Silk Road rail connection for Amsterdam

Hutchison Ports and TMA Holdings joint venture TMA Logistics is providing terminal and logistics services for the rail route, which saw the first train set off on its 11,000km, 16-day journey on 7 March from the intermodal railhead at Amsterdam Container Terminal to the trading hub of Yiwu in Zhejiang province.

Well-placed

Gerben Matroos, managing director of TMA Logistics, said: “Amsterdam Container Terminal provides a unique location as the start and end-point for this important overland connection with China. TMA Logistics is well placed to serve both current and new multimodal markets and to provide and extend full supply chain services.

“The intermodal connections we have by road, barge, short sea shipping and the railhead at Amsterdam Container Terminal make it the ideal gateway for this traffic, enabling us to collect and distribute goods across North Europe and UK for transport by rail to and from China.”

Three-track railhead

Amsterdam Container Terminal’s railhead has three 700m long tracks which offer a range of intermodal distribution options. The Silk Road service is operated by NUNNER Logistics, an agent of the Austrian-based Rail Cargo Group.

China’s US$900Bn New Silk Road encompasses land routes (the ‘Belt’) and maritime routes (the ‘Road’), with the goal of improving trade relationships between China and Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

In January, Hutchison Ports acquired a 50% shareholding in TMA Logistics.