Palletways celebrates Hungarian success

The Palletways Group, belonging to Imperial, a DP World company, is celebrating four years since it expanded its coverage across the continent, as the launch of its network in Biatorbagy opened up export opportunities to and from Hungary.

Over the past four years, the 110+-strong team, including drivers, operational, office and member employees, have all played an important role in the transportation of 550,000 domestic and international pallet deliveries. Its fleet of 80 vehicles have moved 240,000 tonnes of consignments – the equivalent of 10,000 fully-loaded trucks – which have covered more than four million kilometres.

Situated in the western suburbs of Budapest, the network has grown considerably over the past four years. Today, it works with 14 local transport companies, up almost 30% since its launch in 2018, that provide 100% coverage across the country.

It handles the shipping requirements of more than 700 customers and it’s the logistics partner for some of the largest agricultural and construction material providers in the country. More than 50% of its volumes come from retail and processing industries.

Rob Gittins, Managing Director for Palletways UK, said: “For those UK companies who already export goods to Hungary, or those who are considering doing so, Palletways UK has the capabilities to provide an efficient service utilising our pan European network and advanced IT systems to move pallets quickly across the continent to Budapest. Hungary is just one of the strong connections across international markets that our UK customers and members can harness to support the requirements of British exporters.”

Palletways performance exceeds expectations

Luis Zubialde, CEO for the Palletways Group, added: “The performance of the Hungarian network over the past four years has exceeded expectations and it has fast become an integral part of the Palletways Group.

“The country is the 35th largest export economy in the world with a heavy emphasis on foreign trade. International services are an incredibly important and attractive part of our network operations and branching out into this new territory opened up a range of opportunities. While Germany and Italy are significant markets for Hungary due to the geographic locations, the network has enabled our members and their customers across our other networks in the UK, the Benelux and Iberia access to a larger pool of consumers and businesses.

“Our ambitious plans for further expansion into new territories remain. We’re committed to entering new territories, to open up opportunities for our members and their customers so they can ship to even more destinations across the globe.”

Founded in the UK in 1994, the Palletways Group began developing its pan-European network in 2002, starting with Italy. Today, it operates in 23 countries and currently works with more than 450 depots and over 20 hubs.

www.palletways.com

Hungary strengthens potential as intermodal hub

Hungary is strengthening its potential as an intermodal transit hub by investing in the country’s railways. In this article, Botond Kovacs-Mate (pictured), Branch & Country Manager in Hungary AsstrA-Associated Traffic AG, analyses the ramifications of Hungary’s current infrastructure projects for trade between China and Europe.

Trade relations between Hungary and China have been strengthening year by year. Currently, the Middle Kingdom is Hungary’s largest trading partner outside the EU. In turn, Hungary, after Poland and the Czech Republic, is China’s third largest trade partner in Central and Eastern Europe. In terms of volume, Hungary’s primary exports to China are plastic products, machine products, and wood. Hungarian imports from China are mainly machine goods and chemical products.

For now, the vast majority of trains from China to Hungary cross the EU border at the Polish town of Małaszewicze near the border with Belarus. It is the world’s largest rail dry port where goods to be reloaded from broad-gauge trains to standard-gauge ones. The facility’s capacity is limited, however, and investments in infrastructure are becoming increasingly essential. A central logistic terminal must be built to improve transport flows to and from Poland’s northern ports and logistic terminals, and railway line improvement must be accelerated.

These investments will be considerable but insufficient, and supply chain participants are actively seeking alternatives. By investing significant funds in rail infrastructure, Hungary aims to service more rail traffic from China and overtake Poland as the key European logistics hub for Asian cargo.

In this race for a “trade monopoly” in Asian rail traffic, one of Hungary’s first investments was the modernisation of the Budapest-Belgrade railway line. This investment began in 2013 and was financed largely by a Chinese loan. Despite general delays, the project is expected to be completed by 2025. The main goal of the venture is to shorten shipping time by providing direct access to Central and Eastern Europe from the Greek Port of Piraeus.

Meanwhile, due to rapidly growing cargo volumes in 2020 and insufficient capacity on existing transport corridors, international businesses have been looking for alternative routes via, for example, Ukraine. At the beginning of January 2021, Hungary began constructing the East-West Gate container terminal in Fenyeslitke, 20km from the Ukrainian border.

Progress has been fast, and in May a standard-gauge railway line was commissioned to connect the Fényeslitke railway station with the new terminal. The facility will enable the reloading of containers from wide-gauge to standard-gauge lines. The target reloading capacity of the new terminal is to amount to 1 million TEU per year.

AsstrA Hungary, working closely with the corporate group’s well developed network of offices in other countries, constantly seeks to provide customers with solutions meeting their unique requirements and tailored to current market conditions wherever they do business.

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