Güterverkehrsmarkt Ungarn: Transformation und Internationalisierung
In: Europa Regional, Band 11, Heft 2, S. 70-80
The continued economic transformation in Hungary
has resulted in a considerable growth in
the traffic of goods with other
countries and therefore also a rise in transports. This has
stimulated the emergence of a cargo transport market, which features both Hungarian
companies that were subject to the process of
privatisation, or were
founded, over the last few
years, as well as companies in the transport sector from Western
Europe. They are all
operating in an uncertain market, as the general conditions have changed in different ways
over the last few years. This includes the transformation of the Central and Eastern European
states, deregulation and liberalisation of the We
stern European transport market within the
framework of the creation of
a EU domestic market and the
EU accession of Hungary in
20004.
The article focuses on how and why Western European forwarding agencies develop the new
markets of Eastern Europe under these changed competitive conditions, and what
consequences this has for the integration of the transport markets, i.e. if and how the still
nationally structured cargo transport markets can grow to form international markets.
It emphasises that, in addition
to the Hungarian transport market, a second cargo transport
market has emerged through the operation of multinational companies,
in which Hungarian
forwarding agencies are largely insignificant.
Due to their favourable cost structures,
Hungarians are only drawn on as subcontractors (freight carriers) for tran
sports, and they are
not called on for higher-quality services.
This market, which the international forwarding
agencies dominate, can however be described
as a European market. The sites of multinatio
nal production companies are integrated across
borders. It is the knowledge and skills of inte
rnationally operating forwarding agencies that
enables the integration of these sites to fo
rm a complex, fast-operating production system.