No empty containers from the major North Sea ports on the railway back to Blum in Vorarlberg – this was the ambitious objective of the new system. The development and implementation of the system involved Blum’s logistics experts in Höchst together with five major logistics partners.
Together they implemented a rail rotation system, which has been on track since May. Further members aboard are: the international logistics provider Gebrüder Weiss Wolfurt, Rail Cargo Operator, the European steel supplier Wuppermann and two internationally operating container shipping companies Hapag Lloyd and Independent Container Line Antwerp (ICL).
Blum serves customers from around the world via the big North German seaports as well as via Rotterdam and Antwerp. Werk 7 in Dornbirn has its own rail connection to ensure the fittings reach the seaports in rail containers, thus saving resources, and are forwarded to the international customers. The challenge in this process is to fill the empty containers, wich are required by Blum in Vorarlberg, with cargo wherever possible to avoid empty trips.
Since May the Vorarlberg logistics industry has come a bit closer to this claim, because Wuppermann, steel supplier and subcontractor of Blum, uses the empty containers to transport steel deliveries from the location in Moerdijk (Netherlands) to Blum in Vorarlberg.
“The increasing growth outside Europe changes the flow of goods and shifts them increasingly to container traffic. Thanks to our extensive experience with containers, we can serve our longstanding customer Blum and their needs, and carry the required volumes to Vorarlberg. We have also invested into new loading equipment for this rail system,” explains Carl Swoboda, Managing Director of Wuppermann.
“We are very pleased that the new service is now in the truest sense of the word ‘on track’, as it clearly proves that the combination of ecology and economy is not a contradiction for logisticians. This measure demonstrates our commitment to sustainable, closed processes,” says Ingmar Blum, responsible for transport logistics with Blum.
