Saxony-Anhalt's chemical companies strengthen multimodal transport

Companies and logistics service providers met at the Leuna Chemical Park to discuss about shifting chemical transport from the road to multimodal transport. The combination of rail and road transport enables environmentally friendly and safe transport which is particularly important for the transport-intensive chemical industry.

In Central Germany, the terminals in Schkopau, Halle, Leipzig and Schwarzheide have significantly expanded their handling capacities and expect further growth in the container business. The opening of the train formation yard in summer 2018 will further improve the infrastructural conditions for rail transport. Logistics service providers are taking advantage of these opportunities to establish new regular connections for example to the North Sea ports or to Northern Italy which offer at tractive transport options for companies. LINEAS, the Pressnitztalbahn and TX Logistics presented their experiences and plans for further development of multimodal connections to Antwerp, Rostock and Verona.

As part of the EU project ChemMultimodal, the possibilities of multimodal transport were intensively analyzed in a pilot project with participating chemical companies. Several routes for a modal shift were already identified. These include mainly connections to neighboring European countries and larger transport volumes. In many cases, companies criticized the fact that road transport due to truck driver shortages and frequent traffic jams has reached its capacity limits. The modal shift will also reduce CO2 emissions by more than 50%.

The federal state of Saxony-Anhalt is providing support for innovative projects to strengthen multimodal transport with the Directive for the Development of Logistic Interfaces and Transshipment Techniques for the Combined Transport. This directive supports the development of multimodal transshipment systems, transshipment facilities and loading and unloading equipment, transport technologies and technical equipment as well as logistical information and control systems.

In the upcoming months, project partners will continue and intensify cooperation with companies and logistics service providers in order to support the real implementation of the identified modal shifts. Interested companies can continue to make use of the support services. Another workshop is planed for fall 2018 at the Chemical Park Bitterfeld-Wolfen.

Background information:

Within the Interreg Central Europe project ChemMultimodal, chemical regions, associations and universities from Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary and Italy cooperate with the aim of strengthening the multimodal transport of chemical goods. In cooperation with chemical companies, CT terminals and logistics service providers, concrete shifts from road to rail are to be realized. Coordinator of the project is the Ministry of Economics, Science and Digitalisation Saxony-Anhalt. Further partners from Saxony-Anhalt are the Ministry of Regional Development and Transport, the isw Institute for Structural Policy and Economic Development and the Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg.

www.interreg-central.eu/Content.Node/ChemMultimodal.html

Contact:

Andreas Fiedler, isw institute, Email: fiedler@isw-institut.de, Phone: +49 345 29982724