Intercontainer-Interfrigo reports declining traffic, losses

Intercontainer-Interfrigo reports declining traffic, losses    European intermodal company Intercontainer-Interfrigo (ICF) suffered a drop in volumes and deeper losses in 2004, prompting it to announce cuts in some of its north/south services.
   ICF saw its traffic fall 4 percent to 702,800 TEUs in 2004, from 734,000 TEUs in 2003. Revenues declined 6 percent to 261 million euros ($315 million). The company’s net loss widened to 9 million euros ($11 million), from 4 million euros in 2003.
   “This included substantial extraordinary expenditure in connection with the restructuring project adopted in 2004,” ICF said.
   From the middle of July, ICF will stop its services on north/south routes between Belgium and France, Spain and Italy to concentrate on other routes. It will cut 40 jobs at the company’s headquarters in Basel, Switzerland.
   ICF said it will concentrate “on promising intermodal traffic flows between Western Europe and Central, Eastern and Southeast Europe and in shuttle traffic with Switzerland.”
   Commenting on trends in 2004, ICF said it enjoyed double-digit traffic growth on many routes between the German seaports, Rotterdam and Switzerland, and to and from countries in Central and South-East Europe.
   “By contrast, the trend with traffic on north/south routes from Belgium to France, Spain (and) Italy and vice versa was negative for reasons connected with persistent poor quality traction standards, external economic influences and sharp price hikes that it was impossible to pass on to the market,” it said. These discontinued services included maritime container traffic to and from the port of Antwerp.
   ICF reported that the average distance of its intermodal loads increased 1.5 percent to 1,167 kilometers (725 miles) in 2004.