ASTANA, Kazakhstan, April 2. OJSC "UTLC ERA" and the transport group FESCO have agreed to develop the ERAI index - a key indicator of the state of Eurasian container transport, Trend reports via Kazakhstan Railways.
The parties signed a cooperation agreement aimed at promoting trans-Eurasian rail container transport and increasing market participants' awareness of current quotations on key Eurasian routes.
As part of the agreement, UTLC ERA and FESCO also plan to optimize joint logistics processes and improve customer service with the goal of attracting additional volumes of container cargo to rail routes between China and the EAEU countries, as well as between China and European countries.
"Since its creation, the ERAI index has become an important tool for increasing market awareness of trans-Eurasian rail container transportation. The integration of competencies and experience through cooperation with FESCO, along with the group's interest in exchanging data and publishing current freight cost quotations for a wide range of stakeholders, will provide the market with a highly demanded tool for making transportation mode decisions," said Alexei Grom, General Director of UTLC ERA.
He also emphasized that in maritime and air transportation markets, cost information has been consolidated for many years in public cost indicators, and with ERAI, the railways will also have a current cost indicator for Eurasian transit transportation.
This could be the first step toward creating a unified digital space for trans-Eurasian transit. Furthermore, at the TransRussia exhibition in Moscow, UTLC ERA and the "Center for Price Indices" JSC agreed to jointly develop railway container transport indices for the 1520mm track gauge space.
The ERAI index typically refers to an index related to the
Electronic Realtime Assessment of Industry (ERAI), which is a
platform that provides information about suppliers, manufacturers,
and other entities in various industries. ERAI's primary focus is
on tracking the reliability, quality, and compliance of electronic
component suppliers, particularly in the aerospace and defense
sectors.
UTLC ERA, or the United Transport and Logistics Company – Eurasian
Rail Alliance, is a joint-stock company established in 2018
following the reorganization of UTLC JSC. It serves as an operator
for transit container services between China and Europe, utilizing
regular container trains that traverse Russia, Kazakhstan, and
Belarus.