BUCHAREST (Romania), October 23 (SeeNews) – Romanian railway freight transport group Grampet said on Wednesday it has signed an agreement with Georgia's GR Logistics & Terminals and Azerbaijan's ASCO Logistic to open a regular shipping route between the ports of Constanta and Batumi.
The agreement to set up a consortium that will operate the route represents a new step by which the member companies of the Middle Corridor Association – the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route collaborate to intensify the flow of goods along this route, Grampet said in a statement following the signing of the document in Tbilisi, Georgia.
In June, Grampet Group and Kazakhstan's national sea carrier Kazmortransflot signed a memorandum of partnership as part of the same project.
"One year after joining the Middle Corridor Association, we have managed to activate the Batumi/ Poti - Constanta shipping route, which has a very important role for the freight transit from Asia to Europe – it is basically the last piece missing from the Middle Corridor chain. At the same time, the Tbilisi agreement brings us closer to our stated goal of launching the first rail freight transports between China and Western Europe that
will transit Romania," Grampet Group president Gruia Stoica said.
Under the agreement, the consortium will operate a ship with a capacity of 144 TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit) or 72 FEU (Forty-foot Equivalent Unit), which will carry shipments three times a month.
"The lack of a direct naval connection between the Georgian ports and Constanta has so far been a major obstacle to attracting transports for Europe on this route. Alternative routes, which go through Istanbul or Piraeus, are non-competitive, because they have a transit time of 12 to 24 days. Once a permanent and regular connection between the ports of Georgia and Romania is launched, we can reduce this transit time by 5 days forth / 5 days back, so that the transit time between the Georgian ports and Constanta is reduced to 2 days," Grampet vice president Sorin Chinde said.
Constanta Port has a handling capacity of over 100 million tonnes per year and 156 berths. The Batumi Port has a capacity of 18 million tonnes per year, five terminals and 11 berths.
Established almost 20 years ago, Grampet is the largest private rail freight and logistics operator in Romania, comprising 16 companies. Its flagship company, Grup Feroviar Roman, is the biggest private railway transport operator in Romania, with a market share of approximately 30%.
In November, Grampet started operations in Serbia through its local subsidiary Eurorail Logistics.
In September 2018, Grampet joined the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR) Association, which is an initiative of the governments of China, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan for the development of a new Asia - Europe multimodal transport corridor.