Prihláste sa na odber noviniek
Shortly after the start of a warning signal at the level crossing, the ramps close down the crossing of rail and road. The sound of waiting cars is soon overtaken by the sound of an oncoming freight train. Looking at the complete set of covered wagons, hardly any of the waiting drivers knows that dozens of other cars are passing along, in front of their eyes. However, the final assembly of these cars is still ahead of them.
ZSSK CARGO has a long-term cooperation with other carriers from Europe who rely on its services in Slovakia. Such cooperation has also been working with ČD Cargo on a transport that has been going on for 15 years. In Czechia, a unit train of the Habbins covered wagons is created every week, so that they can travel from Mladá Boleslav, across the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the Ukrainian border. Their cargo is new cars.
Four Cars per Wagon
In order to protect the domestic market, countries such as Russia and Ukraine have introduced import duties that would make the import of finished vehicles much more expensive. Leading European car manufacturers have responded by transporting vehicles as "semi-finished products" and therefore only after partial assembly. They are loaded into containers or covered wagons and transported beyond the Schengen border so that they get their final form in one of the assembly factories on Russian and Ukrainian territory. The Czech Škoda Auto is also one of the manufacturers acting in this way. Today, after gradual optimization of loadings, up to four vehicles can fit into the covered wagon - the body and the engine separately.
Solomonovo and its Potential
While in Russia the centre of car assembly is the city of Kaluga, in Ukraine it is Solomonovo. This village with less than 1,500 inhabitants lies only two kilometres beyond the Slovak border, close to the town of Chop, which is the opposite station to the border station of Čierna nad Tisou on the Slovak side. The standard gauge railway line also leads directly here. It is therefore very advantageous to transport cars for final assembly right here, as it is not necessary to reload the goods on a broad, eastern European gauge.
Great Opportunities of Local Industrial Zone
The local company Eurocar is the recipient of trains with disassembled cars from Mladá Boleslav. Four Škoda models are assembled on its assembly lines. Among them is the latest Kodiaq model. Next year, this company will celebrate 20 years of its existence. It has survived the crisis and the decline of production around 2014, and, since 2017, its production has been growing again. Last year, almost 3,400 vehicles left its lines. However, the potential of the local industrial zone is several times higher - 80 to 100,000 vehicles.
Precision Packaging Times Two
In each of the covered wagons with sliding doors, four carefully packed vehicles are transported: bodywork separately, engines separately. In addition to customs benefits, the transport in this way has another advantage that is a problem in ordinary transport for the automotive industry: protection of cars. Placing new cars on ordinary wagons intended for their transport is also an exposure to their risk of vandalism or other damage. This will not happen to cars in covered wagons, although the average person that sees the train passing by does not know that it is fully loaded with cars.
East Slovak Transshipment Yards in Full Deployment
The primary work of the East Slovak Transshipment Yards is the transhipment of bulk substrates going from Eastern to Central and Western Europe. However, the services of this ZSSK CARGO department are also used by companies exporting to Ukraine.
In Čierna nad Tisou, where one of the ZSSK CARGO 131 series twin locomotives pulled the train all the 400 km from the Czech border, there is a thorough inspection and the train is divided into two parts. One forming the body, the other the engines. These are moved separately across the border to Chop, where they are handed over to their Ukrainian colleagues for a transfer to the Eurocar siding.
The fact that these shipments have been going on for one and a half decades is proof of the professionalism of each party involved. In the automotive segment, clients are demanding, but thanks to a 100% cooperation with the forwarding company, as well as Czech colleagues, regular weekly shipments run smoothly. Thanks to timely and good communication, they are always well prepared at the Ukrainian border to take over another load of new cars for their final assembly.
