First Non-stop Service on TSR
Hyundai Glovis announced on August 14 that the company would operate a regular express freight train connecting the western and eastern ends of Russia for the first time as a Korean company.
Hyundai Glovis has decided to run a block train on the Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR), which is about 10,000 km from Saint Petersburg to Vladivostok in Russia, once a week.
There was a slow train service by a logistics company through several stops in this section, but Hyundai Glovis has become the first to operate a nonstop train service. Hyundai Glovis' first block train departed from Vladivostok Station on the morning of August 14 loaded with half-assembly parts for Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Rus LLC (HMMR). The cargo is scheduled to arrive at Shushary Station south of Saint Petersburg about 9,600 km away from Vladivostok Station 12 days later on August 26.
This method can cut time to transport parts for Hyundai Motor to Russia in half compare to marine transport time. It takes 22 days in total -- two days to move them from Busan Port to Vladivostok Port, eight days to unload and transship them and 12 days to transport them from Vladivostok Station to Shussari Station near St. Petersburg on the TSR. Shipping them takes 43 days.
Hyundai Glovis held a ceremony in honor of the service launch at Vladivostok Station in Russia with the participation of about 50 people including Kim Jung-hoon, president of Hyundai Glovis and Song Young-gil, a lawmaker of the Democratic Party.
After successfully stabilizing its TSR logistics business, Hyundai Glovis plans to promote Eurasian railroad logistics in earnest in the long run. The company is considering a project that will connect the TSR and the Trans-China Railway (TCR) from eastern China to Kazakhstan and Russia. The company has a strategy to enhance the competitiveness of its logistics business by utilizing the continental rail network that encompasses Eurasia by linking Russian and Chinese railways.
To this end, Hyundai Glovis has decided to increase TSR volume by strengthening local sales. In addition, the company will begin sales activities for multinational manufacturing companies such as makers of home appliances, automobile parts and etc. which have made a foray into the Western European market.