Right before any cargo becomes a multimodal transport, it has to be loaded into the container unit first. METRANS is not only looking for efficient ways to transfer containers via terminals and ports to final customers. Its efficiency also embraces the search for an optimum solution of getting the cargo into the actual containers. Such was the case of steel coils exports from Slovakia.
Situated in the eastern part of the country, Košice is the second-largest city in Slovakia. With a population of almost 240,000 inhabitants, the town has mostly grown on the steel industry. The local steel mill is producing almost 7 million tons of steel products a year.
The production, steel coils, is heading all over the world. The best way to get them there is the naval way – and the first leg of the journey is by land: Starting at the METRANS terminal, loaded onto intermodal trains, before it is transferred on large container ships cruising the seas and oceans.
Steel coils do not need to travel far to get from the eastern Slovakian steel mill to the nearest METRANS terminal. The Košice terminal is the direct neighbor of the big steel plant actually. With only 5 km of the journey between the production line and the containers, the solution seems pretty straightforward: load coils directly into container units. Yet the customer does not have the loading ramp suitable for container loading. Thus, tarpaulin semitrailers were used for making the short round trips to the terminal and back in the past.
“We are always ready to implement the most cost and environmentally efficient solution there is”, says Miloš Mervart, Chief Commercial Officer at METRANS /Danubia/. „The customer approached us to look for a better solution, taking into consideration its vast network of the railway siding. The closeness of their siding and our rail-connected terminal determined the special solution that is being applied today”, explains Mr. Mervart.
The special solution for coils transport, before loading them into the TEU units, consists of the complete trucks elimination. Steel coils are now loaded onto the railcars and shunted from customer’s siding into the METRANS Košice terminals, where the cargo is transloaded into containers to be secured for the onwards journey.
The complete transition from road to rail brought more than just a cost-efficiency improvement. With fewer truck movements on the roads, METRANS helped to save the road infrastructure as well as the environment. With these little customer-oriented solutions, METRANS contributes to the whole HHLA strategy to make the entire group a climate-neutral company by 2040.
Daily, METRANS locomotives transport these coils and other cargo originating from the east of Slovakia to Dunajská Streda rail hub terminal. There, the cargo is sorted for further journeys to all the ports across Europe.
Through creative thinking and implementation, a cost-efficient and environmentally friendly solution were found for the customer. Such special projects are no exceptions at METRANS. For every customer, there is a cost-effective, environmentally-friendly, and modern logistics intermodal solution, regardless of the cargo.
Find out how your transport solutions can improve by contacting the customer center of METRANS.
