Russia and China tested a new trade route to the West

The first multimodal transport of containers from China to Norway was carried out on a new route.

China uses different routes and directions to supply its goods to the West. In particular, within the framework of the "One Belt and One Road" strategy, many cargoes are delivered to Europe through the territories of Ukraine and Poland. This was the case with Norway until recently. However, now the Chinese have tried a new route, which turned out to be much more profitable than the usual one.

A freight train with containers that left the city of Xi'an was sent to Russia. Across its territory, it entered the Baltic region, and then via the Kaliningrad Railway system, it arrived at the Kaliningrad station. From there, all the containers were delivered to the Kaliningrad Sea Commercial Port, where they are expected to be loaded onto a ship and sent to the Norwegian port of Oslo.

The advantage of this multimodal route is a shorter delivery time. According to experts, it is only 15 to 17 days, which is three times faster than shipping by sea. In the case of the transportation of goods through Ukraine and Poland, the delivery time is also longer.

The Russian Railways company signed an agreement with the Norwegian party on the establishment of multimodal transportation systems along the China - Norway - China route a year ago. The arrival of the first train with Chinese goods in the westernmost city of the Russian Federation was the actual beginning of its implementation.

It is noteworthy that the Chinese partner decided to use a Russian seaport, and not a Lithuanian or a Latvian one, which, after a sharp decrease in the Russian commercial transit, began experiencing serious problems. 

In particular, expert Nikolai Mezhevich previously drew attention to the fact that in the first half of 2020 alone, Latvia lost half of its cargo traffic and 30 percent of the financial turnover of its sea ports. 

Text: Nicolai Kopernik

Source: https://politpuzzle.ru