Port of Hamburg signs MoU with Lithuanian Railways

VILNIUS, Lithuania: October 16, 2018. The Port of Hamburg and Lithuanian Railways have signed an MoU that includes a letter of intent by Hamburger Hafen und Logistik’s (HHLA) intermodal subsidiary Metrans to promote and improve cross-border freight flows.

While seaborne freight transport between Hamburg and Lithuania rose 7.8 percent last year to reach a record 128,000 TEU, the new MoU is designed to encourage implementation of the Rail Baltica and East-West Transport Corridor infrastructure development projects.

Lithuanian Railways and Port of Hamburg Rail Baltica is planned to run from Warsaw via Kaunas and Riga to Tallinn – with a ferry or tunnel connection to Helsinki – with support from EU member states Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland.

Metrans says it wants to use the Rail Baltica rail corridor to boost links between its new Baltic terminal in Estonia and its existing network. “With its important role and its location on the new Rail Baltica, Lithuania offers tremendous potential for closer cooperation with the Port of Hamburg,” said Marina Basso Michael, head of Market Development for the Baltic Region and Eastern Europe.

Lithuanian Railways’ freight traffic currently connects Byelorussia, Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Poland, Kazakhstan, China, Turkey, Germany, Scandinavia and Italy via intermodal terminals in Vilnius, Kaunas and Šeštokai - where it loads containers and semi-trailers, issues Customs documents and provides container storage.

“We are constantly pursuing new business opportunities abroad and Germany is one of our most important foreign markets,” commented deputy director-general Egidijus Lazauskas. “We see great potential there. We hope that cooperation with the Port of Hamburg and Metrans will open up fresh opportunities for the Lithuanian economy, which requires rapid, efficient and environment-friendly freight traffic through the East-West transport corridor,” he added.

(Pictured left to right: Egidijus Lazauskas, deputy director-general and director Freight Traffic for Lithuanian Railways and Axel Mattern, joint CEO of Port of Hamburg Marketing, sign an MoU in Vilnius to strengthen cooperation on routes to and from the Port of Hamburg.)