Chemicals giant BASF with headquarters in Ludwigshafen is in future planning to use also Wilhelmshaven as a port of shipment for its overseas containers to Japan, the company said in its press release. The first train to depart from the intermodal rail terminal in Ludwigshafen reached Wilhelmshaven on 16 January 2015. The containers are transported by EUROGATE Intermodal, a fully-owned subsidiary of EUROGATE, on weekly scheduled container block trains from the intermodal transport terminal at Ludwigshafen and loaded in Wilhelmshaven onto ships operating on Maersk Line’s AE1 service. Forwarder is Lexzau Scharbau from Bremen.
On 23 January 2015, the containers will embark on their journey to Japan aboard the MVMaersk Emden. Maersk Line’s AE1 service operates from Northern Europe direct to Japan’s three biggest ports Kobe, Nagoya and Yokohama with a transit time of just under six weeks.
The Rail Terminal Wilhelmshaven (RTW) is located adjacent to the container terminal, allowing containers to be transferred speedily and directly from ship to train. The efficient facility has three loading cranes and six tracks. A 16-track marshalling yard means trains can be shunted quickly. The terminal can handle up to a million rail containers per year without any problem.