WienCont, the trimodal container terminal in Vienna, is the first Austrian terminal in the InlandLinks network. This was announced today by Allard Castelein, CEO of the Port of Rotterdam Authority, at the yearly Shipping Lunch of the Rotterdam port community for their customers based in Hamburg. The InlandLinks network now comprises almost 70 terminals in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Italy, Austria and Hungary. WienCont handles at its 7-track rail terminal some 200.000 rail cars per year to and from German cities, Rotterdam and Central-Europe. Via Rhine-Main-Danube Canal there are inland shipping connections with the ARA ports and the Black Sea ports. The terminal loads and unloads approximately 200.000 trucks per year.
In his Hamburg speech Castelein a/o noted that the shipping lines, as well as the big three Rotterdam container terminals, ECT, RWG and APMT, are clearly intensifying their marketing operations in the hinterland. In some cases, this resulted already in a rise of the carrier haulage share from 25% to 40%. Efficient and keen management of empty containers plays a vital role in this development. The empty container tool of InlandLinks is a valuable instrument to support the hinterland marketing of the shipping lines. Most of the top twenty lines are using the system now. Especially in regions with a high demand for ‘empties’, such as Austria and Southern Germany, tool is expected to prove its usefulness.
InlandLinks is the online platform for container terminals in the hinterland, offering inter modal services to/from Rotterdam. The terminals are presented on the basis of objective and comparable criteria. This enables all participants in the logistics chain to identify the general and specific advantages better. It also contributes to a rise of intermodal transport by train and barge of the flow of containers that triples in the next 25 years. InlandLinks is an initiative of the Port of Rotterdam Authority and developed two years ago in cooperation with VITO (Dutch Inland Container Terminal Organisation).
Rotterdam expects to see container flows triple in the next 25 years. Due to the growth in world trade, the favourable geographic location and the increase in very large container ships, each with a capacity in the region of 20,000 units. Of the total of some 30 million TEU handled in 2035, approx. 2 million are expected to be shipped in and out using smaller vessels from and to European ports. Some 18 million TEU will travel to and from the hinterland via intermodal transport. For this flow, InlandLinks should give insight in better and more sustainable connections.