International rail

While containerized rail traffic between Russia and Asia Pacific states is down 20 percent year-over-year in the first seven months of 2015, a closer look at the data reveals an upward trend is taking holding.

German port operator Eurogate has acquired a 16.67 percent interest in Contrail Logistica, a Brazilian provider of intermodal transport solutions in the hinterland of Santos.

Russian rail monopoly RZD and the operator of the Yingkou port are looking to create a logistics center in Moscow and a logistics park at the northern Chinese port.

FESCO, one of Russia’s largest privately-owned transportation and logistics companies, posted significant declines in container volumes in the first half but believes that its future is bright.

Transcontainer, Russia’s leading intermodal freight transporter, saw its revenue plummet 64 percent in the first half to $15 million, compared to $41.4 million in the first-half of 2014, as the decline in Russian trade makes itself felt in companies’ bottom lines.

Russian railway monopoly RZD plans to build a $30 million inland hub aimed at reducing congestion at the nearby St. Petersburg port and handling transshipped cargo from the country’s largest container gateway.

China and Kazakhstan are working to more than double containerized rail traffic bound for Europe via the launch of the Trans-Caspian international transport route connecting China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.

Shippers moving containerized cargo between China and Central Europe and Central Asia can soon tap a new transport corridor connecting China, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan via rail and a new seaport in the Azeri capital of Baku.

Russia plans to significantly increase the volume of its container trade with Japan by building a new rail bridge that will connect Sakhalin, Russia's largest island in the north Pacific Ocean, with Hokkaido, Japan's second largest island.

State-owned Container Corporation of India is expanding its intermodal services connecting the country’s southeastern container ports, beginning its second rail service to a southeastern port in as many months.

Airlines flying cargo between China and Europe will be hit hardest by Beijing’s One Belt, One Road trade strategy as the land bridge rail route proves too attractively priced to ignore, believes Steve Flowers, head of global freight forwarding at UPS.

The combined impact of rising operating costs and sluggish domestic intermodal volume growth amid intense competition from private rail operators drove state-owned Container Corporation of India’s first quarter net profit down 26.5 percent year-over-year to approximately $32.5 million.

Transcontainer, Russia’s largest container rail shipping company, has had to adjust its plans to significantly expand its terminal network during the next several years as sanctions continue to take their toll on the Russian economy.

Gateway Distriparks Ltd., India’s leading port-based logistics provider, has received government approvals for the construction of a new inland container depot facility at Viramgam, near Ahmedabad in Gujarat State, allowing hinterland shippers improved rail access to the country’s western gateway ports.

India’s transportation infrastructure upgrade program got another push with the World Bank approving the release of $650 million, the third tranche of a long–term program to help build up New Delhi’s much-delayed, eastern, dedicated freight corridor project.

The creation of a containerized rail operator by the Eurasian Customs Union is aimed at capitalizing on growing volume moving between Europe and Asia.

Far East ports, such Vladivostok and Khabarovsk, will drive Russian container volume growth, as trade between Russia and China grows through greater economic cooperation, according to new government forecast out of Moscow.

State-owned rail operator Container Corporation of India reported an 11.5 percent increase in consolidated net earnings in fiscal year 2014-15, which ended March 31, on the back of strong volume gains from its core international freight hauling activity.

Reports from New Delhi said train operations were returning to normal Friday following the end of week-long protests by ethnic Gujjars in the state of Rajasthan.

Civil unrest in parts of India is causing rail freight traffic chaos in the country’s busiest northern corridor linking hinterland points around Delhi and major gateway ports on the west coast, including the largest port of Nhava Sheva.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang this week visited Brazil and other South American countries and offered to spend billions of dollars on major infrastructure projects, including in the ports and railroad sectors.

German locomotive drivers on Thursday called off their latest strike —the ninth in 10 months – and agreed to refer their dispute with Deutsche Bahn, the state-owned railway company, to arbitration.

The German rail freight network is struggling to return to normal as train drivers return to work after a near one week strike that severely disrupted industrial supply chains in Europe’s largest economy.

German train drivers will continue their strike until Sunday after their union today rejected a proposal from Deutsche Bahn, the state-owned railway, for an independent mediator to help resolve their dispute.

A week-long strike by German locomotive drivers that is scheduled to run until Sunday could be called off earlier as their union considers calls for an independent mediator to settle the dispute with Deutsche Bahn, the state-owned railway company.

German locomotive drivers began near week-long strike Monday afternoon that threatens to clog container yards at the country’s leading ports and cause massive disruption to industrial supply chains across Europe’s largest economy.

Europe's largest inland port to grow as ultra-large container ships arrive at north European ports.

Strong growth across multiple segments, especially intermodal, helped India’s Gateway Distriparks Ltd. deliver impressive results in fiscal year 2014-15, which ended March 31.

For a region dismissed not so long ago as a bit of a backwater, where inefficiency, corruption and chronic congestion were the norm, east Africa is beginning to show its mettle.

Rail freight transport has ground to a halt across Germany as a strike by locomotive engineers against Deutsche Bahn, the state-owned railway, enters its second day.

Fesco Transportation Group’s profit soared 30 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014, but the weak ruble and lower rail freight rates dragged down the full-year result.

China’s manufacturing shift inland and rising domestic consumption has created a surge in demand for intermodal rail services unable to be fulfilled because of supply side constraints, according to a just-released World Bank report.

China is steadily adding to the rail network linking the mainland with central Asia and Europe, with a large portion of the $130 billion rail development budget for 2014 spent on improving connections in central and western parts of the country.

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.