AWT is heading south

  • September 29, 2016

The AWT group, a member of the PKP CARGO group, has increased its annual volume of shipments from central Europe to Slovenia and Italy with 10 trains weekly. The company has recently been supplying shipping to southern Europe for the whole passage and mostly as Just in time. AWT is therefore continuing to expand the services it provides throughout all of Europe and to strengthen its position in the intermodal and automotive segments as part of the strategy.

In cooperation with its parent company PKP CARGO, AWT is striving over the long term to become a leading carrier in Europe and to expanded services throughout the continent. It is at this moment increasing its number of shipments by rail, mostly from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland to countries of southern Europe, mostly Slovenia and Italy. In this regard, it has increased its annual volume of shipments by 10 trains weekly. “AWT is not just a major rail carrier in central Europe; our ambition is to look beyond the border of this region,” says Arkadiusz Olewnik, the CEO of the AWT group, and he adds, “We are not just focusing on the Czech market over the long run, because unlike the competition, we have the know-how today to provide comprehensive and modern logistics services to customers throughout Europe, and we likewise have a strong strategic partner behind us in PKP CARGO, which is the second largest rail freight operator in the EU.”

AWT has recently begun providing all the shipments throughout the entire passage and, moreover, most of them in Just in time. To southern Europe the company particularly ships containers, chemicals, cars and steel. The transit time, for example, from Slovakia to Livorna or Parma in Italy is around 22 hours, and to Koper in Slovenia it is about 24 hours. “We offer our customers quality shipments even for the complicated Italian market and our advantage is that we have long-term and reliable partners for the routes to southern Europe, plus our own office in Slovenia. These factors facilitate the entire process, mainly speeding it up, something our customers appreciate,” says Viktor Bystrian, the CCO of the AWT group.

AWT is focused on intermodal transport and we ship products from the automotive or chemical industry with great care. “The strategy of AWT is to gradually lower our dependence on shipping coal and other solid fuels and to look for new customers for chemical, automotive and intermodal shipments. We have many years of experience with intermodal transport, with our regular links to ports on the Adriatic and North Sea, and we see a great future in it. Here we can use the potential of our terminal in Paskov, one of the largest open intermodal transshipment stations in central Europe, which we are planning to modernize and practically double its capacity by the end of 2018,” adds Viktor Bystrian. In automotive shipments, AWT has nearly tripled its annual volume, where in 2016 it is planning to carry almost 280,000 cars on practically 1,500 trains going throughout the EU.