ÖBB’s cargo subsidiary Rail Cargo Group (RCG) is creating a joint venture with Serbian logistics company Transfera. The enterprise will be headquartered in Belgrade and initially focus on intermodal transport.
RCG and Transfera, a Serbian company that organises transportation across various modalities, have signed a partnership agreement for the establishment of a joint venture. Together, the two companies will initially be focusing on intermodal transportation on the Serbian market. They intend to expand into conventional transport later on. The joint venture will start operations in “the upcoming months”.
Carl Azinger, managing director at Rail Cargo Logistics, commented on the idea behind the deal: “Multimodality is the future and together with Transfera we want to develop tailor-made end-to-end solutions and establish them sustainably in Serbia and beyond.” An RCG spokesperson calls the creation of the joint venture “an invitation to our valued customers to also consider a competitive and sustainable modal shift.”
Cooperation with Transfera
Transfera is a big logistics player in the Western Balkans with a large network across many industries, making it an attractive partner for cooperation, the RCG spokesperson says.
Earlier collaboration has also sown the seeds for the joint venture: “For almost a year now, we have been organising intermodal transports together, such as a regular train which runs from the newly built terminal in Kruševac to Neuss via the BILK terminal in Hungary. Ultimately, it was this successful and pleasant cooperation that led us to the realisation that we could work together even more closely.”
An attractive market
There are various factors that make Serbia an attractive market for business expansion. “Serbia is a key player when it comes to connecting Turkey and Greece with the ports of Hamburg and Rotterdam as well as to Central European economies. In recent years, the country has taken important steps to rebuild the railway and modernise and improve the railway infrastructure. In the long term, we also want to transport from Serbia all the way to China and vice versa. Beyond that, the Serbian economy’s demand for sustainable transport solutions is increasing”, the company says.
After establishing joint ventures in Serbia and China, as well as taking over Captrain Netherlands, the focus of the company now seems to be on managing these new enterprises. “We are always on the lookout for new opportunities to expand our network. However, we are currently focusing on the development of our newly established subsidiaries”, RCG says.
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