Gefco has renewed its multimodal logistics service for Romanian carmaker Dacia, which combines road and rail shipments to move vehicles from the carmaker's plant in Pitesti, Romania to the Italian market.
Gefco will now be able to also utilise the assets of Gruppo Mercurio, for vehicle movements in Italy following its acquisition of a 70% stake in the Italian transport and distribution provider in April last year.
"The fact that Gefco and Gruppo Mercurio are working together has helped them to optimise the service offered when Dacia went to tender," said a spokesperson for Gefco.
Gefco has been providing logistics services for Romanian carmaker, owned by Renault, since 2008, when it introduced the first rail solution for the company. Gefco collects and ships parts from European countries, including Germany and Belgium, to the Pitesti plant via its adjacent CKD centre.
It also provides road and rail shipments of finished vehicles from the plant to the Parma industrial park, where Gefco has joined forces with Mercurio, for distribution across Italy. The logistics provider ships an average of 600 vehicles a day for Dacia, and around 100,000 vehicles every year. Gefco said it is providing outbound services for between 35-40% of Dacia's total production.
Gefco also organises customised sea shipments to various Italian ports, using combined rail and road transport to move vehicles to the port of Constanta for export to the Middle East, the Gulf and Africa. Shipments to Constanta have increased to 90,000 from 30,000 in 2008.
According to Gefco, the partnership with Mercurio was a deciding factor in Dacia's decision to renew its contract for the distribution of vehicles through Italy.
"The fact that Dacia has extended its contract with us is the result of the combined efforts of the Italian and Romanian subsidiaries and the support of Gefco Sales," said Emmanuel Arnaud, sales director at the Gefco Global Accounts Department. "We have also redesigned our logistics operation in conjunction with our new partner Mercurio."
Gefco did not comment on the further details of that redesign but did say that shipments of finished Dacia vehicles between Pitesti and Constanta accounted for 64,920 tonnes of rail transportation in 2010, a volume which meant 8,431 fewer trucks on the roads.
Gefco is also providing outbound services in Europe for the new Dacia Lodgy, being produced at Renault's Tanger-Med plant, which began operations last month (read more here).
