MSC signs MoU with Italy-based FS Group to develop rail, sea intermodality, including asset sharing, such as locomotives, wagons, in national, European markets; partnership already launched shunting services, rail transport at Gioia Tauro port terminal

September 19, 2022 (press release) –

Development of intermodality, with greater and more effective synergies between maritime and rail transport, for the benefit of an increasingly reliable and sustainable logistics chain.

This is the main objective of the Memorandum of Understanding signed in Geneva between the FS Group, represented by CEO Luigi Ferraris and Mercitalia Logistics CEO Gianpiero Strisciuglio, and the MSC Group, represented by Group Chairman Gianluigi Aponte and Giuseppe Prudente, Chief Logistics Officer of MSC and President of MEDLOG.

The MoU will initially aim at checking the opportunity and mutual interest to implement a commercial and operational partnership project to develop combined maritime business. FS’s Polo Logistica companies, starting with the group leader Mercitalia Logistic, and MSC Group companies, including MEDWAY and MEDLOG, which respectively deal with rail transport and road transport, intermodality and logistics, will be responsible for implementing the Memorandum and making it effective with further specific agreements. This operating cooperation has, among other things, already experimented and taken its first steps forward in the past weeks with the launch of a partnership at the Gioia Tauro port terminal on shunting services and rail transport between Gioia Tauro and Interporto Padova.

More specifically, the main areas in which the synergies between the FS Group and the MSC Group companies will be assessed and may be developed are that of terminal management, either backport areas and in-land ports, national and European, and management of the network of trains and intermodal railway services, which could also benefit from the sharing of specific assets, such as locomotives and wagons, for the benefit of greater flexibility and quality, again operating in both the national and European markets, which is now considered the new domestic market. A further area where possible partnerships will be explored is that of tenders.

“The signing of this MoU with a Group of such great international relevance as MSC - Luigi Ferraris, CEO of the FS Group, said - strengthens the Polo della Logistica’s strategy as a system operator and consolidates its presence along the logistics chain, placing rail transport at the centre of the development, over distances of more than 300/400 km. It is in fact an objective of our Industrial Plan” - Ferraris concludes – “to double the current share of goods transported by rail within a decade, also thanks to increasingly effective connections of our ports and terminals to the national network and European rail corridors”.

“This partnership fits into the framework of a long-standing collaboration between the MSC Group and the FS Group - Giuseppe Prudente, Chief Logistics Officer at MSC and President of MEDLOG, pointed out – “Our group, through MEDLOG and MEDWAY, has a strong presence in Italy and Europe. The partnership with the FS Group plays a crucial role in the development of our business, both for port and in-land terminals and for testing new gateways. In this view – Prudente stresses – rail transport is a modal shift, it represents a new example for the development of freight transport in Italy, for smarter and more sustainable logistics both for the environment and for workers.”

For the original Italian version, please click here.

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