Hafen Wien positions WienCont as a diverse provider

WienCont, the operating company of the container terminal in the port of Vienna, is looking confidently to the future. After the Federal Competition Authority has rejected the plans for establishing a joint venture with ÖBB Infrastruktur AG to offer joint UKV terminal services in greater Vienna, the company wants to consolidate its position on the market as a provider of various services. Doris Pulker-Rohrhofer, Managing Director of the Port of Vienna, said that the company was working on new train products and striving to achieve a further improvement of the high service quality.

Apart from this, the Hafen Wien group reports a new record result for 2016. Compared to 2015, sales rose by around 8 percent to around EUR 56.8 million (2015: EUR 52.7 million). At around EUR 12.7 million, earnings before taxes were up 32 percent on the previous year. The increase to the previous record year 2014 is 27 percent. Peter Hanke, Managing Director Wien Holding, concluded in front of the press that “the investments in port expansion, actions to increase efficiency and increase competitiveness in recent years have paid off.”

In total the Hafen Wien group handled around 7 million tonnes of goods in 2016, with 984,000 tonnes (+ 8.6%) that were transported by ship. 72,000 vehicles were handled at the port’s own car terminal. The utilisation of storage capacity in the port’s warehouses and in the open warehouses settled at around 73 percent in 2016, which means an increase compared to the previous year.

In the container sector, the total sales volume in 2016 was maintained almost on the same level. WienCont has handled around 440,000 TEU, which is a slight decline of 1.6 percent compared to the year 2015.

The port of Vienna, a company of Wien Holding, including its cargo ports Freudenau, Albern and Lobau, is the largest public Danube port in Austria, but also one of the most important hinterland hubs in Europe, especially for the major North Sea ports and Adriatic ports. This year, the Hafen Wien group will invest a total of EUR 24.6 million into the further expansion, said Renate Brauner, Wirtschaftsstadträtin, during the presentation of the port of Vienna’s balance sheet for the year 2016.

www.hafenwien.com; www.wienholding.at