International rail

Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust has extended a previously-announced scheme allowing concessions on handling charges for rail containers until further notice, as India’s busiest container handler tries to lure shippers away from trucks to ease congestion in the harbor.

Deutsche Bahn’s troubled domestic freight business played a key role in pushing Germany’s state-owned rail company into the red for the first time in twelve years.

Greece has delayed the March 21deadline for initial bids for state-owned freight and passenger rail company Trainose.

Russia and China have signed an agreement to build a $300 million bridge over the Amur river to link the Russian border city of Blagoveshchensk with Heihe, China, paving the way for truck and containerized rail on the corridor.

Cosco Pacific is being hotly tipped to clinch the bid for Greece’s state-owned rail operator just weeks after winning control of the nation’s largest port of Piraeus, a top Mediterranean container hub.

Chennai Port Trust in coordination with Container Corporation of India has announced a new trade incentive scheme for rail containers in an attempt to lure shippers away from trucks and in turn alleviate congestion in the harbor.

The Russian government is preparing to launch the first of two new transportation corridors linking Russia’s Far East ports with China’s northeast provinces by taking steps intended to cut transportation costs by 15 percent.

Rail freight transport from Kattupalli Port is gaining speed as state-owned intermodal logistics operator Container Corporation of India introduced a new, regular train service from Kattupalli to Bangalore, a major southern inland point, via Concor’s Tondiarpet Inland Container Depot on the outskirts of Chennai, port operator Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone said in a trade announcement.

Two more rail services carrying cargo overland from Chinese cities to Iran and Russia were launched in February.

Indian Railways is looking to expand its freight reach as sluggish global demand and infrastructure challenges weigh heavily on the public enterprise’s growth plans.

The transit time for containers between Russia and India will be reduced by half thanks to a recent agreement between the countries to launch a new multimodal container route.

The government of Kazakhstan expects container traffic via the Khorgos-Eastern Gate dry port to rise by 200,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units this year due to its location on the China-Europe rail route, which is growing in popularity with shippers, according to an official spokesperson of JSC Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, Kazakhstan’s national railway.

Privately operated Adani Hazira Port announced state-owned rail operator Container Corporation of India has begun operating a regular train service connecting the terminal with Pithampur, a busy inland destination in the central region, increasing hinterland shippers’ access to the minor, alternative gateway.

The Indian federal government on Wednesday approved a proposal allowing the Ministry of Railways to set up joint ventures with various state government agencies for the development of rail infrastructure projects in the country.

China may subsidize up to 50 percent of the containerized rail traffic between it and Russia, according to recent statements from Sergei Kopiev, chairman of Yuzhno Uralsky, one of Russia’s largest transport and logistics operators.

Mediterranean Shipping Co. has finalized the acquisition of CP Carga, the freight and logistics unit of Portugal’s state-owned railway.

The downturn in global trade coupled with rising operating costs to pull down third fiscal-quarter profits at state-owned intermodal rail operator Container Corporation of India.

La Spezia Container Terminal in Italy saw its Asia focus continuing to pay off in 2015, with container volume rising 8 percent year-over-year and helping take its parent Contship Italia Group to a throughput of 6.3 million 20-foot-equivalent units for the year.

With the largest mega-ships now carrying up to 19,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units, modern ports need the capability to transport huge volumes of containers in a short period of time to beat congestion and keep shipments moving. This puts strain on existing rail links and increases demand for multiple rail connections and operators to service ports’ hinterland.

International Container Transshipment Terminal, or Vallarpadam, at India’s Port of Cochin expanded its intermodal freight access earlier this week when state-owned Container Corp. of India introduced a weekly train service connecting the DP World facility with Coimbatore, a major southern India inland point.

Chinese investors aren’t scaling back on freight projects in Russia even though both countries’ economies are suffering, according to Russia’s minister of Far East development.

Kerry Logistics Network’s Singapore subsidiary has been awarded the concession to operate inland ports in Yangon and Mandalay, two major commercial cities in Myanmar.

Brazil rail operator MRS Logistica, Tuesday morning began informing thousands of its shipper clients that its operations are up and running following a devastating fire just before Christmas at one of its key terminals.

Containerized cargo passing through Kazakhstan between Asia and Europe is on track to hit 1.7 million 20-foot equivalent units annually by 2020 after volume through the key hub rocketed 34 percent year-over-year to roughly 47,000 TEUs in 2014, according to the national rail operator.

In an attempt to cope with expected volume growth and improve productivity, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, India’s largest public container handler, has embarked on a plan to build an inland port at Jalna, about 225 miles from the Nhava Sheva harbor.

Truck traffic on the rail tunnel beneath the English Channel has hit an all-time high this year despite disruptions caused by the migrant crisis at the France port of Calais.

Transnet National Ports Authority is leading attempts to win road traffic back onto rail in South Africa, a shift it would stand to gain from the most.

Brazil rail operator MRS Logistica SA’s expects container volume to rise at least 10 percent year-over-year in 2016 after volume jumped 34 percent during the first 10 months of this year compared to the same period in 2014.

Deutsche Bahn is expected to unveil plans today to trim underperforming rail freight operations as part of a restructuring to restore profitability as it faces its first net loss in over a decade this year.

Volumes of containerized cargo travelling between China and Europe by rail are growing as operators increase frequencies and state organizations along the route lend their weight to the development of new services.

New intermodal terminals in Australia reflect the more holistic approach toward port capacity and productivity that some observers say will be needed as volumes grow and mega-ships discharge larger and larger loads of cargo.

Russia and China plan to spend $3 billion to build two rail corridors aimed at encouraging the movement of containerized freight from the northeastern provinces of China to Russia’s Far-East ports.

The government of Italy has unveiled plans to partially privatize the state rail operator, Ferrovie dello Stato, in 2016.

A new dry port with a capacity of 900,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units will be built in the territory of the Nadezhdinskaya special economic zone in Russia’s Far East Primorye Territory to cope with growing volume.

The importance of the Trans-Siberian Railway, or Transsib, as a container route from Asia to Europe is steadily growing, despite the decline in volume this year, according to Oleg Belozerov, president of Russia’s railway monopoly, RZD.

A planned $350 million container hub serving Moscow is aimed at handling increased cargo flows, reducing urban congestion and speeding distribution into central Russia.

The number of freight trains using the tunnel between the U.K. and France declined by 33 percent in the third quarter largely due to the migrant crisis at the port of Calais.

Russian railway monopoly RZD is working to stop the flow of containerized cargo to other modes of transportation.

Russian containerized rail companies are cutting their fleets this year and plan to do the same next year, as the country’s trade suffers from Western sanctions and the low price of oil.

Some ocean carriers are exploring a rail route through Honduras to move containers from Asia to the North American East Coast, a Federal Maritime Commissioner said at a Port of New York-New Jersey Port Industry Day forum.