Belarus-Russia-Kazakhstan logistics company poised to triple freight between China, EU by 2020
MINSK. KAZINFORM - The potential of the United Transport and Logistics Company (UTLC) allows tripling the volume of freight transportation between China and the European Union by 2020, BelTA learned from Head of Belarusian Railways Vladimir Morozov last week.
The Head of Belarusian Railways said: "While three to four organized container trains used to cross our country every week as little as 3-5 years ago, at present as many as 3-5 trains cross the country every day. And I believe it is a small figure. I see some potential for higher accomplishments. We expect that using the United Transport and Logistics Company we will be able to triple freight from China to Europe by 2020."
Vladimir Morozov explained he was talking about 500,000 containers per annum. Vladimir Morozov stressed that UTLC continues demonstrating good performance, with freight traffic on the rise. "One always feels satisfaction with growth. At present the growth is 25-30% in comparison with the previous year," he said.
The Head of Belarusian Railways said he supports the idea that UTLC will work without assets for now. "It is difficult to manage tariffs, service organization, and assets at the same time. First and foremost we aim to offer a service, a tariff corridor and conquer the market instead of burdening the logistics operator with assets. If the project is a success, we will talk about assets then," stated Vladimir Morozov.
"It is important for us to find strategic partners in Europe. While cooperation schemes are already working in China, there are still difficulties in cooperation with European partners. We look for companies with potential growth, with prospects of organizing transportation all over Europe," stated the Head of Belarusian Railways.
The national railway operators of Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus signed the agreement on setting up the United Transport and Logistics Company (UTLC) in June 2013. The public joint-stock company (OAO) United Transport and Logistics Company was registered by the universal state registry of corporations in Moscow on 13 November 2014. UTLC takes care of transporting cargoes in containers in the single economic space, including in transit between Europe and Asia, Kazinform has learnt from BelTA.