Cargo train poses a new threat to airfreight

14/10/2008

The first commercial Trans Eurasia Express from China arrived in Hamburg on 6 October after successfully completing the 10,000 km journey in 17 days.The arrival of the train heralds a new era of competition to airfreight on the key China-Europe route.

Air cargo volumes have seen noticeable erosion to ocean freight in the last 12 months as high fuel prices and surcharges, plus a lack of manufacturing spikes have seen a number of major hi-tech manufacturers switch modes.The new train service, although initially of limited scale, will not help the erosion from airfreight. It is placed in terms of cost and transport time between air and ocean freight. Worryingly, the first shipment on the train service was products for Fujitsu Siemens Computers – a commodity that is traditionally a mainstay of airfreight.Schenker, the logistics arm of German railway heavyweight Deutsche Bahn (DB), will begin offering scheduled rail freight services to China after the festivities for the Chinese New Year in February. Under the product name of the Trans Eurasia Express, two container trains are initially to travel weekly to link up China with Germany in a little over 15 days.

“Our endurance in pursuing this project is now paying off. Thanks to our cooperation with five other railways, including the Chinese and Russian railways, we are now able to open up an attractive and reliable new trade route for our customers between the markets in China and Central Europe. We are thus offering an attractive supplement to slower ocean freight and significantly more expensive airfreight,” said Hartmut Mehdorn, DB’s chief executive officer and chairman of the management board, on the arrival of the first Trans Eurasia Express in Hamburg.“With the introduction of the regular timetable and fixed departure times, this new link in our global network will enable us to offer a new level of quality in the trans-continental exchange of goods. At the same time, we are strengthening our technology leadership at international level,” added Dr Norbert Bensel, head of DB Schenker, responsible for the Transportation and Logistics Division.

“Operating across the Eurasian Landbridge, the container trains are to link up Shanghai and Beijing with Hamburg, Nuremberg and Duisburg with a weekly regular service. Interest in the new service has already been shown by companies in the automotive industry, the chemical industry, manufacturers of household goods and paper industries,” said Bensel.