From left to right: Andreas Matthä, CEO of ÖBB-Infrastruktur;. Frederik Wexel, General Manager of MSC Austria GmbH; Axel Mattern; Alexander Till; Jürgen Behrens; Andreas Fuchs, ÖBB-Infrastruktur; Bernhard Meusburger, ÖBB-Infrastruktur; KR Manfred Rein, Chamber of Commerce President Vorarlberg © HHM
The hosts Alexander Till and Andreas Matthä welcomed the participants and talked about the importance of the cooperation between ports and terminal. The guest of honour and the representative of Vorarlberg was Manfred Rein the President of the Vorarlberg Chamber of Commerce. He spoke about the importance of a functioning infrastructure for the export-oriented economy of the Vorarlberg region.
Alexander Till showed in his presentation an overview of the Austrian sea freight market. In 2014, a total of 270,000 TEU (20-foot standard containers) were transported to Austria with 80 trains running weekly between the Port of Hamburg and the terminals in Austria. Till stated that a considerable part of the export is generated in the region of Vorarlberg. "After Lower Austria and before Upper Austria Vorarlberg generates the second highest export volumes in Austria," emphasized Alexander Till. This is an important reason behind the need for the development of the terminal Wolfurt, especially for the location and the region. The groundbreaking ceremony for the expansion in Wolfurt was last year.
Andreas Fuchs of the Terminal Service Austria and Bernhard Meusburger the terminal manager in Wolfurt, informed the audience in detail about the stages of development of the terminal. The guests paid great attention to the presentation of Frederik Wexel, about the development of ship sizes and their impact on the transport chain, and Axel Mattern, who vividly told about challenges and preparations of the Hamburg harbour to meet the needs of these particularly large seagoing vessels.
At dinner there was enough time for the guests to meet new people and talk about the subjects of the day.