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2014 financial year: Kombiverkehr holds its own in spite of difficult circumstances
07/03/2015

The 2014 financial year at Kombiverkehr KG was marked by difficult circumstances. The central themes of the shareholders' meeting, which is held in Frankfurt am Main at the end of June every year, were the strikes by GDL train drivers, economic trends in Germany and the eurozone, weather-related factors and different transport policy frameworks, which are currently having a serious impact on the cost of rail freight transport and consequently of Combined Transport as well. In spite of all the more difficult conditions, Kombiverkehr has managed to hold up well: we have been able to keep the network stable, maintain our market leadership within Europe and lay the foundations for more growth by expanding services.

Although the Frankfurt-based limited partnership recorded a 1.4 per cent drop in its transport result with a total of 924,694 truck consignments transported (one consignment corresponds to the capacity of a goods vehicle) or 1.85 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit), the company exploited existing opportunities for growth in individual transport corridors and even significantly improved the result in these country-specific sub-segments. The total quantity transported is broken down into 268,375 truck consignments (-9.1 per cent) or 536,800 TEU in National Transport, including Baltic Sea transport from and to Kiel, Lübeck and Rostock with connecting services to Scandinavia and the Baltic States, and 656,319 truck consignments (+2.2 per cent) or 1.31 million TEU in International Transport, which has thus grown for the second year in succession. At 433.8 million euros (+1.9 per cent), the country achieved the highest sales in its history in the last financial year.

3,700 truckloads covering an average of 787 kilometres

Freight forwarding customers shifted an average of 3,700 truckloads per day of transport in the form of containers, swap bodies and semitrailers from lorries and ships onto the railways, thus making a vital contribution to national and European environmental targets. The railway cuts harmful carbon dioxide by two thirds compared with end-to-end road transport, so emissions fell by more than one million tonnes of CO2 in 2014 as a result of transporting shipments in the Kombiverkehr network.

Forwarding volumes fell slightly in 2014 by 1.0 per cent to 21.56 million gross tonnes. Transport output amounted to a total of 16.96 billion tonne-kilometres, a decrease of 0.8 per cent on the previous year. The average distance per consignment carried recorded a slight increase, rising from 785 kilometres in 2013 to 787 kilometres now.

Strikes have a particularly adverse impact on national transport

The volume of transport in Germany, where Kombiverkehr connects economic centres with over 65 intermodal services on a daily basis, was affected in the second half of the year by strike action taken by the GDL train drivers' union after the previous progress of transport volumes in a half-year comparison turned out to be at the same level as overall economic development. Strike announcements alone made many forwarders bow to pressure from carriers in the industry by turning away from the railway and moving consignments that we had succeeded in gaining for the railway back onto the roads. Kombiverkehr ended the 2014 financial year with 27,020 fewer consignments transported within Germany compared to the previous year (295,395 consignments).

In order to cope with demand in national transport, Kombiverkehr introduced a new direct train service between the port of Rostock and Duisburg, which also has the additional job of relieving the pressure on the short shuttle service between Hamburg and Rostock. An upward trend in volumes also made it possible to increase the frequency of services on the route between the BASF terminal in Ludwigshafen and Skandinavienkai in Lübeck from five to six departures a week in each direction over the course of the year.

3.1 per cent increase in west European transport

With west European transport managing to become established as Kombiverkehr's second-busiest transport axis for the first time in the 2013 financial year, transport services to and from Benelux, France and the Iberian peninsula maintained this position with another overall increase to a total of 138,545 truck consignments (+3.1 per cent) or 277,000 TEU during the past financial year. The growth was generated in bilateral services with the Netherlands (70,616 consignments, +1.0 per cent, 141,200 TEU) and Belgium (9,367 consignments, +10.7 per cent, 18,700 TEU), but mainly by a really positive result with 47,923 containers and semitrailers transported (+6.8 per cent, 95,800 TEU) between Germany and Spain/Portugal. This upward trend also compensated for the 4.2 per cent fall in the volume of consignments transported between Germany and France. The opening of lines for the transport of trailers with a corner height of four metres will provide new impetus in this corridor.

Italian transport bucks the economic trend

Kombiverkehr's busiest transport axis also managed to chalk up an increase in the volume of consignments over the past financial year. A total of 404,884 truckloads or 809,800 TEU were transported by rail between Germany and Italy/Switzerland on the Brenner (-0.5 per cent), Gotthard (+8.0 per cent) and Tauern (+10.0 per cent) routes. This represents an increase of 15,078 consignments or 3.9 per cent compared with the previous year.

In order to cater for the increased demand for transport on the transit route through Switzerland in the future, Kombiverkehr and its partner Hupac upped the number of departures on the route between Duisburg-Ruhrort Hafen and Milan from five to six a week in each direction. Departures on the Rostock – Novara route through the Lötschberg base tunnel were also increased from three to four. Since the start of 2015, the port of Lavrio in the Attica region – situated around 60 kilometres south of Athens – has been linked to Kombiverkehr's network by ferry via the Trieste hub.

Quality offensive in east European transport

Kombiverkehr recorded a drop of 1.1 per cent to 97,688 consignments (195,400 TEU) in east and southeast European transport in 2014. After a disproportionate fall in 2013, this area of business was more or less stabilised with its vital services between Germany and Austria, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, the Balkan states, Turkey and Greece. The current price differences between road and rail continue to have an effect on the volume of growth due, for example, to the low price of diesel and the cheaper costs of east and southeast European drivers. The performance of the railways was and is crucial to the success of these transport services, but it failed to meet the requirements of the forwarders at times during the past financial year. In January 2015, Kombiverkehr and the service provider DB Schenker Rail responded by switching production within traction services to and from Poland and the Czech Republic. Since then, traction for shipments to and from Gadki and Lovosice has been provided by the Group's own subsidiary RBH Logistics GmbH. This comes from a single source and operates end-to-end across national borders, which has already led to sustained improvements in services.

Expansion of services on fixed link

In the 2014 financial year, the focus of northern European transport, which Kombiverkehr provides for the most part with partner companies via integrated rail-ferry combinations, was on the fears of customers from the forwarding and logistics sector that the prices of intermodal transport would increase as a result of significantly stricter sulphur emissions requirements for shipping in the North Sea and Baltic Sea. Fuel costs, which have been extremely low for some time, cushioned the feared consequences, however. There was nevertheless a demand for alternative means of transport to the sea route. Kombiverkehr responded to this as early as January 2015 with a new route via the fixed crossing. Malmö, Göteborg and Stockholm can now be reached several times a week from Köln-Eifeltor by shuttle train across the Öresund Bridge.

Rising costs as a result of one-sided transport policy frameworks

Even though everyone knows that the train is by far the most environmentally friendly and safest mode of ground transportation, it is not currently receiving the support that it actually deserves. Quite the opposite, in fact: rail freight transport is increasingly hit by a series of new and disproportionate charges. Over time, this means that railway services are no longer able to compete with road haulage. At the moment, this negative trend is also being driven by low fuel costs and a reduction in tolls for road transport at the beginning of the year. Already in 2014, statistics showed that all modes of transport shared in the growth in freight transport - apart from the railway. "The constant burden of new regulations, an annual increase in line prices, rising energy costs in the wake of the Renewable Energy Sources Act and the investment in low-noise braking systems for wagons and train safety systems for locomotives mean that costs are skyrocketing on the railways." Rail transport companies and operators are unable to offset these additional charges over the long term. A reduction in energy and line costs is absolutely essential in order to remain competitive as a provider of rail freight transport compared with other modes of transport.

Further information can be obtained from:
Kombiverkehr, Head of Corporate Communications & Sales Support, Jan Weiser
Phone +49 69/7 95 05-1 42, Fax +49 69/7 95 05-1 49
or jweiser@kombiverkehr.de