ChemLog Feasibility Study: Strengthening the Danube Waterway as Part of Corridor VII for the Chemical Industry

The SWOT Analysis has been the first step of the ChemLog project to identify the internal strengths and weaknesses of chemical companies and the external opportunities and threats for chemical logistics in Central Europe. On this basis the project partners have drawn general recommendations on needs for future actions and improvements, which have been described in this chapter. These general recommendations will be used for the further development of the project activities with the objective to achieve the mainstreaming of projects results with a high practical implementation orientation for the improvement of framework conditions and the support of infrastructure development for chemical logistics in CEE. In the next step of the work package “Analysis and Exchange of Experience” the identified strengths and weaknesses will be used to further explore best-practice solutions in chemical logistics in the partner countries (from June to November 2009). This analysis will initiate an intensive process of exchange of experience among the partners and involved stakeholders and should allow mutual learning. With this activity the project wants to facilitate deeper cooperation in the area of chemical logistics in CEE and support the transnational know-how transfer. The general recommendations of the SWOT Analysis will be further developed and specified in the course of the project with the objective to agree on concrete recommendations for measures and projects for chemical logistics and infrastructure. The project partners should set priorities for specific measures and projects in order to focus joint efforts on promising activities with a high impact for the chemical cluster in CEE. The tangible output of this exercise will be a short list of potential concrete measures and projects with a description of the current situation, needs for improvements and a road map for implementation. This mainstreaming process will reflect the different dimensions at policy level: European, national and regional; at stakeholder level: politics, industry, logistics service provider and the time span: long-, mid- and short-term. The project will establish a Policy Advisory Group to involve the relevant stakeholders from different policy levels and industry in the mainstreaming process. In the process of further specification of potential measures and projects, the partner will implement a feasibility study from November 2009 until October 2010. This feasibility study focuses on transnational infrastructure projects in the area of railway transport, intermodal transport, (inland) waterway and pipeline transport. The Logistikum.research highlights in its feasibility study the Danube waterway as a potential transport mode for the chemical industry. Reasons for this focusing are different. First, the SWOT Analysis conducted in the advent of ChemLog had yielded that inland waterway is perceived in future to be a highly competitive transport mode. This thesis is linked to some prerequisites and future developments. As examples here, the following could be mentioned: o The prospective internalization of external costs which rearrange the modal split within the Danube corridor in favor of the inland waterway o Elimination of bottlenecks within the system of inland waterway transport (figure 8) o Increasing the trimodal connectivity and integration the inland waterway into transport chains Further reasons for giving attention to the inland waterway transport will be presented in the course of the study in hand.