Russian goods seizures cause havoc on China-Europe rail link: ‘big impact'
Last week, China's leaders made promises to support the China-Europe Railway Express – an overland freight link that has become a symbol of Beijing's ambitious drive to recreate the ancient Silk Road.
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But the reality is that traffic along the intercontinental rail link has been declining for months, as a wave of Russian goods seizures causes logistics companies to lose confidence in the project, industry insiders said.
'We have not dared to ship [goods via the railway] since November,' said Andrew Jiang, general manager of freight forwarding company Air Sea Transport in Shanghai.
In October, Moscow banned a series of goods from being transited through Russia, with a focus on dual-use items such as mechanical and electronic products that could potentially be used by Western forces in Ukraine.
The new rules affected thousands of containers being shipped from China to Europe via
the vast rail link . About 80,000 20-foot (six-metre) equivalent units of goods per month pass along the railway, which cuts through Russia on its way to the European market.
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Many China-based freight companies only heard about the rule change weeks later – by which time Russian authorities had already impounded large amounts of their cargo.
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