Could you explain the contents of the sentence: CZH SA is a capital group comprising the Central Office, Euroterminal Section as well as two affiliated companies and a dependent company.

Two strategic ventures which are of the greatest importance to us apart from commercial activities are modernisation of the Wholesale Trade Centre in Katowice opened in 1999 and implementing “Euroterminal Sławków” in conjunction with other partners. The CZH, PKP SA (State Railways), PKP Wide Gauge Metallurgic Line (LHS) and the Industry Development Agency signed a letter of intent to cooperate this August. The parties declared they would establish a new company with CZH SA and PKP LHS, which will offer services to all companies operating on the market and will care for the continued expansion of the terminal.

The overriding assumption is acceptance of the fact that logistics are an area of business which is based on cooperation. Logistic centres are not the only participants in such a system but are accompanied by carriers, forwarding agents and also those playing a direct part in trade. Logistics centres offer a wide scope of services ranging from transhipment and storage of cargos up to and including forwarding and performing customs clearance.

What does Euroterminal look like today and how will it look 5 years from now?

Let us speak of a shorter term – the next 3 to 4 months. Employing its own means and those of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) - within the 2004-2006 Transport Operational Programme - a unique terminal on a European scale is being created, that is the International Euroterminal Logistics Centre in Slawków. Apart from container transhipment and storage which are standard terminal operations, we also offer transhipment and storage of bulk, palletised commodities, steel etc.

A warehouse complex of around 7,000 sqm total space with imperative infrastructure was ceremoniously opened in January 2008, the first investment task – apart from the enlargement of the container bed and the construction of a gantry crane – which is to cost more than PLN 50 mln net, PLN 11.3 mln of which to come from the ERDF and another 11.3 mln from state budget target reserves. Further investments are currently being tackled including the construction of a further warehouse at a net cost of PLN 32 mln, 5 mln of which to come from the European Regional Development Fund and the state budget. The remaining finance will come from our owns funds and loans. Substantial assistance has come from the Industry Development Agency SA which holds 76 pct of CZH SA shares.

The entire value of all investments implemented in the past several years and planned for the Euroterminal is to amount to more than PLN 100 mln.

Enlargement has concluded of the container bed on which almost 500 containers may be stored on one level. The construction of a gantry crane will allow simultaneous transshipment of containers transported by the two standard and wide-gauge railway systems. The terminal will, obviously, handle cargos in intermodal transportation. Transhipment of around 50,000 containers is planned for this year and more than 100,000 in 2009. An increase in steel and bulk commodities haulage is simultaneously being noticed including large amounts of coal which can be reloaded and stored thanks to the existing infrastructure.

The principal purpose of our activity is opening our borders to the west, towards the European Union and to the east – to Ukraine and Russia.

There has also been talk of China

That direction is the logical outcome of the growth of our infrastructure, since to reach China you have to cooperate with Ukraine and Russia.

German companies have started a ferry link which lets container transports avoid Poland.

Growth of the logistics market allow places to be found for various types of services. In this case the essential factor is freight costs on Far-Eastern railway lines. Should Russian freight rates be excessive, other roads will be looked for. We have heard that China intends to invest several billion US dollars in the next few years in the construction of a wide gauge track on a so-called southern silk route. As CZH SA we have been present in discussions concerning that project in which Asian partners were also engaged. The rapid expansion of trade between the Far East and Europe is a guarantee of the project’s success.

In conjunction with Polish and Ukrainian partners we are contemplating ways and means to implement a project using new transportation routes. Most cargos have been shipped to the present through the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean and Straits of Gibraltar from the Far East, to Rotterdam and other West European ports. A much shorter and, thereby, less expensive route is to sail to Ukrainian Black Sea ports after passing through the Suez Canal, and then to carry the goods by train to Slawków.

That, in my opinion, is a highly promising undertaking, with an appropriate agreement to be signed at the end of this month.

Trade in iron ore and various metallurgical products also figures in the CZH SA offer.

CZH has always been active in the metallurgy industry witnessed in its name: Central Office for Metallurgy Supplies. The metallurgy industry is important in our strategy and day-to-day operations since we boast excellent facilities for storage of and trading in metallurgy products, as well as a highly competent team of workers. However, most Polish steel works have new, foreign proprietors so we have focused on operations in logistic centres and wholesale trade.

We also undertake financial services for producers, an excellent example of the effectiveness of our work being our role in the restructuring of “Częstochowa” Steel Works where CZH SA was the financial operator and protected it from being put into liquidation.

What plans do you have for other areas of your activity?

We shall definitely be expanding activities in wholesale trade, i.e. the rural and food trade exchange. Since the land we occupy is too cramped we intend to enlarge it substantially.

And how to you assess your chances, as a company which was awarded the Polish Quality Prize and was a finalist in the Quality International Forum 2007 in the “Q1 Order – highest quality management” and “Q1 Services – highest quality services”, to be given a European Quality Prize by the European Foundation for Quality Management?

The important thing to me is that the company is well managed and that procedures are respected. Not prizes and distinctions are our purpose but an efficiently operating company