COSCO launches new shipping and intermodal service between Rijeka and central Europe

The shipping and intermodal service was organised by the largest Chinese company COSCO Shipping Lines and Ocean Rail Logistics, a company within the COSCO group responsible for rail transport.

The Minister for the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure, Oleg Butkovic, said: "With our cooperation with the Chinese companies we managed to set things in motion to increase traffic in the port of Rijeka.".

The ceremony was also attended by representatives of COSCO Shipping Lines from Shanghai, COSCO Shipping Europe and the concessionaire Adriatic Gate Container Terminal.

The director of the Rijeka Port Authority, Denis Vukorepa, said he expected that nearly 300,000 container units would be transloaded at Brajdica this year. He emphasised the fact that COSCO, as the world's largest shipping company, had established a direct line between Rijeka and Pireus and an intermodal service.

The service comprises a regular shipping line between Rijeka and the Greek port of Piraeus as well as rail services operating along the routes Rijeka-Budapest-Rijeka and Rijeka-Belgrade-Rijeka.

By combining overseas and rail services under the name Rijeka Land Sea Express, COSCO offers its clients a transit time of 32 days from eastern China to Budapest and of 28 days from southern China to Budapest, using Piraeus and Rijeka as transloading ports.

The project was launched in March and has been fully operational since July.