MAHART-Freeport Co. Ltd. is a state-owned company that was established in 2005. It is the owner of the land, main infrastructure and part of the buildings of the Freeport of Budapest, which is the largest Danube port in Hungary. The port can technically load and store all kinds of cargo, being a main hub on the Danube with strong rail and road connections. The most important goods that are handled in the port are oil, grain and metal products.

During the last decade, major changes took place in the Freeport of Budapest due to investments in infrastructure and network capacities and a new operational set up of the port. With the development of the Freeport, the number of tenants and the provided services increased considerably. Appr. 60 companies are operating in the port, providing a wide range of logistic-related services.

One of the future focus areas of the port is energy, which is also a key element for most of the companies in the Freeport. There are already tenants whose activities are related directly to energy (wholesaling of coal, wood drying, fuel supply of transport vehicles etc.). A safe, cost-effective and environmentally friendly energy supply is becoming an increasingly important issue for most tenants and service providers. It is a stragetic aim of MAHART to increase the freight transport volumes of the port. Biomass is considered to be cargo type of particular interest as it constitutes a bulk commodity and is not time-sensitive.

In the frame of the ENERGY BARGE project, MAHART-Freeport purchased a forklift to support the biomass loading, handling and storing in the port. The port has the basic infrastructure but specific storage facilities and equipment for biomass handling were missing. Therefore, the main goal of this pilot action is to demonstrate how the biomass handling can be launched in a port as a new service and how it can contribute to the attraction of biomass cargo. Based on the development plans and supporting financial programmes, it is assumed that the generation of bioenergy will play a major role in the vicinity of the port in the coming years. The pilot investment is preparing the port for the future development of the pellet, firewood and wood chip markets for small- and large-scale energy producers.

© MAHART-Freeport

The forklift can be equipped with a big bag handling unit. Incoming biomass arriving in bulk form, e.g. pellets or wood chips, could be filled into big bags that are easier to be handled and stored and delivered to its final destination. MAHART will operate the purchased forklift with those tenants in the port that are involved in biomass and agricultural related activities. MAHART will organise all service and maintenance activities while the tenant’s task will be to provide a driver, to take care of all related labour safety regulations and to cover the operating costs. Companies in the port already indicated their interest to operate the forklift together with MAHART.

The utilisation level of the purchased forklift is supposed to increase with the launch of further operations related to the transhipment of biomass in the port. Additional investments and activities in this context comprise e.g. the evaluation regarding an expansion of biomass storage capacities, the purchase of a conveyor belt system for the loading and unloading of vessels and railway wagons or the introduction of services like biomass drying units and a quality control system.

In the remaining project term, the project partners from the Danube logistics sector will elaborate opportunities to carry out similar investments in other Danube ports to strengthen their role as hubs for the biomass sector.