VTG has announced that the activities of its tank container transport and logistics business will be discontinued by the end of the second quarter of this year.
All international subsidiaries will be closed, with the exception of the Shanghai Cosco VTG Tanktainer joint venture in China.
The VTG Tanktainer business has been confronted by an “increasingly fraught market situation” since the third quarter of 2022, according to VTG.
A pronounced slump in demand for transport in the chemical industry and declining freight rates, “in part due to the massive increase in energy costs,” has been accompanied by substantial price rises in the intermodal segment.
At the same time, freight costs can now only be planned on the basis of prices valid for between three and six months.
Having examined various options and with the agreement of shareholders, the VTG executive board has therefore decided to discontinue the logistics activities of VTG Tanktainer.
VTG says that it will not close its tank container leasing business, however. This activity is to be developed and all staff and assets will be transferred to the VTG headquarters site in Hamburg, Germany, by the end of the second quarter of this year.
Other VTG Tanktainer facilities in Germany, Finland, North America and Singapore will close by the end of this year.
VTG owns 5000 tank containers, alongside its fleet of 88,500 wagons.
