Solmaz and Elmas new partners for Rhenus Freight in its Turkey business

Rhenus Freight Logistics has been working with two new Turkish partner companies since the beginning of March: ELMAS Izmir and SOLMAZ Istanbul. The cooperation arrangement is enabling Rhenus to strengthen its road traffic operations between Western and South-Eastern Europe by having more business sites and a greater number of departures.

The two owner-managed partners are leading logistics companies in Turkey for foreign trade and offer integrated transport, customs and logistics services, including extensive distribution within Turkey. The goal of the change in partners is to increase the ongoing, long-term development and expansion of transportation services for goods by road. Rhenus organises direct traffic between Turkey and Germany together with ELMAS and SOLMAZ.

As a result of the cooperation with the partners, Rhenus will be able to offer its customers 54 business sites with more than 190,000 square metres of customs and logistics space in Turkey in future. Services to and from Istanbul, Bursa and Izmir operate several times a week. In all, 1,600 people and about 200 customs agents work for ELMAS and SOLMAZ.

"Even if investments in fixed assets in the country are declining, we still view Turkey as one of Germany’s most significant trading partners. It’s important for us to find innovative local partners in those markets where we do not have our own operation – and these partners must fit in well with our customers and us and have above-average regional networks, s. We need this in order to be able to meet our customer requirements along the complete logistics chain," says Thilo Streck, Managing Director of Road Freight at Rhenus Freight Logistics.

The portfolio of services also includes the transportation of hazardous goods and temperature-controlled consignments, bonded goods, express traffic, textile logistics with special equipment and pick & pack – as well as the use of the Rhenus Group’s global transport network with more than 500 of its own business sites.