In 2022 the volume of combined road/rail transport enlivened by the Hupac group amounted to 1,103,693 Road shipments, with a decrease of -1.8% on the previous year. The Swiss company has specified that last year the trend of the traffic was lower than expected and on the business Operational capacity constraints have had a negative impact in Germany. In particular, Hupac has announced that, after a Lively development in the first quarter with high growth rates at one figure, traffic on the Hupac network collapsed in the months of April and June and this was caused by various Railway line closures and capacity limitations from lead back to the intense shipbuilding activity on the corridor Rhine-Alps, such as the total closure of the Valle del Valle railway Reno in April 2022. This - the company has specified - has The transalpine transport segment has been particularly penalised through Switzerland. Subsequently, after a brief recovery in the summer months, capacity bottlenecks have occurred repeated and even exacerbated in autumn and, in times of greatest voltage, up to 20% of trains could not run for reasons Operating.

With regard to the volumes transported on the main routes, Hupac has specified that on the north-south corridor the traffic volumes are diminished of -2,9% being pairs to 766.574 shipments road, and transalpine traffic through Switzerland is was particularly affected with a decrease of -2.1% having totaled 584,984 shipments. In contrast, traffic on the rail corridor through Austria showed a development positive with an increase of +9.7% rising to 43,840 shipments. In addition, in 2022 traffic on the south-east corridor was of 71,427 shipments (+2.9%), on the north-east corridor of 54,798 shipments (-4.1%) and 31,391 shipments on the south-west corridor (+40,3%). The maritime traffic handled by the subsidiary ERS Railways, with connections from North Sea ports, has undergone a decrease of -3,0% having been of 179.503 shipments.

Last year the turnover of the Hupac group amounted to to 668.5 million Swiss francs (682 million euros), with a decrease of -2.1% on the 2021 financial year. EBITDA was CHF 63.4 million (-1.8%) and operating profit of CHF 7.6 million (-38,8%).

On the occasion of today's presentation of the 2022 budget, the Chairman of Hupac, Hans-Jörg Bertschi, noted that the Expensive energy is putting pressure especially on industries energy-intensive, such as steel, chemical and paper industries, and, with the reduction of these transports on rail, the main volumes of goods handled by transport combined in Europe are shrinking. Bertschi noted, moreover, that since last January in Europe there are increases in rail transport prices which are significantly higher than those of road transport, and, given that the industrial sector is stagnating or decline, considerable transport capacity is being freed up on the road. As a result, there is a significant shift transport from rail to road. This - he explained - in the Hupac transport network translates into a -10/15% for January-April 2023 period compared to the same period of the year previous, depending on the transport segment.

"The combination of negative factors such as decrease of traffic due to the economic situation, high costs rail, the fall in road transport fares and the chronic instability of the railway network - highlighted Bertschi - represent a real risk to the transfer modal. In fact, despite the significant decrease in volume of combined transport in Europe in the first quarter, the quality and the reliability of railway infrastructure international have not improved. Still too many trains are coming canceled or are delayed by days. If reliability railway infrastructure and transport quality combined will not improve, in the coming months it is expected a further return to the road."