Liliana Krutonog, General Director of MALBI-trans, in her speech emphasized the importance of transit potential and routes through Kazakhstan from the point of view of a European forwarder. Their Czech company, although a private entity, received a significant impetus for development last year by becoming the official agent of the Czech railways – ČD Cargo. These powers enable the most efficient use of ČD Cargo’s infrastructure and services, including the locomotive and wagon fleet, terminals, warehouses and existing transport solutions.
The company offers ready-made products for transportation from Europe, including routes to the ports of Constanta and Koper, as well as transit through Georgia and the Black Caspian Sea to Kazakhstan. For example, they offer the system train “Dracula”, which provides regular departures twice a week from Brno to the Romanian border. After this, using the locomotive traction of the Czech railways, MALBI-trans can deliver goods to the port of Constanta.
“Our locomotive traction capabilities are expanding to a number of European countries thanks to the liberalization of the railway market. This allows us to serve customers in partner countries such as Poland, Austria, Germany, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary.
Although our company is still operating as a partner in Romania, we are actively expanding our network to provide our customers with quality transportation throughout Europe. This is a significant step for a state-owned company from Eastern Europe, and we are proud of our contribution to the development of transport routes for the benefit of our customers and the economy of the region,” noted Liliana Krutonog.
The speech touched upon key aspects of the port’s transport potential. The company actively supports private security train, which regularly carries out transportation between the Czech Republic and Batevo. This route is mainly intended for the import of grain to Europe and the export of construction materials to Ukraine. MALBI-trans hopes for further development of this area after the current circumstances are resolved.
ČD Cargo and MALBI-trans also support other important routes such as Bell Express and Connection, ensuring regular shipments from Belgium via the Czech Republic. Despite this, the border crossing between Malashevich and Brest is not so relevant at the moment due to some concerns from customers and insurance companies regarding sending goods through Belarus to Russia. However, the company’s services include the Mala train, which runs weekly, providing the ability to send a variety of cargo.
Particular attention is paid to the TITM corridor through Romania and Slovenia, which is popular with European manufacturers due to political and insurance considerations. Despite the growing popularity of routes such as TMTM, customers continue to use Malasevice, given the importance of transit time.
“Although the Malasevici border crossing went through a period of bottleneck, the reconstruction of the tracks made it possible to increase its capacity. We believe that similar improvements can occur in the ports of Constanta and Koper with sufficient financial support,” noted Liliana Krutonog.
In addition, MALBI-trans presented a new terminal in Ostrava, the third largest city in the Czech Republic, which can handle a significant volume of trains daily and provide storage facilities. This ambitious project, partially financed by the European Union, is open to all clients, but MALBI-trans has a number of preferences, including favorable container storage conditions, thanks to its status as a nominated agent of the Czech Railways.
Liliana also said:
“We are currently developing a concept for a hub in Ostrava together with Czech Railways. This will be a large depot for storing empty and loaded containers, as well as for the joint dispatch of prefabricated trains.”
Special attention was paid to the company “TransVector”, the representative of MALBI-trans in Uzbekistan, which seeks to become their branch and is planning a merger. This is a young company that has already proven itself in the Central Asian market. It specializes in intermodal transport both within the region and between Central Asia, Russia and China. Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan have great potential for development, and MALBI-trans are confident in the prospects of these markets, so they opened their company there.