Austria’s timber industry keeps the faith with rail logistics
Companies from the Austrian wood industry have long been focusing on environmentally friendly transport by rail. Thanks to the commitment of all parties involved in recent years, the transports of wood, which are important for the forestry, wood and paper industry, could be kept on track in Austria.
Now the relevant agreement between the Rail Cargo Group and Forst Holz Papier was renewed and extended for three more years. The freight rates for domestic shipments expiring on 30 June 2017 will be slightly adjusted as of 1 July 2017.
In addition, the Rail Cargo Group and FHP agreed on the development and optimisation of a wood core network and a capacity management system called KAPA. The continuation of the successful cooperation until the year 2020, shall benefit the environment and the population, as transport volumes are shifted from road to rail.
The cooperation remains based on the high density of more than 400 service stations and 125 timber and core network railway stations for national and international rail transports. This service offer as the backbone for individual wagon traffic is not only an integral feature for the Rail Cargo Group, but also a key location factor for the Austrian industry.
FHP is a pan-European alliance of all sectors dealing with timber as a raw material, reusable material or construction material, from the forestry industry to the processing industry including sawmills, board and paper production, timber construction and timber trade. Approximately 300,000 persons in Austria earn their income from timber as a value and construction material in more than 172,000 mainly family-run small and medium-sized enterprises. The production value of the entire value chain is about EUR 12 billion; the average export surplus is around EUR 3.5 billion.
“The value-added chain of wood is thus a stable and reliable factor for the Austrian economy and a driver of rural development. The transport of the environmentally-friendly value and construction material on the environmentally-friendly rail has a tradition in our country, which we will gladly continue by renewing this important contract,” emphasises ÖKR Rudolf Maximilian Rosenstatter, Chairman of Forst Holz Papier (FHP).
www.forstholzpapier.at; www.oebb.at