Innofreight’s WoodTainer system has been operating reliably since 2005. This anniversary was celebrated on Friday, October 24, together with Papierholz Austria and the ÖBB Rail Cargo Group at Sappi in Gratkorn. The transport of biomass with the WoodTainer XXL is becoming increasingly important in order to drive forward decarbonization.

The year 2005 marked a milestone for the then still young company Innofreight: with the WoodTainer XXL, the Bruck-based rail logistics company launched its first own container on the market. Developed in collaboration with Papierholz Austria and the ÖBB Rail Cargo Group for the transport of wood chips, the WoodTainer system has now been in use for 20 years for Sappi in Gratkorn – as well as for many other well-known customers. At a joint celebration, the companies involved looked back on the beginnings of the WoodTainer system, which has long since established itself as the European standard. “From the very beginning, the safety of our employees was at the heart of our considerations,” recalls Isabella Legat, who is responsible for the wood industry at inno4wood – a joint venture between Innofreight and the Czech wood purchasing company Wood & Paper.

Until Innofreight developed its container solution with rotary unloading, there were few suitable and very costly systems on the market for transporting wood chips, which also had to be operated manually by employees. So an advanced solution was needed that would significantly improve handling and increase the quantities transported per wagon or per train: the WoodTainer.

The WoodTainer found its way into other industries

For Innofreight owner Peter Wanek-Pusset, the development of the WoodTainer was also a door opener: “This container was a major innovation at the time, which caught on throughout Europe and, in a slightly adapted form, also found its way into other industries.” Its market launch 20 years ago was accompanied by the parallel development of the first rotary unloading forklift, which has also been in use at Sappi as an electrically powered version since spring 2025. The first stationary unloading system followed at Zellstoff Pöls in 2007.

In the wood industry, demand for biomass continues to rise in order to drive forward the decarbonization of coal-fired power plants – both at Sappi and in Czechia and Poland, for example. The WoodTainer – robust, proven, and reliable – is now often used in conjunction with the newly developed 80 ft InnoWaggon. This wagon, manufactured in Trieste, with its innovative InnoBogie bogie, is constructed using lightweight materials, enabling it to transport even more biomass and achieving a payload increase of 10 to 15 percent with four WoodTainer containers per wagon. “We have never transported as much biomass as we have this year. The new 80-foot InnoWaggon represents a real quantum leap for us,” says Innofreight owner Peter Wanek-Pusset.