Commissioned by the Polish Material Reserves Agency (a governmental institution which purchases, stores, and distributes strategic reserves), Maersk has organised two rail shipments to Małaszewicze - from Xi'an and Yiwu.

The load (4.0k m³ in total) consisted of personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical disposable devices (MDD) procured by the ZARYS International Group, a Polish medical supplies provider, on behalf of the Agency. Each train set comprised 41 containers - from Xi'an with 20 boxes for ZARYS, while the Yiwu one fully loaded with PPE and MDD for the company.

"Medical equipment has never been more needed. In times like these, when increased demand makes equipment and rail capacity difficult to procure, we reached out to Maersk with our important and time-sensitive project, knowing they understand our needs and would have ways to assist us timely and efficiently," Paweł Ossowski, President of the Board, ZARYS, said.

Paweł Ciesek, Coordinator of ZARYS' Import Department, also highlighted, "Bold decisions had to be taken to carry out this logistics operation - and in such a narrow time frame. Up till the end of December 2020, there was a lack of empty containers, both in sea and rail freight, all train slots in China were taken, a lot of sets found themselves stuck outside terminals, and goods couldn't cross borders. Fortunately, thanks to determination and commitment, two trains loaded with personal protective equipment and medical disposable devices were dispatched towards Poland. Cooperating with Maersk was key in getting this done, not least the involvement of our team in charge of imports."

"We are always committed to making specific transportation arrangements for our local customers and such an important project required extra dedication. We are very proud of our teams in Asia and Europe who moved mountains to make this delivery possible, so we could keep our promise," Justyna Barycza, Customer Experience Manager and Poland Country Representative at Maersk, summed up.

Photo: ZARYS