Polish Cargounit enters the Romanian railway market
The largest Polish locomotive leasing company is expanding its activity to the Romanian market after delivering a new Smartron class locomotive. The move is part of Cargounit’s more extensive expansion process, which will see it develop its activities across the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region.
Cargounit is owned by the Three Seas Initiative Fund (3SIIF), the investment arm of the Three Seas Initiative, whose initiators, co-founders, and investors are EximBank, on behalf of the Romanian Government, and Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (BGK), the Polish development bank. Cargounit aims to develop the transport, digital, and energy infrastructure in this region of Europe.
“The locomotive rental market in both Poland and Romania, one of the largest railway markets in the region, has great potential. We are glad that our new client, Unicom Tranzit, chose Cargounit's offer and decided to rent the two Smartron locomotives,” said Lukasz Boron, Cargounit general manager, cited by Economedia.ro.
“Cargounit is among the first entities to make available the rental of modern locomotives on the Romanian market. We want to increase the number of Smartron locomotives rented in Romania and in Bulgaria,” he added.
The Smartron locomotives are produced by Siemens Mobility, the mobility division of the German multinational. Cargounit boasts their reliability and argues that they offer the highest technical efficiency to local carriers.
The ceremonial delivery of the automotive took place at the Băneasa Station in Bucharest in the presence of representatives from EximBank, BGK, and Unicom Tranzit. Also present were representatives of the 3SIIF.
"Today's delivery of the Smartron locomotive to our first partner in Romania is an important step in the development of Cargounit, along with the entry into the railway sector in Romania, a key market for us,” said Cameron Cook, president of Cargounit’s supervisory board.
With a fleet of 185 locomotives, Cargounit offers transport services for various sectors – chemical, construction materials, fossil fuel, automotive components, and so on.
Smartron is the first of two locomotives leased by Unicom Tranzit, the Romanian freight forwarding, and transport company. It can reach speeds of up to 160 km/h.
The war in Ukraine determined a redirection to railway transportation of significant volumes of goods that were previously exported via sea routes from Ukraine, according to the press release. Cargounit decided to renew its fleet and invest in the CEE region in this context.
The Three Seas Initiative (3SI), created in 2019, is a group that brings together the 12 states neighboring the Baltic, Black and Adriatic seas. These are Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
(Photo source: Cargounit)
