“The railway and port connections of Lithuania and Northern Italy are an important part of international logistics chains, which acquire special significance in today’s geopolitical context. Since the opening of the intermodal terminal in Kaunas, we have seen a continuous increase in cargo in the direction of Germany, and now is the perfect time to move even further. We see great potential for developing transport connections between Lithuania and Italy, where cargo flows from Turkey and other countries of the region travel through the port of Trieste in the direction of Scandinavia,” said Minister of Transport and Communications M. Skuodis.
LTG Group’s cargo transportation company LTG Cargo has been working consistently for several years to achieve the strategic goal of diversification of operations and development of services aimed at different markets, especially Western Europe.
“While LTG Group is implementing an unprecedented transformation, the role of the cargo transportation company LTG Cargo is extremely important. We consider intermodal cargo transportation one of priority business development directions for LTG Cargo, and as customers continue to actively seek opportunities to reorient their supply chains to Western Europe, we see a lot of potential in this direction. Together with our partners, we hope that the network of international freight transport corridors will be supplemented by the connection between Lithuania and Italy, which will meaningfully extend the existing routes and create new opportunities for customers,” stated Egidijus Lazauskas, CEO of LTG.
The memorandum between LTG and Italian logistics companies, signed for a period of 2 years, will become the basis for closer cooperation: it will promote the development of new railway and intermodal transport routes between Italy and Lithuania through implementation of joint projects and increasing the volume of cargo at terminals managed by the countries, sharing experience in cargo transportation, forwarding and other areas of provision of logistics services.
After meeting with the Italian Minister of Sustainable Infrastructure and Mobility, E. Giovannini, President of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region, Massimiliano Fedriga, the President of the Trieste Port Authority, Zeno D’Agostino, the mayor of this city, Roberto Dipiazza, and the Prefect of Trieste, Annunziato Varde, Minister of Transport and Communications M. Skuodis discussed the possibilities of strengthening the cooperation between the Klaipėda Seaport and LTG with the ports of the Northern Italian region and urged Italian partners to take advantage of the increasing opportunities to transport cargo by rail to and from the Baltic region.
According to the Lithuanian Minister, the ‘Rail Baltica’ European-gauge railway line being built in the Baltic States opens up new opportunities – it already carries freight flows from Europe to the Kaunas Intermodal Terminal. At the beginning of this year, a new regular international transportation route from the Kaunas Intermodal Terminal to Duisburg in Germany was opened. It is currently the main route for intermodal cargo transportation to the West. According to the latest data, this year, a total of over 33 thousand tonnes of intermodal cargo were transported in this direction.
Minister Skuodis is visiting Italy on 5-7 September together with the heads of LTG and international transport and logistics alliance.
