The Hupac Group has reported an 11.7% decline in transport volumes over the past year. The company cites a Europe-wide decline in transport demand and a difficult economic environment as the main factors. The company transported approximately 975,000 road consignments or 1,866,000 TEUs. This represents a decrease of approximately 130,000 consignments compared to the previous year. Specifically, transalpine traffic through Switzerland fell by 7.6%, non-transalpine traffic by 14.9%, and maritime hinterland traffic from the major seaports by 13.2%.
Despite these setbacks, Hupac continued to make strategic investments in new terminals and digitalization projects to improve the efficiency and competitiveness of its services.
Several issues contributed to the downturn. These included the economic impact of the conflict in Ukraine and the energy crisis, the accident in the Gotthard base tunnel, and infrastructure problems in Germany. This has resulted in capacity shortages, delays, and cancellations which undermine the competitiveness of combined traffic.
“For several years now, we have been experiencing a negative spiral of poor availability of the rail network due to disruptions and construction work, coupled with rising energy, traction, and track costs," explained Hans-Jörg Bertschi, Hupac's Chairman of the Board of Directors. Under these conditions, the competitiveness of combined transport is suffering compared to direct road transport, which has excess capacity in the current recessionary market environment.
In response to this situation, Hupac has several measures in place for the stabilization of its business. These include the adjustment of the wagon fleet to better match demand, as well as more efficient capacity management. Despite a consolidated loss of CHF 6.2 million, the company has invested CHF 36 million in strategic projects aimed at increasing the capacity of its terminals and further developing its digital infrastructure.
