Dunajska Streda Logistics Centre Expands

The hub terminal operated by the HHLA rail company, Metrans, in the Slovakian town of Dunajská Streda has become the heart of a trans-European logistics centre. A new rail connection to Trieste and the expansion of the adjacent logistics areas are intended to ensure further growth.

Metrans, in partnership with shipping company MSC, will be serving a new rail connection between the Italian port city of Trieste and Dunajska Streda for the first time from 9 September. In the start-up phase, the container block trains will shuttle between the destinations once a week.

Dunajska Streda is Slovakia’s only rail terminal to have a direct connection to several off-dock warehouses, where containers can be loaded straight onto the train. Metrans handles additional shipments using its reach stackers.

This concept has been so successful that the market leader in European shoe retail, Deichmann, doubled its adjacent logistics areas back in 2015. Austrian transport and logistics company Cargo-Partner is investing three million euros in expanding its area by 7,200 square metres and 15,000 pallet spaces. A German discount clothes store is currently building a new logistics centre in the immediate vicinity.

Peter Kiss, Managing Director of Metrans Danubia: “We are delighted that with the support of our partners we have been able to turn Dunajska Streda into a true logistics hub so quickly. Now we want to continue growing together!”

The success of the Slovakian hub terminal in Dunajska Streda is based on centrally pooling container shipments, which are regularly hauled by block train to the ports of Hamburg, Bremerhaven, Koper and Trieste, or which come from there. Trucks are usually used for transportation to or from the core markets of Slovakia, Austria and Hungary.

In Slovakia and Hungary in particular, exports have grown strongly in recent years, meaning that both imports to and exports from these countries are well balanced. Container throughput at the terminal grew by eight percent from 547,252 standard containers (TEU) in 2014 to 590,554 TEU in 2015. And in the first half of 2016, too, the volumes handled again increased by more than eleven percent.