China-Europe rail freight boosts in 2021
- 1 April 2021
- 698
More than 2000 freight trains were shipped through Russia and Central Asia in the past two months
As stated by Financial Times, China seems to have expressed its interest in shipping goods over land as it doubled the amount of freight trains running from China to Europe in 2021. In comparison to last year figures, in the first months of this year China has increased its rail freight traffic volume to more than 2000.
A sharp rise in transcontinental rail freight demand could be explained by two factors: costly containers and shipping delays. The Suez Canal blockage also left its impact on global shipping industry. It is estimated that the resulted shortages of containers could cost real trade growth a decline of 1.4 pp (roughly USD 230 billion).
Regardless, sea container shipping still dominated over rail freight. In 2021, around 2 million containers passed through Yangshan Port in China, whereas only 209 000 freight trains were shipped.
