International rail

Forwarders are reporting a steady rise in shipper enquiries into the China-Europe rail route from higher value shippers looking for an alternative to expensive and often unreliable air freight and the lengthy ocean shipping.

Anticipating significant growth in freight traffic, the government of India will allow state-owned Railways to create a new arm to provide end-to-end logistics solutions.

China’s train to Spain arrived in the city of Yiwu this week after completing the world’s longest rail route, and while the journey has been billed as a “success” by its operator, there is little information on the actual economics of the rail option to Europe.

Genesse & Wyoming has agreed to acquire 95 percent of the shares of Freightliner, the UK’s second largest rail freight company, in a £490 million ($760 million) deal that significantly expands the US rail operator’s European footprint.

State-owned intermodal operator Container Corporation of India said it has helped clear out the backlog of import containers destined for Ludhiana that had stacked up at major ports on the west coast over the past few months.

A strategic partnership between UTi Worldwide and Changjiu Logistics, the largest independent automotive logistics company in China, will be making good use of the growing rail services linking China and Europe.

The world’s longest rail freight service — between China and Spain — has been put on hold because it hasn’t attracted cargo for its maiden return journey from Madrid.

International rail operator Genesee & Wyoming is expanding its footprint in the central U.S. by acquiring three short line railroads for about $40 million.

India’s Ministry of Railways said it will postpone previously announced container rail increases, providing a temporary respite for shippers struggling with port congestion and rising transportation costs.

Starting in January, shippers can ship containerized goods by rail between Rotterdam and Milan via a dedicated Samskip intermodal service.

The launching of China-Europe rail services on the southern route via Kazakhstan has been hogging the headlines recently, but moves are underway to further develop the northern link through Russia.

The operator of a fixed-day weekly container train recently launched between the Russian Far East and Moscow, which has handled just 1,800 TEUs to date, says heavy demand is leading it to consider doubling capacity with a second service.

Rail freight transport has ground to a halt throughout Germany as locomotive drivers stage a four-day strike against Deutsche Bahn, the state-owned railroad company.

Reefer containers will form a huge part of the cargo carried on the New Silk Way rail network between China and Europe, even though shippers will be forced to counter the extreme temperatures found on the route.

Lufthansa Cargo pilots will stage a 48-hour strike on Wednesday and Thursday, but the German airline said it will have little impact on shippers.

In cooperation with the Chinese government, Russian port logistics company Summa Group plans to complete a $100 million expansion of the Russian port of Zarubino in 2018, offering shippers better access to and from Northeast Asia.

Potential Russian transit blocks and additional European Union sanctions could hurt both ports and railways in Latvia, and cripple the country's economy, Latvia's economy minister said.

Ocean container carrier Hamburg Sud is opening a sales office in Gandhidham, India, to cater to the needs of its regular ship calls at the growing ports of Mundra and Pipavav.

Chinese President Xi Jingping on Friday invited the strong Spanish construction sector to help build a planned freight line connecting eastern China and Spain.

Fast-growing third-party logistics companies are tuning into and tapping broad trends driving logistics growth in the U.S. and globally, including increased cross-border trade and the expansion of intermodal rail. Here are seven trends picked by XPO Logistics CEO Bradley S. Jacobs.

The Kremlin has approved Russian Railways’ financial contribution to an intermodal joint venture with the state railroads of neighboring Belarus and Kazakhstan...

DB Schenker recently launched a service from Hamburg hauling 41 containers — some of which were filled with industrial robots — to the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou.

An announcement last week that a Chinese consortium would build a rail line connecting a planned port on Mexico’s Pacific Coast to a manufacturing hub along the U.S. border was heavy on fanfare but short on details.

Declining operating standards across Europe’s rail network are threatening the future of intermodal transport, a leading combined transport company warned.

Rail is a long-distance transport alternative to road, ocean and air freight for temperature-controlled goods, according to the results of a two-year project that included a trial shipment from the Port of Antwerp to Kazakhstan.

The Volvo Group has reached a agreement with Scandinavian Logistics Partners AB to sell extra capacity in rail transport from Belgium to Sweden, effective July 1.

Rail freight traffic is facing further disruption across France as a strike by rail workers extended to a ninth day, but an end to the stoppage is in sight amid waning support for the walkout.

Additional intermodal capacity that was added between the port of Rotterdam and Bavaria has been well received and is helping address a capacity shortage.

Rail freight traffic is being seriously disrupted across France and to and from the nation’s seaports as a strike by rail workers entered its sixth day with no sign of a settlement in sight.

Fesco Transportation Group’s revenue and earnings declined in the first quarter.

A new fixed-day, weekly container rail service links Moscow to the Far East of Russia, and Ruscon, the operator, plans to dispatch more container trains between central and eastern Russia in the “near future.”

One of the largest Mexican rail shippers said it supports more regulation of the country's three major railroads but is against a proposal being debated in Mexico City that would require the country’s two rail concession holders to share their lines with third parties.

Logistics firm DHL has signed a new agreement to provide rail freight services between China and Europe via a strategic partnership with United Transport and Logistics Company, a joint venture between OJSC Russian Railways, JSC National Company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy and state-owned Belarusian Railway.

Transportation writer Greg Knowler joined the JOC today as senior editor for Asia.

KKR, the U.S.-based global investment group, today announced it is supporting a new European locomotive leasing firm to capitalize on the emergence of private companies spurred by rail deregulation across the continent.

The world’s largest transportation and logistics company is getting larger as demand for e-commerce, time definite international express delivery and supply chain services drives up revenue and profit at Deutsche Post DHL.

Change is coming to the Mexican freight rail industry, but it’s too soon to determine whether the push for reform will lead to a major overhaul or something much more moderate.

Etihad Rail, the United Arab Emirates’ national railway network developer and operator, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Abu Dhabi Ports Co. for the development of an integrated bulk and container railway terminal facility at Khalifa Port.

The release of a new study on the Mexican freight railway industry provides ammunition to the sector’s defense of its concession agreements, and hints at a potential compromise between the railroads and legislators aiming to open up industry to other carriers.

Improving transit times and favorable rates give air and ocean shippers another option China-to-Europe transportation options for automotive and high-value electronics shippers are much like that famous fairly tale about a blond-headed upstart and three bears. Ocean shipping is and was the slowest and cheapest mode, with a transit time of about 30 days but at roughly a tenth the price of air cargo delivery. And air cargo offers much faster delivery, but the expediency comes with far steeper prices that many supply chain managers would like to shake.