Contship Expands Intermodal Service

Contship Italia Group has been pulling all the stops to increase its intermodal offering during the past months.

Italy’s leading service provider for integrated global supply chains said that its Rail Hub Milano (RHM) and its gateway ports La Spezia and Ravenna serve as backbone of the Group’s growing intermodal network.

La Spezia is geographically located within a range of 320 km from the key economic regions in Italy, accounting for over 47% of the total Italian GDP. RHM is located in Melzo, just outside the city of Milan at the heart of consumer and industrial regions. Ravenna is the natural gateway for East Med flows exchanged via the Adriatic Sea, the Italian container terminal operator said.

This year has seen numerous service additions from RHM to various locations across Europe. In July, Hannibal, Contship Italia Group’s multimodal transport operator, launched a second rail link to Zurich (Niederglatt) which complements the existing daily link to Frenkendorf close to Basel.

Hannibal’s first link to Basel (Frenkendorf) started in 2013 and has recorded growing demand since then. As the river Rhein is currently blocked for barge transport due to low water, this link offers a valid alternative to northern range ports and demonstrates the advantage of alternative transport opportunities.

In September, a new rail connection linking Melzo with Riem Terminal in Munich 3 times a week was introduced. The connection is managed by the German transport company Kombiverkehr along with MII.

In addition, a new daily link was launched for a third-party operator between Melzo and Amsterdam in October. Other rail links are expected to be finalised in the coming weeks and are set to expand the rail network available from Melzo, including the continental cargo flow between France, Italy and even China.

The Contship Group has also increased its domestic links between Melzo and Ravenna from two to three per week, with another upgrade to five round trips per week subject to market demand foreseen in 2019. Ravenna connects Italy to the Eastern Mediterranean and via the Southern Gateway to Asia and the US.

By expanding its service offering dedicated to continental volumes within Italy and neighbouring countries, Contship continues to transform the Southern Gateway into a competitive and reliable option for cargo owners, freight forwarders and shipping lines. The Group’s concept of RAILability enables shippers to fully control their shipments from port-to-door at any time.