By Karen E. Thuermer, AJOTMarco Polo, who lived nearly 700 years ago, became the most famous Westerner to travel the Silk Road and unify trade between East and West. Today the European Union’s Marco Polo Program, inspired by this distant traveler, is contributing to tying unprecedented growth together in the Baltic Region, a grouping of countries that includes Germany; Poland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, as well as Russia. The program is intended to encourage the reduction of road congestion and improve the environment by shifting freight from road to short-sea, rail, and inland-waterway transportation. The Baltic region, which is booming with manufacturing growth, is a beneficiary of this program. In fact, the region boasts the largest feeder network in Europe. Currently, approximately 2.2 million teus are transported annually by sea between Hamburg and countries encompassing the Baltics. Some 110 feeder vessels depart Hamburg weekly to Scandinavian and Baltic seaports. Carriers actively providing feeder service there include Maersk, which services the Baltic with feeder vessels via Bremerhaven, Germany; Unifeeder, and Team Lines. Other carriers that service the region include MSC, OOCL, APL, and CMA-CGM. INTERMODAL OPTIONShippers have other options such as intermodal rail. Intermodal is developing there and a recipient of monies from the Marco Polo Program. POLZUG Intermodal GmbH, a joint venture between the Polish Railways, Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA), and Stinnes AG connects Germany’s leading seaports via its hub in Poland, and dispatches containers from there to the Baltic States, CIS countries, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. “We provide rail service for container shipments from Rotterdam, Bremerhaven, Hamburg and Poland to Russia and CIS countries,” says Mike Mertes, POLZUG’s sales and marketing representative in Detroit. Mertes reveals that, among other cargoes, the company is moving machine parts from Michigan to Kazakhstan. In operation since 1991, POLZUG Intermodal GmbH was selected for Marco Polo I Program funding in 2005. That program ran between 2003 and 2006 and has been extended into Marco Polo II, which will run between 2007 and 2013. Operating with a €400 million budget, Marco Polo II aims to continue to achieve a traffic shift of the expected yearly aggregate increase in international road freight traffic, from the roads to short sea shipping, rail and inland waterways or a combination of these modes. The program is the subject of yearly calls for project proposals. POLZUG, along with HHLA’s other intermodal companies Transfracht and METRANS offer a comprehensive rail, road and sea transport network linking German seaports with their hinterland in Europe and are considered market leaders for hinterland container transport in their regions. In Poland, POLZUG is the market leader in intermodal transport. Since it began operation, the company has increased volumes 1,300 percent, reports Mertes. Branch offices in Bremerhaven, Kiev, Poti and Baku enable POLZUG to offer door-to-door services. Representative offices in Seoul, Detroit and Moscow are in close contact with the regional customers. Today the company dispatches about 100,000 TEUS annually and serves a wide range of international clients. “Some is in open top 20 to 40-foot containers,” Mertes says. Other shipments include household goods, used vehicles, even materials to make glass. “We move anything coming out of North America,” says the Michigan rep. TARGETING AUTO INDUSTRYCurrently, POLZUG is trying to get involved in Russia’s growing automotive business. One such example is Magna International Inc., which made its first foray into Russia in 2006 with a deal that is leading to factories that will manufacture several of the key components. In November 2007 the company announced plans to build a vehicle assembly plant in Russia to build cars for Chrysler LLC. Industry observers contend that the factory could build as many as 150,000 vehi