Bruce Barnard, Special Correspondent | Sep 14, 2012 10:03AM EDT
Panalpina boosted its fast-growing less-than-containerload Asia-Europe network with the launch of three services from China and Singapore to Hungary, the Czech Republic and Austria.
The Swiss logistics giant’s in-house Pantainer Express Line unit will operate weekly guaranteed services from Singapore to the Czech and Hungarian capitals Prague and Budapest and from Shanghai to Graz in Austria.
The company, which already offers a dozen LCL services from mainland China, Hong Kong and Singapore to the three Central European countries, said the new services will cut both transit times and CO2 emissions.
“There is a growing demand in the automotive and high-tech industries for direct consolidation services from Asia in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Austria,” said Christian Kruse, Regional Head of Ocean Freight LCL Europe and the Middle East.
Previously, the services to the three European destinations used to run via Hamburg, Germany, by rail to Linz in Austria, where the cargo was loaded onto trucks.
“In order to cut transit times and CO2 emissions we’ve decided to take the Linz stop out of these services and route cargo for Budapest and Graz via Koper, Slovenia’s port on the Adriatic Sea,” Kruse said.
Transit times from Singapore to Prague and Budapest have been reduced by two days to 29 days, and the Shanghai-Graz voyage now takes 36 days instead of 41.
As a result of the shorter distances, and for Prague and Budapest a shift from road to rail, CO2 emissions have been reduced by 22 percent to Graz, 8 percent to Prague and 33 percent to Budapest, Panalpina said.
Contact Bruce Barnard at brucebarnard47@hotmail.com.