Container rate instability leads to peak Asia-to-Europe rail traffic

MORE than 500,000 TEU have been transferred on UTLC ERA’s transit services across the territories of Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus since the beginning of 2020, reports Antwerp’s Atlas Logistics Network.

For the first time railfreight traffic this record has been achieved on Russian gauge track.

The current total transit volumes are one and a half times higher than for 2019 (333,000 TEU). The key factors that contributed to volume growth are predictability and stability of supplies that rail ensures during the pandemic as well as the rise in the cost of air and sea freight, said the report.