FELB is a result of a 10-year project on the establishment of rail container transport on Asia – Europe route, mostly using the Trans-Siberian Railway, which, beyond Russia, is a link to Germany, Poland, Italy, Hungary and Central Europe.
Starting with the first pilot project, in 2007, FELB managed to reduce transit time from 28 days to currently 12-14 days: in 2016-2017, FELB had less than 14 days in transit time between Suzhou (China) and Warsaw (Poland). And this record led the company to have an ambitious vision: its future strategy envisages the delivery of faster services, reaching a transit time of 10-12 days, focusing on flexibility and quality.
At the same time, the company became the owner of more than 7,000 containers and increased its transport frequency from one per week to six per week. This allowed the establishment of two special train operating centres – Block-Train Centres (BTC), one in Asia and one in Europe.
Practically, FELB is offering the best alternative to sea and air freight transport between China, South Korea and Europe and vice versa, with door-to-door services, including container transport.
On Europe-Asia axis, the company operates many routes. For example, in Asia, the company provides transport services from China’s cities – Shenyang, Shilong, Ganzhou, Changchun, Changsha, and terminals in Japan and South Korea. Also, in Europe, company’s main destinations are located in Germany (Hamburg, Duisburg), in Poland (Warsaw), in Italy (Milan) and in Russia (Moscow). Based on demand, the trains are running daily from a terminal to the destination, and is adding more frequent departure dates each month.
In providing transport services across the continents, many people are thinking that China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative daily becomes more and more important for operators. In FELB case, the “initiative” on Asia-Europe transport services started in 2007, and still has many options which are completely independent from the Silk Road initiative. Of course, China’s initiative allowed FELB to develop its portfolio, by reducing transit time and creating new opportunities, but the company can guarantee transport services for many routes, based on its strong partnerships. For example, the company has partners at each border, such as China/Russia at Zabaykalsk, Russia/EU at Malaszewicze and China/Mongolia at Erlian, which helps to reduce the gauge changeover time.
Also, based on its partnerships, FELB introduced to the market alternative routes and border stations which decrease the congestion. Thus, due to the congestion in Brest (Belarus), trains are driven to Warsaw where are divided for and efficient distribution. During this time, FELB made a strong effort to establish a clear communication with the involved terminals, forwarders and rail operators, in order to create better solutions for the future. The action has significantly reduced the traditional complications and allowed faster speeds in logistics process.
Recent projects
Starting this year, FELB is developing its opportunities on Asia-Europe axis, proving safe, flexible and reliable transport services.
January marked the company’s first direct rail shipment from Russia to Vietnam, involving other two rail operators: Ratraco, the Vietnamese operator, RZD. With a 20-day transit time, the test shipment made its way safely to its destination from Vorsino (near Moscow) to Hanoi, Vietnam. According to FELB, a similar shipment by sea would have taken double the time.
Within the project, FELB received the cargo at the
Zabaykalsk border in China and transported it to the Vietnamese border, where Ratraco retrieved the cargo and completed the journey to Hanoi.
The cargo contained Red Line brand cosmetics consisting of shampoos for adults and children, soap, shower gels, various scrubs, creams and masks for face and hair. Red Line transported these products for their opening of a new shop in Hanoi. They currently offer their products to Europe, CIS and Arabic countries and are in the process of expanding to the large Asian market. As the project is a success, by delivering the cargoes in a short transit time, FELB intends to further collaborate with Vietnam, opening up another possibility for the clients in transporting cargo to and from many locations in Asia.
As last year FELB successfully tested several train services from Ganzhou, China, to Europe, in 2018 it began a weekly FCL option departing every week (on Thursdays). With the direct connection at Manzhouli/Zabaikalsk in Russia, it is one of the cheapest and fastest routes from Southern China ever offered. The route takes 18 days to Warsaw and 20 days to Hamburg/Duisburg.
As an added benefit, FELB has recently begun offering forwarding from this route to Italy and the previously unoffered destinations of Sweden and the UK. This is possible via various intermodal lines which allow costs to be cut while maintaining reliable transit times. Future plans for reducing the transit time even further and offering LCL service are in progress and will be launched soon.
In collaboration with Changsha platform company, a new public eastbound route is being established from Changsha (the capital of central China’s Hunan province) to Budapest. The first train departed on February 8th and is estimated at an 18 day transit time. With this new route, FELB plans a normal weekly service starting March which will depart every Thursday.
FELB has already been operating a weekly train on this route going Westbound from Changsha to Budapest for several months with an 18-20 day transit time. The route has proven to be stable and consistent and holds promise for the future.
In the next months, FELB plans to establish Budapest as its main traffic point for Central Europe market, via the Dobra, Ukraine border crossing. The location can offer fast rail service to countries like: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria and the Balkan States. “If all goes as planned, Budapest will become a future container depot for Southeastern Europe. This means that going east from Budapest, the countries of Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria and even Turkey can reap the benefits of these new developments,” FELB says. Additionally, many other existing railway lines can be used for a quick and cheap pre-carriage to Budapest. A few examples are lines to Ljubljana, Koper, Wels or Köln and Duisburg.
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