This year, one of the largest particle board factories in Europe, opened in Naujoji Akmene by the VMG international investment group, initiated regular transportation of cargo by rail. The VMG Group invested a total of 1.2 M Eur into the own rolling stock park.
According to Egidijus Mockus, CEO of VMG Group, the decision for cargo transportation by rail using containers was made due to the efficiency of logistics.
“The railway line allows us to transport greater cargo weight at a time and significantly enhances the planning processes of logistics. Moreover, it is a much more environmentally friendly way of transporting goods compared to road transport. This is in line with our principled position to focus all activities of the group towards sustainable solutions”, says E. Mockus.
The first containers left the VMG factory territory at the end of last week. The delivery of the first load of raw material required to produce particle boards is scheduled for this week.
Cargo transportation by rail to and from the N. Akmene plant will occur regularly. The company plans to service over a thousand wagons per month.
The rolling stock will transport raw material, wood chips and special resin to the VMG Group factory, the produced wood particle boards will be transported via railway branch of the factory.
Lithuanian Railways undertook the building of the access railway to Akmene FEZ in 2018 and successfully implemented it in the end of the year. A project is currently on the way to extend the railway branches, connecting other areas into the FEZ railway. The development of the railway infrastructure implemented in Northern Lithuania allowed to connect the main railway network with the territory of expanding industrial complex.
The VMG Group opened one of the largest particle board factories in the EU in Akmene FEZ in September of 2020. A total of 146 M Eur investment was dedicated to the construction of the factory which created 146 new jobs. It is the largest greenfield investment in the history of Lithuania.
In this project, an average of 1M Euros was invested into the creation of one high added value job.
