Metrans Doubles Number of Container Trains on the New Silk Road

The HHLA railway subsidiary Metrans is one of the leading providers of intermodal container transport in the seaport hinterland traffic in Europe and is among the pioneers in the rapidly growing rail traffic on the New Silk Road. Last year, Metrans increased the number of container trains between Europe and China by 114 percent.

(Hamburg) Rail freight transport between Asia and Europe has significantly increased in volume and frequency in recent years. The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting capacity bottlenecks in shipping have given an additional boost to rail transport connections. According to estimates by the consulting firm Roland Berger, approximately 878,000 standard containers (TEU) were transported on the various rail corridors of the New Silk Road in 2020. The International Union of Railways (UIC) expects this number to double by 2025.

The HHLA subsidiary Metrans is also benefiting from this trend. The intermodal company handled a total of 913 trains (2019: 426 trains) in 2020, which came from or went to China. This is an increase of 114 percent, with the largest growth (+131 percent) recorded in imports. The transport volume of Metrans on the New Silk Road was around 30,000 TEU.

European Hinterland Network Grown Every Year

Metrans CEO Peter Kiss: “Thirty years ago, we started transporting sea freight containers to the European hinterland. Metrans offered the first regular shuttle train connection between Hamburg and Prague. Since then, our network between European ports and the hinterland has grown every year. Moreover, we are one of the largest providers in the currently fastest-growing market, rail transport between Europe and China.”

Customers are now offered numerous destinations in China as starting and ending points. Currently, 60 to 80 Metrans trains operate monthly between Europe and key economic centers in the People’s Republic, including Zhengzhou, Xi’an, and Jinhua. Metrans assembles complete trains with partners in China, which are taken over or handed over by a traction provider at various nodes of the Eurasian rail corridor. These nodes are the Polish border terminal Malaszewicze (near the Belarusian city of Brest) and the terminal in Slovak Dobra (near the Ukrainian border). The containers are then distributed throughout the Metrans network. The main hubs for Metrans’ European-China traffic are their hub terminals in Budapest, Prague, Ceska Trebova, Poznań, and Dunajska Streda.

Hamburg Port as a Central Hub

The central hub of German-China trade is the Port of Hamburg, both for the continental and maritime Silk Road. More than half of German-Chinese foreign trade is handled through the Hanseatic city. The majority is transported by sea. In 2020 alone, more than 2.4 million TEU were handled at the quays of Germany’s largest seaport. Fifteen liner services connect the Hanseatic city with Chinese ports. Quay and rail facilities are located close to each other in Hamburg. As Europe’s largest railway port, Hamburg also offers a dense network of freight traffic, shuttle, and complete train connections. Nearly 1,960 train departures to and from Hamburg are offered each week – including over 230 weekly connections with China.

For more background information on the transport route of the New Silk Roads, see the web story:

New Silk Tracks between China and Europe – Hub Hamburg

Photo: © Metrans/HHLA