Intermodal keeps up with the flow
Intermodal keeps up with the flow
Huge flows of containerised automotive components are now being shipped around Europe by rail, which is now winning its fair share of traffic as competition between service providers grows.
Joe Pickers, general manager UK of Spanish rail operator Transfesa, emphasises the contribution that rail can make to the supply chain. The operator runs between six and 12 blocktrains a week, between Ford's production plants in Dagenham, east London and Valencia.
"Each train carries 44 13.6 metre swapbodies, " he says.
"It would be difficult to arrange the movement of such a large volume of freight by road at any one time."
Transit time is between 36 and 48 hours, and Pickers says the service is extremely competitive in both speed and price, compared with road.
As well as the flows of Ford car components from Cologne to Valencia and Berlin to Cologne, Transfesa carries shipments from Paris to Slovakia for General Motors.
"There has been substantial long-term growth in the automotive transport market, " says Pickers.
Despite the fact that the Ford plant in Dagenham may close, Pickers remains confident that there will be new flows of traffic when Ford produces four new models in Valencia. There may also be a new engine plant in Dagenham, creating added demand for blocktrain capacity.
For the past two years, Freightliner has been running container blocktrains from Felixstowe, Thamesport and Liverpool's Royal Seaforth Container Terminal, carrying components for Jaguar from the US in 20ft containers.
Trains are routed to a hub in Crewe, and from there the 60ft flatwagons, carrying the containers, are moved by rail to Freightliner 's Birmingham depot.
Andrew Grant, Freightliner 's general manager with responsibility for services from Thamesport, says: "The last stage of the journey is by road to the Jaguar plant at Castle Bromwich. It is a precise, just-in-time operation."
The service to Jaguar is sold "on price, fast transit times, reliability, and integrated door-to-door service", adds Grant.
Intercontainer-Interfrigo (ICF), the pan-European intermodal rail operator, withdrew from shipping a major flow of automobile components between Germany and Spain and smaller shipments between Belgium and Luxembourg in January last year, because it received inadequate revenue.
ICF executive board manager and director of operational services Patrice Pinoli says: "Currently, the only dedicated train we run for automotive traffic between Belgium and Sweden is for Volvo."
Other automotive traffic is being moved as general cargo on ICF's network of intraEuropean services routed via Metz, France.
Pinoli reveals that ICF is aiming to re-penetrate the automotive market "if the prices are right". He says:
"The automobile industry demands competitive rates together with an extremely high level of service. In some instances, the quality of service provided by some national European railways – from which we buy capacity – is not good enough in respect of the availability of traction, scheduling, transit time and reliability."
However, rail does not dominate the market, especially where assembled vehicles are concerned.
Hyundai Car UK imports approximately 30,000 cars annually into the UK. After discharge at Tilbury, vehicles are distributed by road directly to dealers in the UK.
"We have received proposals for the use of rail between Tilbury and Scotland and found that the cost savings would have been marginal, " says Don Aitkenhead, operations director at Hyundai Car UK.
At the headquarters of ro-ro operator Grimaldi in Genoa, Italy, spokesman Paul Kyprianou says: "We have been carrying an increasing volume of cars and other vehicles during the past few years. They now form a very important part of our liftings.
"The present trend is for landside logistics services, combined with sea transportation."
It is likely that demand for rail-based intermodal capacity within Europe will stay flat during the current economic uncertainty, but the introduction of new car models is creating fresh opportunities for intermodal service suppliers, and most expect demand to grow in the longer term.
