Deutsche Bahn to Invest EUR 19 Million in Expansion of Duisburg Coal Island

Key transshipment terminal for DB Schenker Rail / supply of imported hard coal to power plants secured for the long term

Mainz/Gladbeck, Deutsche Bahn is to invest around EUR 19 million by 2014 in the expansion and modernization of transshipment and storage capacity on Duisburg’s Coal Island. This was approved in a recent decision made by the Management Board of DB Mobility Logistics AG.

Coal Island in the Port of Duisburg, which is an ideal strategic location for the transshipment of imported bulk materials, currently has an annual capacity of 2.5 million metric tons. This is scheduled to be expanded to 4.5 million tons by the end of 2014. Until then, the capacity available for the import of goods by barge from the Port of Rotterdam, for the transshipment and storage of coal on the site, which covers an area of 198,000 square meters, and for supplying the coal-fired power plants in North Rhine-Westphalia is to be almost doubled.

“With this investment, in view of the increase in demand for imported coal, DB Schenker Rail Deutschland AG and its wholly-owned subsidiary RBH Logistics GmbH are making a major contribution in the Port of Duisburg to providing power plants with a long-term stable supply,” says Dr. Karl-Friedrich Rausch, Member of the Management Board DB Mobility Logistics AG responsible for Transportation and Logistics. With the end of German hard coal already in sight, the demand for imported coal is expected to increase annually by around 11 million tons until 2018.

RBH Logistics GmbH is the largest tenant on Coal Island, where it operates a high-capacity transshipment terminal. All the technical facilities on Coal Island are linked together in such a way that any combination of loading and unloading, storage and mixing coal to meet the customers’ requirements is possible. High-quality blends can be produced in the company’s own stacker reclaimer facility in particular.

As the owner of the site, “duisport” is also to invest millions in expanding its infrastructure to meet the future requirements.

RBH develops logistics chains that run from the ARA seaports (Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp) via the Duisburg region to the consumer and offers them to the customer as a complete service package. The company, which is headquartered in Gladbeck, employs 900 people and has 106 locomotives and around 2,000 freight cars available.