LAST year was another record-busting year for rail volumes
on the New Silk Road, but a persistent bottleneck at the
Kazakhstan border led to lengthy delays for both rail and road freight.
According to Chinese media, China-Europe rail volumes
reached 1.14 million TEU last year, up 56 per cent on the year before,
while figures from China State Railway Group shop train journeys
passing 10,000, for the first time, to 12,400.
The volumes match those reported by the two major CIS
railway companies, Russian Railways and narrow-gauge operator UTLC,
which both announced volumes of over half a million TEU.
However, bad weather and a dispute over Covid restrictions
between Kazakhstan and China, has caused long delays for rail and road freight
attempting the crucial border crossing, according to UK's The Loadstar.
For example, according to media in Kazakhstan, in late
December there were 7,000 containers waiting to cross into China via the Dostyk
and Altynkol border, with some waiting 42 days.
UTLC said it was trying a new border crossing at Goryn and
Udritsk to "diversify cargo flows and reduce the load on border
infrastructure". The express train ran between Chongqing and Slawkow,
Poland, in 16 days.
The border congestion and ongoing shortage of equipment has
sent freight rates soaring, according to Siddique Khan, CEO of Globalink
Logistics, a member of Kerry Logistics Network.
"China-Europe rail freight traffic is severely
impacted due to the Covid-19 restrictions in China," he told The Loadstar.
"This has resulted in a price increase up to approximately US$5,000 per
TEU.
"The equipment shortage and allocation on the CN-EU
lane means eastbound traffic from EU to CN is also affected."
Furthermore, while some forwarders began touting Eurasian
road freight as a viable alternative to the capacity crunch in air and ocean,
the option of trucking from China appears to be off the table.
"Transit times for express trucking from China to
Europe is around 16-18 days," explained Mr Khan. "Due to the speed,
security and economy of price, CN-EU trucking delivers goods door to door and
attracts high-value cargo, like electronics, fashion garments and spare parts.
"However, due to the China-Kazakhstan border
restrictions, mainly imposed by the Chinese government, it takes 15-20 days to
cross the border these days. Therefore, the Eurasian trucking solution is
neither feasible nor economical right now.
"A full truckload price from China to Europe has
almost doubled in the past two-to-three months, for example."
Source : HKSG / Photo : CSIS.
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