Samskip, duisport and TX Logistik AG will jointly operate the CT terminal at logport III in Duisburg-Hohenbudberg in the future. For this purpose, the three partners have founded the new company "Ziel Terminal GmbH". Samskip will hold 49.8 percent of the shares, duisport and TX Logistik each will hold 25.1 percent respectively. The terminal will be leased on a long-term basis by duisport to the joint venture.
The terminal partnership signed by the three owners is currently still subject to approval by the European competition authorities. Approval is expected in the next few weeks.
"TX Logistik is on course for growth. In order to continue this development and to be able to shift even more transports to rail in the future, the company needs terminal capacities that it can safely fall back on," Gianpiero Strisciuglio, CEO Mercitalia Logistics, explains the decision.
“Currently TX Logistik, which is responsible for international rail freight transport within the Mercitalia Group (Gruppo FS Italiane), already operates two round trips per week between Duisburg and Katrineholm in Sweden for Samskip. The Duisburg terminal is located in a strategic geographical position, in the heart of Germany, in an important industrial zone, along the main trade interchange axis of Europe," says Gianpiero Strisciuglio.
"Being part of the shareholding structure that will manage it means guaranteeing customers an expansion of geographic targets, improved service quality, synchronization of traction and access slots to terminal areas, and greater transport efficiency, all activities preparatory to a door-to-door service."
"The long-term partnership not only strengthens our location, but also paves the way for sustainable growth and the expansion of our business model. By jointly exploiting the potential of the three strong players duisport, Samskip, and TX Logistik, we can continuously develop the terminal and be successful together. This will create additional handling capacities at the Duisburg location," says duisport CEO Markus Bangen.
Samskip CEO Kari-Pekka Laaksonen added:
“We are delighted with the idea of taking our long-standing partnership with TX Logistik and the Port of Duisburg to a new level. The decision is clearly a win-win-win scenario as the benefits for all parties is substantial. As Samskip is extremely committed to deliver its sustainability targets, this will also further cement the usage and the growth of rail modality in the location.”
The 140,000-square-metre terminal facility in Duisburg-Hohenbudberg has seven transshipment tracks, each 720 meters long, two shunting tracks and two high-performance gantry cranes for transshipment between road and rail. The annual handling capacity is up to 250,000 loading units.
In addition, terminal operations can rely on modern IT and communications technology such as a control tower system for the pre-planning of terminal activities and exception management. Other high standards include high-tech gate functions, OCR scanning for registration, security, order prioritization and truck parking allocation. In addition, various facilities are available, such as cross-docking or railcar repair.
Gianpiero Strisciuglio added:
"This offers us opportunities to offer further services in the future – for example, a photo lock can be used to generate data on the condition of truck tarpaulins or tires, which can then be transmitted to customers in terms of preventive maintenance management."
To enter the shareholding structure of the terminal in Duisburg is in line with the provisions of the FS Italiane Group's Business Plan, presented by CEO Luigi Ferraris last May, Mercitalia Logistics envisages investments of 2.9 billion over the next ten years to foster a major operational and commercial development of the sustainable logistics asset around rail freight traffic both in Italy and Europe.
Separately, Samskip is venturing into “zero carbon emission free shipping services” by contracting Two Hydrogen fuel powered vessels to provide service its west European routes by signing a ship building contract with the leading Indian shipyard Cochin Shipyard Ltd.
Once commissioned, these vessels will be among the First Zero Emission Short Sea Container Vessel in the world using Green Hydrogen as the fuel. This is another of Samskip’s ambitious projects as they work together with the Norwegian Government green funding program aimed at emission-free transport solutions by adopting sustainable innovative future technologies.
In zero emission mode, each vessel is expected to achieve around 25,000 tons of CO2 reduction per year. They will achieve zero emission operations in ports as well by using green shore power at the port of call.
CEO Samskip Group - Kari-Pekka Laaksonen said:
“This endeavour is another of Samskip’s initiatives that is an important step towards reaching our sustainability targets outlined in our latest sustainability report. It reinforces our commitment to the Sustainability Science Based Target initiative and will support our goal of reaching Net-Zero by 2040. We have continuously practiced what we preached because sustainability is in our DNA and we are invested in the future; the future for green logistics, our planet, our economy and in the next generation of seafarers and we are certain that this project will be a game changer. Samskip is delighted to have found such a partnership in Cochin Shipyard who shares the same ambitions to provide environmentally friendly transportation and we look forward to a successful cooperation.”
