Rail Freight Portal

Impact of the crisis

Maguelonne de Cossart — 2012-03-02T10:29:28Z

Which actions does your company take to prevent big economic losses?

Rail Cargo Austria

In the year 2009, as the global economic crisis was at its peak, Rail Cargo Austria initiated a strict restructuring program in order to sustainably improve the operating profit. The actions included price adaptions, process and production optimization and focussing on the core competencies. With these projects, the operating loss was reduced by over 50 percent in the year 2011.

To act as a strong, effective partner for our customers, Rail Cargo Austria will continue the implementation of the current restructuring program, thus being prepared for any movements on the economic market.

SZ

The current economic and financial crisis having encroached into transport and related activities in 2009, continues to persist, which confirms our presumptions that the recovery will be a difficult and long lasting process. After a drastic reduction in the scope of work completed (measured in NTKM) in 2009 by 24% when compared to 2008, first signs of recovery can be noted in 2010 and 2011, both displaying growth in comparison to the past year. The predictions for 2012, however, are again looking grim; in the face of increasingly restricted market and economic situation in Europe accompanied by a drop in demand for transport services, a further decrease in the amount of work completed in comparison to 2011 is expected. The expected drop in the scope of transport services coupled with precarious market and economic situation called for the implementation of appropriate measures to reduce both the impact of the recession on the scope of transport services and the size of negative operation result. Hence the main focus of our future operations and strategies remains production and labour cost-cutting, streamlining the maintenance of rolling stock and the reduction of service providers' costs. Considering the amplitude of cost-cutting, an adjustment of production and other capacities according to the actual needs and scope of work cannot be avoided and will include a change of business processes, implementation of new micro-organization and centralization of support functions.

We are well aware of the fact the crisis cannot be overcome with cost-cutting alone, so special attention is given to revenue-increasing measures, which will help tackling the crisis and reduce its impact on our business operations. The measures include: proactive search of new customers or increasing the volume of transport with the current ones, strengthening of our market position, internationalization of business operations and development of logistics and other ancillary activities.

In cooperation with our business partners, special attention will be given to the development of new and quality logistics products and services to meet customer needs and expectations. Taking into account Slovenia's geographical location at the intersection of V and X European Corridors, efforts will be made to increase our competitiveness on X European corridor while maintaining the current scope of transport services on V European corridor because of limited railway infrastructure capacities. In 2010, SZ began establishing business relations with west Balkan countries located next to or gravitating to X Corridor. The main objective of such business cooperation is providing access to reliable, safe and competitive transport adjusted to the customer's needs and expectations, while enhancing the quality and efficiency of railway transport in general. The cooperation will thus provide a good basis for increasing the volume of transport (including new services with added value) on the one hand, and cutting operating costs on the other.

CFR MARFA

The impact of the economic and financial crisis was experienced in the railway freight sector as a decrease of transport demand and incomes, and in the crash of certain freight markets that were traditionally customers of railway transportation.

Thus, CFR Marfă had recorded until the end of the year 2008 a 10% reduction in volumes of goods carried against the year 2007, and a gross loss generated by a disadvantageous economic context and wage raises not correlated with the evolution of services provided and incomes.

The year 2009 meant the deepening of the global economic and financial downturn, and the dramatic decline of freight markets in Romania, which generated the decrease by 25% of the freight volume, growing competition between carriers and the need to bring prices in line with market demands.

Since the beginning of this year, at company level, a range of measures meant to decrease operational expenses have been taken to reduce the impact of the economic crisis on the financial situation of the company.

They consisted in:

Reduction of staff costs;
Reduction of repair costs;
Reduction of material and fuel costs.

Despite all these, at the end of the year 2009, CFR Marfă recorded a 40% decrease in services provided, with impact on the decrease of incomes by roughly 37%.

In 2010, CFR Marfa had carried out its business on a market reduced in terms of market demands and with heavy pressure coming from private road and rail operators. The industrial production had started to show signs of ending the downward trend, so that at the end of the year, the industrial production ratios of Romania recorded a slow increase by 4.3% against the year 2009.

In spite of these, the freight market in Romania continued to drop and recorded a freight volume carried lower by 26.4% than in 2009.

The severe deterioration of the economic and financial situation of the company as a result of losses from 2008 and 2009, has forced CFR Marfa to apply a collective lay-off plan (the employees being covered by social security and receiving compensations).

Other measures have been taken as well to cut costs which could not be decreased at the same rate as the incomes:

Placing into technical unemployment periods by turns of the entire staff, and by reducing certain salary raises,
Cutting certain costs related to ancillary services, rental fees, offices, land etc.

At the same time, in order to make the company efficient, to increase production and introduce new management business practices, a restructuring and reorganization plan was applied in two stages according to the following criteria:

cut operational costs, limitation and rationalization of costs related to certain capital assets;
increase of operational incomes and making efficient the company;
territorial and structural reorganization of the company by redesigning the business based on the introduction of the concept of Customer Service Center and adopting a 4 branches instead of 8 branches structure;
setting up management structures by profit centers and improvement of processes in the business trade area with impact on the growth of the company's sales strength;
resizing the labour force at the level of each subsidiary according to the volume of services provided.

Thus, as compared to 2009, at the end of 2010, the company recorded an increase by 4.1% of the freight volume carried.

In 2011, as compared to 2010, the industrial production (gross series) increased by 5.6%, due to the growth recorded in all of the industrial sectors: power supply and heat-energy production, gas, hot water and air conditioning increased by 6.3%, manufacturing industry by 5.6%, and the mining industry by 4.5%.

By main industrial sectors, growth has been recorded for the main categories of goods: the intermediate materials industry (+10.0%), capital assets industry (+5.8%), the electricity sector (+4.9%) and the extended use goods industry (+1.1%). The consumer goods industry had decreased by 0.2%.

Certain industrial branches producing goods carried mainly by railway have recorded higher growth with positive impact on the transport activity of CFR Marfa.

These trends can be found in the growth by 2.5% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as compared to 2010, as this industry weights 30% in the economic growth.

In terms of the freight volume carried, the freight market of Romania has increased by 7.1%.

By mid 2011, CFR Marfa applied the second stage of the Restructuring and reorganization plan, by which the number of subunits was reduced, a new organization chart of the company was applied at Central and regional level, and the surplus staff has been laid off.

At the same time, the Customer Service Logistics Center has been established as a trading tool to better service the beneficiaries of the transport

Other actions made by CFR Marfa to cut and manage costs were:

to freeze employment
to cut the transport facilities granted to employees and to their families in 2011
to cancel certain rights granted to employees
to cut repair costs

Further to the implementation of these measures, at the end of the year 2011 the company recorded:

a growth by 19.7% of the volume of goods carried as compared to 2010
positive operational outcome, aside from thee influence of penalties,
higher income by roughly 10 % and lower expenditure by roughly 18 % against 2010.

CFR MARFA The National Rail Freight Company “C.F.R. Marfă” S.A. is the biggest rail freight operator of Romania with a business structured as follows:

Maguelonne de Cossart — 2012-03-02T10:21:34Z

The National Rail Freight Company “C.F.R. Marfă” S.A. is the biggest rail freight operator of Romania with a business structured as follows:

Transport of goods in domestic and international traffic as consignments of parcels, containers and block trains;
Transport of goods in intermodal traffic;
International railway transportation (import/export and transit);
Transport of goods by ferryboats, to and from railway systems servicing the Black Sea harbours; Accessory services of the freight rail carriage (i.e. shunting, weighing, customs clearance, etc.).

CFR Marfă owns a rolling stock fleet made up of 39000 different types of wagons, 907 electric and diesel locomotives for traction and shunting, and two ferryboats of 12500 tdw.

In Europe, in terms of the freight volume carried, the company is ranked on the 10th position. On the Romanian freight market, CFR Marfa has a market share of 11,4 % in comparison with the other modes of transportation. On the Romanian rail freight market, we have a market share of 60,8 % in comparison with the other 20 private rail freight operators. For the year 2011, the main goal of the company was to consolidate its current market share, and to prepare a coherent action plan ensuring economic balance.

Currently, the rail transport of goods copes with a range of difficulties which partly explain its incapacity to increase the market share. These difficulties are mainly connected to: available capacities, the management of information, the average speed, as well as to its flexibility, to the high investment needs and the low rate of investment return.

The consequences of the bottlenecks on the main roads and pollution will be less and less tolerated, and that is why an optimum solution would be to promote environmental friendly transport means fitted with state-of-the-art equipment and technology.

Brochures

Maguelonne de Cossart — 2012-03-01T16:01:40Z


CFR MARFA


Freight at UIC

Opinion survey

Maguelonne de Cossart — 2012-02-02T14:10:23Z

Woodchips like to travel by train- with HANNI

Maguelonne de Cossart — 2011-12-16T13:42:01Z

With customized logistic services and industry know-how, Rail Cargo Austria offers sustainable transport solutions for the Austrian woodworking and paper industry. Timber, as a natural product, sets a high value on ecological transportation.

Amid the newly created HANNI (national/international woodchips net), Rail Cargo Austria ensures ecological and safe transports by rail. With the integration into the new woodchips net, customers profit from greater loading and unloading time slots, given that block trains are in each case transposed full or respectively empty. Instead of a wagon-based or rather container-focused system, wood chips travel with a cost-optimized traction program. Within the next three years, an estimated amount of ten million cubic meters of woodchips will be transported by rail with the new HANNI-system for Papierholz Austria (PHA). Furthermore, HANNI offers a platform for transports from Romania, Slovakia, Germany and Italy.

With the new designed and innovative HANNI-System, Rail Cargo Austria offers sustainable and environmental-friendly rail transportation of woodchips, thus being the biggest system provider in Europe for this industry.

Opening of the new intermodal Terminal in Romania

Maguelonne de Cossart — 2011-12-16T13:41:59Z

In the city of Ploiesti, approx. 50 km north of Bucharest, the Belgian real estate developer ALINSO BV. developed an industrial park at the size of 260 hectare. The terminal contributes actively to the settlement of big companies from industries such as oil, chemicals and commerce. As the operator of the intermodal terminal, Rail Cargo Austria developed the new logistics hub in order to offer customers the opportunity for high-quality intermodal transports.

The terminal in Ploiesti is ideally placed at the junction of the most important road and rail transport routes in Romania, creating the link between the eastern and western parts of the country including harbors on the Black Sea. Moreover, the terminal provides strategic access to the major corridors in Western Europe.

The terminal's facilities include 24/7 security, closed circuit television, customs services, a container freight and repair station, a fuel station, as well as car and truck parking. The intermodal terminal in Ploiesti will act as a hub for cargo delivered by standard TEU (twenty-foot Equivalent Unit) containers, both normal and temperature-controlled, and unitized bulk cargo.

Romania – only one train away

With the new intermodal terminal in Ploiesti, Rail Cargo Austria provides a direct connection throughout Austria, Hungary and Romania. With a scheduled circulation (three times per week) from Wels via Curtici to Ploiesti, Rail Cargo Austria is able to offer in-house production services and thus significantly reducing transit times and increasing quality and punctuality.

The expansion of the international intermodal network forms an important part in further pursuing Rail Cargo Austria's strategy of expansion in South-Eastern Europe. As the leading railway operator in Austria and Hungary, Rail Cargo Austria benefits from the advantages of creating a logistic hub in Ploiesti to serve the transports in South-Eastern Europe and thus facilitating traffic from the Middle East, Turkey and Western Europe. The main aim is to actively offer an attractive, sustainable rail service portfolio and shifting transports from road to rail.

Trenitalia's Cargo Division

Maguelonne de Cossart — 2011-11-03T14:55:09Z

With almost 6,500 employees, Trenitalia's Cargo Division is Italy's leading operator in freight rail transport, offering services extending into foreign markets, as well. It operates indirectly in all the main European countries, thanks to synergy with other international companies of the Group Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane.

Mario Castaldo: “Freight rail transport plays an essential role in Italy's economic growth and competitive momentum in Europe. In 2010 Trenitalia's Cargo Division, the branch of the Group Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane in charge of freight transport, carried 13.5 billion tons per km”.

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Current economic state

Data from the 2010 Income Statement continue to highlight the improvements launched in recent years. A process of rationalization and streamlining is underway in Trenitalia's cargo division, with goals of economic recovery in the sector and breaking even in 2013.
Over the past few years, this process has led to a 75% reduction in the losses with respect to 2006, even in a negative macroeconomic scenario, marked by the 2009 global crisis and a slower, more restrained growth than expected for Italy and Europe's economies.
Though in a macroeconomic situation still marked by uncertainties and weaknesses, Trenitalia Cargo will continue on its path of corporate reorganization to reduce operating costs and the unit cost of transport, improve the efficiency of its services, and prepare itself to recognize the signs of the economy's reawakening and to compete on the market with the newcomers.

2011-2015 Business Plan

The 2011-2015 business plan projects a strong relaunch of the Group Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane's cargo division, focusing specifically on:

full trains
international transport
connections to and from ports.

Full trains

As per the guidelines of the new business plan, a network of full trains servicing large industrial clients has been put into operation. These connections were provided to key international players in the automotive, chemical, steel and iron, agri-food, and retail industries.
Less-than-trainload traffic, managed by 60-70-year-old rail methods, no longer satisfies the qualitative needs of clients or the cost rationalization imposed on companies by the market. For this reason, a new, more efficient, and less costly organization has been fine-tuned, which concentrates traffic on several platforms and creates full, multi-client trains. What's more, Trenitalia Cargo has also spread into market segments that, until today, were the exclusive prerogative of trucking, such as transport for large retail groups.

International transport

A stronger international presence is surely one of the pillars of Trenitalia Cargo's strategy. Recent operations carried out by Trenitalia demonstrate its goal of developing business along the main connection axes to Continental Europe. With regards to the north-south axis, Trenitalia has acquired from the founders all holdings of TX Logistik, a German freight rail transport company operating in the German and European markets. TX Logistik offers cross-border rail services through its subsidiaries in Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, and Italy, and proposes innovative, successful logistics services. TX Logistik's market is continuously expanding, today stretching all the way from Scandinavia to Italy and connecting the main European industrial areas. With regards to the western axis, Trenitalia Cargo has recently launched a freight transport service with Italian engine drivers on the French Amberieu-Modane track, roughly 200 km long. This new service was created in partnership with Europorte France, which handles end terminalisation in France. The service provides 5 pairs of trains running each week, for a total volume of 450 thousand tonnes a year. Also in France, Trenitalia Cargo avails itself of a business partnership with its subsidiary Trenitalia Logistics France.
With regards to the eastern axis, Trenitalia avails itself of partnerships with two of its trading companies, Pol-Rail and Rom-Rail. It is deemed an axis of considerable strategic interest, as it shows the highest growth indexes in terms of volumes transported.

Connections to and from ports

Another key goal of Trenitalia Cargo is to expand rail services in ports. Ports, after all, have always represented a natural point of traffic concentration, and Trenitalia could help Italy's port system make the leap in quality necessary for becoming more attractive with respect to the large ports of northern Europe. This development will be made possible only after having concentrated demand into a select number of ports, made qualitative and quantitative improvements to the infrastructure within port premises, created effective connections to the main national and international traffic thoroughfares, and increased the efficiency of shunting services.
This sea-rail integration is essential for the future development of Italy's ports, which for years have been penalized by an inefficient, expensive shunting system and a structurally congested entrance/exit road system located too close to urban centres.

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DB Schenker Rail UK

Maguelonne de Cossart — 2011-10-07T13:42:39Z

More Freight Trains Head to Britain

Tests of DB Schenker Rail UK: An important Step toward enabling freight trains from any location in Europe to travel to London

When the Channel Tunnel between Calais in northern France and Folkstone on the southeastern coast of England opened in 1995, many forecasted a bright future for rail freight transport between Great Britain and continental Europe. An enormous amount of effort and money went into the construction of the two-track rail tunnel. The high hopes for the groundbreaking project have not yet been met, however. In fact, only 1.1 million metric tons of freight was transported by rail via the tunnel under the English Channel in 2010, less than before the 50-km tunnel opened.

High prices in particular have prevented rail freight transport from making greater use of the tunnel. Competition between freight forwarders that use the truck shuttle has kept prices in check. Eurotunnel charges a higher, constant price for block trains, however, and as a result, only a few providers can afford the transfer.

DB Schenker Rail, one of the largest freight customers, operates around 25 trains through the Channel Tunnel each week. It transports up to 1,800 metric tons of steel coils weekly through the tunnel for Tata Steel Europe alone, a division of the Indian Tata Group. DB Schenker Rail set up a shuttle service for the steel producer between its sites in Wales and the Netherlands. It is aiming to increase capacity utilization of the Channel Tunnel through offers that make use of the advantages of the European network.

Picking line 22 at the Tata plant in the Dutch city of Ijmuiden had to be fully renovated after suffering damage in December 2010. Raw steel cleaning, rolling and pickling operations have had to be relocated to the Llanwern and Tostre production facilities in Wales during the renovations. The shuttle service closes the production gap while taking advantage of synergies between the different European sites. Hot rolled coils are loaded at a hot strip mill in Ijmuiden and transported to Tostre in southwest Wales via Antwerp, Calais and the Channel Tunnel. There they are unloaded and transformed into sheet products at a Tata Steel cold forming facility. The twenty empty cars then head to Llanwern, where they are loaded with pickled coils, which are urgently needed in Ijmuiden. The trains also transport steel products, which are sent from Ijmuiden onward to Italy and Sweden. In just six months DB Schenker Rail has transported over 220,000 metric tons through the Channel Tunnel and all across Europe.

There is also a technical challenge to overcome in addition to the logistical challenges. The British structure gauge, which is 30 centimeters smaller than the structure gauge in continental Europe, brings trains to a halt just past the British border. The structure gauge is the minimum clearance that must be maintained between the track and fixed installations. Vehicle designs also take this gauge into account. Central European cars are simply too wide for the British rail network. Their journey stops just after passing through the Channel Tunnel, and freight has to be transferred to British cars or trucks for further transport inland.

This will soon be unnecessary, however. As of January 2011, High Speed 1 (HS1), a high-speed route that connects London to the Channel Tunnel, can now also accommodate trains with the Central European structure gauge. DB Schenker Rail (UK) Ltd. began testing European cars on this route in June. Five loaded freight trains made successful journeys along HS1. “The tests were another important step toward enabling freight trains from any location in Europe to travel to London on DB Schenker Rail's pan-European network,” says Alain Thauvette, CEO of DB Schenker Rail (UK) Ltd. Using the wider cars will make importing and exporting freight via the English channel more efficient

the Market Place Seminars

Maguelonne de Cossart — 2011-09-01T08:29:21Z

The market place seminar is a platform which aims to create opportunities for increased cooperation and business development within the rail sector by offering a common platform for railway undertakings, freight forwarders and customers.

Following invitations from SNCF/RENFE to Barcelona, where the French –Iberian rail link was focused, and TCDD and UTIKAD to Istanbul where rail transport connecting South Eastern Europe and the Middle East was subject of the Seminar, this year's edition hosted by HHLA and DB Schenker, will focus on the challenges of intermodal hinterland traffic.

The last both Seminars displayed participants' will for an honest and creative discussion addressing all areas of improvement. While the past seminars mainly highlighted issues of the railway sector itself, this seminar with its focus on intermodal traffic might be of special interest as all participants of the transport chain are affected. It is likely that this event will bring new ideas for a better intermodal cooperation to light.

Market Place Seminar 2011

Maguelonne de Cossart — 2011-09-01T08:27:41Z

UIC, the International Union of Railways, and FIATA, the International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations, are pleased to announce the 4th edition of the Market Place Seminar to be held on 27 and 28 October 2011 in Hamburg.

This year's seminar will take place in Hamburg, with focus on “Rail hinterland – efficient connections to the world”.

The Market Place Seminar is a platform which aims to create opportunities for increased cooperation and business development within the rail sector by offering a common platform for railway undertakings, freight forwarders and customers.

Seminar highlights:

Efficiency gains from industrialising combined transport “door-to-door”
New business designs for inland terminals
Creating customer value with multimodal transport solutions
Infrastructure: from being a bottle neck to becoming an enabler of combined traffic

The seminar will comprise two half-day sessions, bringing together high-level speakers, and a networking event on the evening of the 27th that will enable you to expand your business network.

UIC and FIATA would like to warmly welcome you to this event which is a good opportunity to discuss rail solutions to hinterland traffic and to learn more about freight business. Don't forget to register before 15 September to benefit from the early-bird rate!

More information at www.marketplaceseminar.org