Rising haulage rates on Silk Road rail driven by Covid and border delays

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.