VTG AG, Europe's leading wagon hire and rail logistics company, today announced this cooperation project with Austrian company Innofreight at the international transport logistic trade fair in Munich. In the next few months, VTG will incorporate a total of 200 InnoWaggons from Innofreight in its wagon fleet. And over the next ten years, some of these wagons will be deployed by a customer of both companies: Swedish railway company Hector Rail will hire a total of 144 InnoWaggons to handle the transportation of logs on behalf of SCA in Sweden. Half of the wagons will be made available by VTG; the other half will be supplied directly by Innofreight.
This project marks a step forward in the two companies' existing collaboration, as VTG and Innofreight have been working together in the field of rail logistics since 2015. It also adds to VTG's fleet, which already features around 1,000 different wagon types. "Every industry has its own specific logistical requirements. Our aim is to give every customer the perfect solution for their rail transportation needs," says Jakob Öhrström, Managing Director of VTG Rail Europe GmbH. "The InnoWaggon adds an attractive and flexible solution for bulk transportation to our portfolio. It will also help rail freight to compete with road haulage." The new wagons are fitted with an exceptionally wide and tall system of stanchions (approx. 3.6 m x 3.5 m). Developed specially for the Swedish market, they can carry roughly 25 percent more payload than the wagons used in the past. "This cooperation delivers an innovative solution for rail-based commodity transportation. It plugs a gap in the rail freight sector," says Isabella Legat, Regional Sales Manager at Innofreight. A modular system makes InnoWaggons flexible enough to be adapted to the requirements and specifications of other markets at any time. Together, the two partner companies can therefore produce and implement logistics concepts that are tailored to and optimized for individual customers. While VTG contributes its wagon expertise, Innofreight focuses on the containers and unloading technologies.
VTG and Innofreight work together in a number of areas, including consulting for and the development of transportation, equipment and unloading concepts, the reliable handling of rail transportation, the management of wagon and container equipment, the management of damaged wagons, the provision of stationary and mobile unloading technology, and the handling and organization of physical unloading operations. Customers receive all these services – from the conceptual phase through to operational implementation – from a single source. Cooperation with Innofreight enhances VTG's portfolio as a provider of innovative transportation models.
The InnoWaggons will be officially handed over in the outdoor exhibition space on Innofreight's stand (804/1) at transport logistic in Munich, at 4:00 p.m. on May 10, 2017. Representatives of the press are welcome to attend this event and will subsequently have the opportunity to talk to Dr. Heiko Fischer, CEO of VTG AG, and DI Peter Wanek-Pusset, Managing Director of Innofreight, about the cooperative venture and its future potential.
About VTG:
VTG Aktiengesellschaft is one of Europe’s leading wagon hire and rail logistics companies, with a fleet consisting of more than 80,000 railcars. VTG offers a full-range service, providing tank cars, intermodal wagons, standard freight wagons and sliding wall wagons. In addition to the hiring of wagons, the Group offers comprehensive multi-modal logistics services, mainly around rail transport, and global tank container transports.
With the combination of its three interlinked divisions Railcar, Rail Logistics and Tank Container Logistics, VTG offers its customers a high-performance platform for international transport of their freight. The Group has many years of experience and specific expertise, in particular in the transport of liquid and sensitive goods. Its customers include numerous well-known companies from almost every industrial sector, for example the chemical, petroleum, automotive, paper and agricultural industries.
In the financial year 2016, VTG generated revenue of EUR 987 million and operating profit (EBITDA) of EUR 345 million. Via its subsidiaries and affiliates the company, which has its head office in Hamburg, is mainly present in Europe, North America, Russia and Asia. As at 31 December 2016, VTG had 1,443 employees worldwide in consolidated companies. VTG AG is listed on the official Prime Standard market of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and also on the SDAX (WKN: VTG999).
About Innofreight Group:
It is the development of innovative containers and unloading systems in cooperation with our customers that serves as a focus of our company's operational activities. The secret of our success is flexibility, high capacity utilisation as well as a smoothly running transport system – all these factors being a result of both the combinability and the modular character of our systems as well as various unloading techniques. Share your logistic challenges with us– together we will produce an optimal solution. In the 2016 business year, the Innofreight Group achieved a turnover of € 50 Mio. and employed a total of 50 international staff members. 10,000 Innofreight superstructures transport a total of 15 Mio. t bulk goods every year.