Austrian „captains of industry“ give suggestions for inland navigation
Wolfgang Eder (voestalpine), Manfred Leitner (OMV) and Reinhard Wolf (RWA) express their wishes for the Danube
As part of the International Congress on the EU Danube Strategy (26 to 27 June 2014, Vienna City Hall) Pro Danube International (PDI) and Pro Danube Austria (PDA) in collaboration with the Austrian „captains of industry“ made a clear call to action in international politics.
The Pro Danube association has been fighting for years for an improvement of the navigability of the Danube river and, on June 27, backed by the domestic economy, handed over a petition to Johannes Hahn, European Commissioner for Regional Development, and Karla Peijs, Ten-T co-ordinator for the Rhine-Danube corridor, to finally implement long-standing demands of the Danube supporters.
Before that the „captains of industry“ made the following statements:
Wolfgang Eder, Director General of the steel company voestalpine AG: „The inland navigation on the Danube is far from the state of the art-status.” The steel manager identifies an urgent need for action in eliminating the flat spots on the Danube. The waterway had to be made more sustainable by eliminating the annoying bottlenecks quickly, and making its a powerful logistics corridor of 2.5 meter continuous water depth.
Manfred Leitner, President and Director of OMV Refining & Marketing AG: „We carry about 1 million tons of petroleum products annually by barge. Westbound and Eastbound is about equal. However, shipments to / from Germany and Benelux are more efficient by 25 to 30 per cent than the transports along the South-Eastern Europe-corridor. The problems start already east of Vienna. “
RWA’s General Director Reinhard Wolf: „River navigation does not currently fulfill our vision of reliable transport logistics. Since we prefer to take the slightly higher cost of other modes of transport, we thus create the conditions for stable customer relationships. Solely if the Danube waterway is sustainable and fail-safe, it can be used as a real alternative. “
www.prodanube.eu
Quelle: LogEastics
Portal: www.logistik-express.com
