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LDz: Europe's railroads close to overloaded make it easier for Latvia to attract Chinese freights

BC, Riga, 17.10.2017.Print version
The amount of container freight flows between Europe and Asia has been doubling annually, while the capacity of the infrastructure has remained almost unchanged, therefore, if the railroad industry successfully cooperates with ports and maritime transport companies, Latvia may become a preferred choice for clients, Latvijas Dzelzcels railroad company's CEO Edvins Berzins told LETA.

Photo: ldz.lv

Latvia has to make use of the situation - the steeply increasing container freight amounts and the infrastructure not improving as fast, Berzins emphasized. "As a result, the route that goes through Brest, traveled by 5,000 trains annually, has in fact reached its maximum capacity. It means that clients have to look for other ways to ship their freights to the recipients, for the same price and within the same time limits. And that is an opportunity for Latvia," said Berzins.

 

"What we can offer is capacity and speed," added Berzins.

 

As for a container train that arrived in Riga Freeport from China's Urumqi yesterday, Berzins declined to reveal when the next train from China could travel to Riga, but said that work was under way on not only the next train, but on setting up regular train traffic. "That is hard work as there are many variables to consider, so I cannot give you the exact day when regular freight transport could begin. But I am convinced that we will announce starting regular train traffic one day," said Berzins.

 

As reported, the first container train arranged by Kazakhstan railroad company KTZ for the Urumqi-Altynkol-Riga-Rotterdam route left the city of Urumqi on September 29. From Riga, the cargo will be delivered to Rotterdam by sea.

 

Kazakhstan's First Deputy Prime Minister Askar Mamin said during his meeting with Edvins Berzins in Riga at end-September that Kazakhstan had chosen Latvia as its main logistics and cargo distribution hub in the Baltics. Mamin indicated that with the shipping of rail freight via Kazakstan growing, the amount of container cargos shipped in the Latvian direction might increase to 200,000 units by 2020 and keep growing in a more distant future.






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