DB to take Bayer product off the river

DB Schenker Rail has secured a three-year contract from Bayer MaterialScience to operate block trains between its plants in Dormagen and Krefeld and its production centre in Brunsbüttel. The service will start shipping some 300,000 tonnes of chemicals per year, potentially rising to 580,000 tonnes by the end of the contract; these volumes are currently moving by barge. “We need a fast, continuous and reliable supply – as if we were pumping the chemicals through a pipeline. DB Schenker Rail convinced us of its concept that is equivalent to setting up what is basically a pipeline on rails,“ explains Thomas Klessmann, head of service procurement at BMS.

“We are particularly pleased that we have again received further proof of the trust and confidence we enjoy in our collaborative partnership,” says Alexander Hedderich, CEO of DB Schenker Rail. Bayer ships around 1.5 million tonnes of freight a year using DB Schenker Rail national and international rail freight services and is thus one of the major customers of Europe’s leading freight carrier.