport Journal 35-36 2013

Bulgaria belonged to the Ottoman Empire

for almost five hundred years. Despite

– or perhaps because of – this long com-

mon history, communication between the

Balkan country and its neighbour to the

southeast seems difficult. Current disputes

about the bilateral cross-border transport

industry confirm the impression.

In mid-August representatives of the Bul-garian association of international trans-port companies (Aebtri) and the Bulgar-ian association of automobile transportcompanies (Basat) issued a warning thatTurkey was planning to introduce newtransit fees for foreign-registered trucks.

The Turkish government’s 7 Au-gust communiqué revealed, the Bulgarsclaimed, that new charges were going tobe many times higher than existing ones.Transporting a truckload across the bor-der to Istanbul and back would cost Bul-garian truckers EUR200–300 more, theassociations feared.

Aebtri and Basat officials were con-cerned that the introduction of newtariffs by their Turkish colleagues repre-sented the silent promotion of Turkishprotectionism. They thought the Turksintended to sweep Bulgarian transportcompanies from the market, not only forloads between Europe and Turkey, butalso for business to and from the MiddleEastern market.

«This affects a huge number of Bul-garian companies and puts hundreds ofthousands of jobs at risk in the sector,»Aebtri’s Koitscho Russev warned. Hecalled on the Bulgarian government to«take reciprocal measures,» otherwise hethreatened that Bulgarian truck driverswould again block border posts to andfrom Turkey – as they had already donein May.

Tempers flare in a hot summer«The new transit fees do not apply toBulgarian hauliers,» Bulgaria’s transportminister Danail Papasov finally clarifiedon 21 August. The new tariffs, he said,only affect vehicle owners from countries

that have not concluded a bilateral agree-ment with Turkey covering the transportindustry. Bulgaria and Turkey have hadsuch an agreement in place since 1977.«We have an official guarantee from theTurkish transport ministry that Bulgar-ian trucks crossing the border into Turkeyonly have to pay EUR43, same as they’vepaid so far,» Papasov said, calming frayedtempers.

So the danger of border blockadesseems to have receded for the moment,but the representatives of the Bulgar-ian transport sector do not consider thematter resolved. «We didn’t only raisethe issue of the new transport fees, butalso drew attention to the matter of theproposed penalties for incorrect shippingdocuments. In future Turkish borderguards will be allowed to demand up toEUR3,000 from Bulgarian truck drivers,even if they aren’t responsible for a de-fective document,» Basat’s Petko Angelovsaid.

Not the first disputeIn mid-May Bulgarian truck drivers hadblocked the border crossings at KapitanAndreevo and Lesovo for several days.The action caused up to 10 km lorryqueues. The protests, then as now, weredirected against what in the Bulgarians’view is discriminatory treatment andharassment of hauliers by Turkish borderofficials.

The Turks claimed that they were sim-ply implementing valid internationalcross-border freight transportation rules.They claimed that slow Bulgarian repairworks were responsible for border delaysat Kapitan Andreevo. Frank Stier

www.aebtri.comwww.basat.eu

Conflict over cross-border long-distance traffic resolved for the time being

Turks appease Bulgarians

Mutual dependence. Turkish road hauliers’ transport routes to Europe lead through Sofia, whilstBulgarian trucks heading for the Middle East have to pass through Istanbul.

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CommentNo room for polemicsIt is difficult to determine who wasresponsible for the failure of communica-tion between the Bulgarian and Turkishtransport industries. Bulgaria would bewell advised not to exacerbate the conflictwith polemics but to seek a constructivesolution. The 8 million inhabitants of arather small Balkan country could greatlybenefit from the economic dynamism of itsneighbouring «tiger on the Bosphorus».

Bulgarian consumers are presently notspending, and as a consequence the Bul-garian economy is stagnating. Bulgarian-Turkish trade is developing positively, onthe other hand. Statistics for the first halfof 2013 indicate that there was significantgrowth compared to the same period lastyear. Bulgaria’s exports to Turkey grewby 21% to EUR 2 billion, and imports byalmost 27% to EUR 1.4 billion.

for the transfer of freight to rail is not so marked in Germany as it is inits neighbouring countries to the south. «Our politicians seem to be moreinterested in the subject of overlong HGVs,» he remarked wryly.

Tuscher illustrated the profitability dilemma facing European staterailways with four core statements.• In recent years, no major rail freight undertaking has made sufficient

profits to allow for reinvestment.• A number of principal competitors are faced with large deficits and

serious structural challenges.• Irrational margin expectations (keyword break-even point) encourages

distortions of competition.• It is difficult, in the face of intermodal competition, to pass pan-Euro-

pean cost increases on to customers. Wilf Seifert

Same tenor in Germany, Austria and Switzerland

«The railways mustwin back lost volumes»The closure of many rail loading stations has led to a shift of traffic from rail to road,

not only in Switzerland but also in Austria. In both cases these rationalisation measures

were a consequence of economic pressure rather than a response to environmental

considerations. The loser of these changes is wagonload traffic.

Three Central European colleagues – hostDr Frank Furrer, secretary general of VAPSwitzerland, Jürgen Tuscher, of VPI Germany(on the left), Frank Petutschnig, of VPI Austria.

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The number of Austrian rail loading stations has beenreduced from 540 to 461 since 2010. At the same time, aspecial service freight surcharge has been introduced at76 stations. In many cases both measures became effec-tive within six weeks after their announcement, causinguncertainty among shippers with regard to the future ofthe terminals that remained.

The handling of timber was more than proportionallyaffected by this retrograde ecological step. «This is notthe end of the story either,» Frank Petutschnig, secretary-general of Austria’s private wagon association VPI proph-esied in mid-May at a Swiss transport industry associationVAP's Freight Wagon Forum in Zurich. A further roundof reductions to 420 stations was announced at the end oflast year, and this, it is calculated by Rail Cargo Austria,will result in nearly 35,000 more truck journeys per year.However, there is some good news. Petutschnig has sub-mitted a set of strategic measures to strengthen railfreighttraffic to the Austrian government.Three examples.• A support programme for the provision of rail freight

services in the single-wagon traffic, unaccompaniedcombined transport and rolling motorway (ro-mo)segments.

• «New» support for private sidings and terminals up tothe year 2017.

• Strategic objectives in the form of a master transportplan, incorporating current measures. The aim is for40% of Austrian goods traffic to be carried by rail by2025 (in 2010 it was 33%).

Single-wagon traffic in decline all over Europe«The shift of freight traffic from road to rail must bebacked by political will and must be defined by concreteobjectives, not wishes,» Petutschnig placed on record.For the assurance of a high-quality, sustainable offeringhe argued for a reduction in production costs over thelast mile, more intensive customer care and cooperationwith other rail transport enterprises and forwarders, etc.

The talk by Petutschnig’s German opposite numberJürgen Tuscher, chief executive of his country’s privatewagon association VPI, was also devoted to the main topicof single-wagon traffic. Between 2011 and 2012, transportvolumes in Germany fell by 2.4% to 366million t in termsof goods carried, and by 2.7% to 110 billion in terms oftonne-kilometres. In Tuscher’s view, the political support

51International Transport Journal 35-36 2013 Central Europe

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Schiffahrts- und Speditions-Aktiengesellschaft

The ground-breaking ceremony for theconstruction of a new terminal took placerecently in Szczecin. The company Cron-imet, a subsidiary of the global CronimetHolding, has said that it will invest a totalof EUR 4.7 million in setting up the cen-tre, in cooperation with the ports of Szc-zecin and Swinoujscie. The terminal willfacilitate the processing and handling ofalloy scrap, non-ferrous metals and toolsteels in the ports. Cronimet had estab-lished activities there in the second halfof 2012. The investment company Eko-inwest is also involved in the terminal.

The authorities of the maritime portsof Szczecin and Swinoujscie have signedthe corresponding contracts. Cronimetwill get the raw materials required both

from its own production centres as wellas from large Polish plants that deal inhigh-quality steel scrap. The secondaryraw material is already transported toSzczecin by trains and truck today, fromwhere it is forwarded to other Europeanports by ship. It is delivered to steel plantsin Finland, the Netherlands or Spain, de-pending on the consignment concerned.The capacity of the new facility is expect-ed to amount to 250,000 to 350,000 t ofscrap metal annually.

«This new plant will enable us to fur-ther expand our activities in the trade andrecycling fields in Poland and thus allowus to invest in regional markets,» MichaelVogel, chairman of Cronimet Poland,declared. The position of the new centre

will enable the goods to be handled morerapidly and customers to thus get evenbetter delivery services.

The company’s headquarters in Po-land are in Inowroclaw. The parent com-pany itself is active worldwide, includingin Brazil and Russia.

The environment for the new build-ing was fashioned in accordance with theneeds of the design. In February 2012Cronimet was granted a 30-year leaseagreement for a plot near the industrycanal in the port of Szczecin. cd

www.port.szczecin.plwww.cronimet.de

Plans for a metal processing terminal in Szczecin

Turning scrap metal into steelThe activities of Cronimet, a recycled metals processor, in the port of Szczecin started in

2011. Now the company, which opened another facility in 2012, has announced that it is

set to start with the construction of a metal processing terminal.

A new scrap metal handling terminal is beingestablished in the port of Szczecin.

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Stef’s hands on Ebrex

The French cool chain transportationand logistics group Stef is planning totake over the company Ebrex France, an-other specialist in the provision of reefertransportation and cool chain logisticsservices from the same country. Stef saidthat it had commenced sale negotiationswith the shareholders of Ebrex France.The acquisition will be subject to regula-tory approval, of course. Ebrex France isbased in Thiais, southeast of Paris in theEssonne department. It generated sales ofapproximately EUR 141 million in finan-cial 2012, with 1,125 employees workingin 21 locations. ra

www.stef.com; www.ebrex.fr

DB Schenker optimisingcapacities in BelgiumDB Schenker Logistics recently beganoperations in a new logistics centre withmore than 5,000 sqm of handling areas,70 loading bays and 2,900 sqm of offices.The centre is in Zwevegem (Belgium). TheEUR 13 million building offers excellentinfrastructure for domestic and interna-tional overland transport services. Theterminal took a year to build on a 36,000sqm tract of land and is equipped witheco-friendly technology, including solarpanels, sensor-monitored lighting and agrey-water recycling system. Until opera-tions began, the 120 DB Schenker em-ployees who now work there were based attwo sites in Waregem, 10km away. Theyhave now been transferred to the newcross-docking terminal in Zwevegem, justa year after construction work on the fa-cility commenced. The company Schen-ker NV, a subsidiary of DB Schenker Lo-gistics, is present in Belgium at locationsin Antwerp, Brussels, Mechelen, Eupen,Willebroek, Zaventem, Zeebrugge andnow Zwevegem. ra

www.dbschenker.com

Stef is expanding its French network.

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In briefWoodland’s 25th anniversary. The Essex-based Woodland Group, one of the UK’sleading independent freight forwarding andlogistics companies, recently celebrated its25th anniversary. Woodland was foundedby Kevin Stevens in Basildon in 1988, andhas now grown into a company that turnsover more than GBP 120 million a year andemploys 600 people.

www.woodland-group.com

Tatex takeover now completed. Theintegration into FedEx of the French expressservice provider Tatex (formerly called TatExpress), which was taken over by the US in-tegrator and CEP corporation last year, wascompleted around a year after the takeover,FedEx said recently. Tatex’s business activi-ties have already been carried out under thename of FedEx Express France since Marchof this year. www.fedex.com

UTi in London. The freight forwarding andlogistics corporation UTi Worldwide, whichis headquartered in Long Beach CA (USA),has moved into a new 3,100 sqm warehouseterminal near London Heathrow airport. Theplatform has video surveillance and accesscontrol facilities. www.go2uti.com

52 Nordic Countries and Baltic States / Western Europe International Transport Journal 35-36 2013

This edition of the ITJ appears at the end of

the summer here in the northern hemisphere,

which is why we’ve dedicated this article to

some remarkable ideas and incidents from

the big wide world of logistics.

The firm Knapen Trailers from Deurne(Netherlands) is neither a drinks suppliernor a road tanker manufacturer. But as«Europe’s first maker of moving-floortrailers and the inventor of a self-sup-porting trailer» the transport efficiencyspecialist inspired its client Heno Trans.It passed the «refreshing and inspiringhint» (pictured) on to its business part-ners, who could then also re-deploy theirmultifunctional moving-floor trailers inthe hot, hot summer.

The beer brand Cardinal took a moretraditional approach for its Herculean lo-gistics task at the Gurten festival in Bern(Switzerland). An experienced team ofmore than 20 employees from the Feld-

schlösschen brewery was on hand to makesure that the 80,000 visitors to the eventdid not suffer thirst, but could enjoy acool drink in the heat. They provided allthe equipment needed – 20 reefer wagons,three coolers, 100 buffet tables, 60 fridgesand 40 tents – to make sure that liquidrefreshments were always on hand.

The biggest ever message in a bottlewas a bit lonelier than the festival-goers. A10m long unmanned high-tech vessel wasset free in the context of a competitionby a Norwegian lemonade manufacturer.He was seeking to make his drink better

known across the world. Unfortunatelythe unit, buffeted by the Atlantic waveson its lonely voyage, lost contact with itssatellite on 10 August, after several monthscriss-crossing the seas. Solo, as the drinksmanufacturer is aptly called, believes itis in the Caribbean, has asked people tokeep a look out for it, and reminded localshipping to be careful. They’ll need to be– unless the vessel has disappeared in theBermuda Triangle... ah

www.knapen-trailers.euwww.feldschloesschen.com

www.solo.no

Refreshing ideas from Norway, Switzerland and the Netherlands

Liquids in many a shape and form

Enjoying an unexpected but welcome dip in a mobile swimming pool. People having some summerfun in the northern hemisphere.

Phot

o:Kn

apen

Trai

lers

53International Transport Journal 35-36 2013 Miscellaneous

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54 A Time for Reflection / Advertisers’ Index International Transport Journal 35-36 2013

Conformity and dissent«I’d rather be criticised by the right people than praised by the wrong ones.»Gerhard Kocher, a Swiss journalist and aphorist

It’s important to realise that not any andevery truth can be unreservedly trum-peted out into the world. Children tendto learn this in the schoolyard, usuallyin a rather emphatic way. Even if youaren’t particularly keen on the prevailingclothes, language or mode of mobility ofyour generation, you’ll be much better offif you only share any opinion that contra-dicts the prevailing trend carefully. If onlyI’d known Cicero’s resigned sigh – «youhave to accept the times you live in» – insecondary school, I’d have been sparedthe poundings I got for sneering at thelimited speed of the mopeds popular atthe time. Some of my fellow pupils werecleverer – and quieter. Mopeds have be-come rare today, my wounds have healed,and nowadays it’s electric bikes that dothe overtaking.

I’ve noticed that the demand for dissentis on the decline. Labour psychologistsbelieve that teamwork, though frequentlycited in today’s labour market, is oftenno more than a code for conformity – aconformity that isn’t even necessarilydemanded by your boss, but is rathercalled for and monitored by your owncolleagues. This attitude reaches all the

way to the top too, as James Westphal ofthe University of Texas established in a studyanalysing corporate boards. Dissenting opin-ions are avoided there too, for fear of beingostracised. And the executive suite is surpris-ingly in tune with the kindergarten. In 2011a group of Dutch and German anthropologyand psycho-linguistics institutes looked atthe behaviour of 96 four-year-olds, and es-tablished that the children even supported amajority opinion when they had demonstra-bly recognised it to be wrong. The conclu-sion? Man is a hopelessly social animal.

So is there no escaping this irksome con-formity? The pessimistic German philosopherArthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) drasti-cally countered this argument, as was to beexpected. He believed that a person whoaccepts every standard and rule inventedby his world, like a puppet on a string, «willeventually either buy some sleeping pills ora gun.» A better solution than the final exitcould be to appreciate dissent more, as evena small dose thereof can have a great effect.The Romanian-born Parisian psychologistSerge Moscovici (*1925) conducted experi-ments which showed that a lone but com-petent and self-assured dissident can turn a97% majority opinion, for example, into a

36% minority – provided he’s vehementenough in his public appearance. A loudcritic thus has at least a relatively goodchance of swaying opinion in an all-toounanimous environment.

But is dissent worth anything in its ownright at all? Western and Eastern thoughtare remarkably convergent in their posi-tive assessment of this question. In thetradition of Confucian philosophy theChinese Marxist leader Mao Tse-tung(1893–1976) considered a divergentopinion to be the cause and preconditionof any development – which put him inagreement with the German philosophersImmanuel Kant (1724–1804) and GeorgHegel (1770–1831). As dissidents we canthus feel in harmony with yin and yang– even when facing strong headwinds.If that isn’t enough, then allow me tocite the Irish playwright George BernardShaw (1856–1950), whose more than90 years of life led him to conclude that«reasonable people adapt themselves tothe world. Unreasonable people attemptto adapt the world to themselves. All pro-gress, therefore, depends on unreason-able people.»

Christian Doepgen

Advertisers’ Index

Arkas/Marport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

A.R.T. Business Group AG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Barth+Co Spedition GmbH & Co KG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44

BDO AG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Blue Star Ferries Maritime S.A. & Co Joint Venture . . . . . . .44

easyFairs Switzerland GmbH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38

ECU INTERNATIONAL NV Headquarter Ecu-Line Group . . .16

EMS Chartering GmbH & Co. KG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Ethiopian Shipping Lines Share Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Evergreen Marine (UK) Limited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

Fiata Singapore 2013 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34

FISCHER Kaderselektion GmbH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Fixemer Logistics GmbH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Fleming Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49

Franzosini SA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Gebrüder Weiss GmbH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Genel Transport Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43

Gezairi Transport S.A.L. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46

Grimaldi Cia di Navigazione . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Hanjin Shipping Europe GmbH & Co KG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

IMS - Intermove Systems Advanced ContainerlogisticsSpeditions- und Transport GesmbH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39

InterRail Holding AG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26

Intertrans International Transports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44

LDZ Cargo Latvian Railway Cargo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28-29

LKW WALTER Internat. Transportorganisation AG . . . . . . . .2

Lognet Global Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

M & M Militzer & Münch International Holding AG . . . . . .24

NAVIS Schiffahrts- u. Speditions AG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Power Lift Events LTD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Project Cargo + Yacht Transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42

Russian Railways JSC RZD OAO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56

Saco Shipping GmbH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

S.I.T.T.A.M. S.r.l. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46

Tarros International S.p.A. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46

Thai Airways International PLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

TransContainer JSCO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55

Transfreight AG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48

Turnpoint (France) s.a.r.l. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

TVS Europaverkehre Speditions GmbH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27

UTi Logistics Switzerland Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36-37

Yang Ming Italy SpA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Zenit Spedition GmbH & Co KG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47