New tenant of the Combined Transport Terminal in Dobrá transhipped first train delivering goods via Silk Road
Slovaks made a significant step to become competitive with Poland and Hungary when aiming to get transport consignments from China. New tenant of the Combined Transport Terminal (TKD) in Dobrá, the company of BULK TRANSSHIPMENT SLOVAKIA, in cooperation with the owner of the Terminal - ZSSK Cargo Slovakia - transhipped first compact intermodal train for METRANS in February 2020. This aims to be a starting point for development of intermodal transport via the new Silk Road route from Ukraine and Slovakia.
Nevertheless, BULK TRANSSHIPMENT SLOVAKIA became the tenant of Dobrá Terminal as late as January 2020 for a period of 10 years with further 5 years option. „TKD Dobrá has been a place waiting to benefit from its own business potential for 20 years. As a shareholder of BULK TRANSSHIPMENT SLOVAKIA we not only aim to fully use this potential but - shall there be demand - provide its further development, too,” says Ľubomír Loy, Member of the Board of Directors of BUDAMAR LOGISTICS and Sales Director of BUDAMAR GROUP.
From the business point of view, TKD Dobrá will be newly managed by its owner - ZSSK CARGO together with BUDAMAR LOGISTICS, the major shareholder of BULK TRANSSHIPMENT SLOVAKIA
„We will open the Terminal for all operators - unlike the previous tenant TransContainer that only used it for its own needs. We are ready to offer service to all current customers and to the new ones as well,” responds Chairman of the Board of Management and CEO of ZSSK CARGO Martin Vozár.
Transhipment of the intermodal train from China met all expectations as well as agreed time- and quality criteria set by the order party - METRANS. However, regarding capacity and service facilities which TKD Dobrá is designed for, this is not enough. „It is a public terminal not only providing transhipment but plenty of other associated services. This has to be a daily operating facility,” says Alojz Filipek, CTO of BULK TRANSSHIPMENT SLOVAKIA.
The main target for BULK TRANSSHIPMENT SLOVAKIA with TKD Dobrá business is obvious: provide competitive services and in the future maximize the capacity of the Terminal when it comes to intermodal transport from Asia to Europe and vice versa. To meet this target the company prepares several promotions and international PR activities on foreign fairs and exhibitions. Shortly, TKD Dobrá will be actively promoted at the IRCF conference in Prague and the TransRussia exhibition in Moscow. „Our effort is to use the real potential of the Combined Transport Terminal and, in addition, the potential of Slovakia. We would make an effort to do so by an active approach to working groups on the Ministry of Transport dedicated to support the Silk Road as well as to the joint commission for combined transport between Ukraine and Slovakia,” clarifies Alojz Filipek.
To plan further development of the Terminal it is clearly necessary to get support from the state, state administration and self-governments. This includes (since 1992) an unsolved issue of opening road border crossing “Čierna – Solomonovo” which would be beneficial for the Terminal usage as well as for development of the entire region of Eastern Slovakia. This is incorporated by the importance of state investments into related road and railway infrastructure. „Only by implementing on-time solutions we would be able to compete with Polish or Hungarian routes and become an interesting transit point - not only of the new Silk Road,” reminds Alojz Filipek.
About TKD Dobrá
A public terminal whose operator became in January 2020 the company of BULK TRANSSHIPMENT SLOVAKIA. TKD Dobrá is currently ready to manipulate 430 TEU daily (TEU - 20-foot equivalent unit), which is 4,5 of a compact train. In the recent season, the Terminal manipulated on average 8 800 TEU yearly, which stands for 89 trains yearly. Current maximal terminal capacity is 1 575 trains yearly.
About BULK TRANSSHIPMENT SLOVAKIA
A joint enterprise of BUDAMAR LOGISTICS and ZSSK CARGO which carries out the most bulk commodities transhipment in Čierna nad Tisou. Investment activities of the enterprise are responsible for stabilizing flow of goods through the Slovak territory, sustainable competitiveness and, last but not least, lowering negative impacts of transhipment activities on the environment. During the past years, BULK TRANSSHIPMENT SLOVAKIA built two new loose substrates transhipment facilities as well as new facility for piece goods transhipment. In addition to this, it also modernized de-frosting halls and invested into storage capacities. By these activities BULK TRANSSHIPMENT SLOVAKIA creates the most modern transhipment center on the EU border.
