In the last three weeks, France-based cement producer  Eqiom has been testing the movement of cement by intermodal transport. The company hopes to find a new solution via road and inland waterways to supply its customers in Ile-de-France with up to 25 containers of bulk cement per week from its plant in Grand Couronne, near Rouen.

The CRH-owned cement company expects to use a regular river transport shuttle from Le Havre to Gennevilliers, manage by Greenmodal Transport. River transporrt was carried out between the Haropa-Port of Rouen and Gennevillier ports with the routing before and after the river transport being implemented by two GCA subsidiaries, Oissel Trans and Girault Lor. VNF is also supporting the financing of this trial.

Following the test the partners have announced that they will continue to study the sustainable implementation of the logistics solution.

Eqiom estimates that the annual potential for the modal shift to river transport is 35,500t, the equivalent of 150t of CO2 savings.