Rail freight transport between Russia and China up 16% in 1H 2017
Alexander Misharin, First Vice-President of Russian Railways, announced the results of rail freight transport between Russia and China so far this year during the Russia – China business dialogue held within the framework of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.
According to Russian Railways, freight traffic between Russia and China in 2016 increased by 19% in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year.
Growth in the first half amounted to 16% and 35.2 million tons of freight were transported.
Alexander Misharin noted that Russian Railways and Chinese Railways had implemented a number of measures to simplify the procedures for issuing shipping documents, introducing electronic data exchange and forming supply chains.
“We see results not only in the development of the ports of the Far East due to the growth in coal and container shipments, but also in the implementation of projects such as Primorye-1 and Primorye-2. Between Grodekovo - Suifenhe (Primorye-1), for example, we started with three pairs of trains, but we have now reached 14 pairs per day, and the container flow for the first half of this year increased 20 times compared to last year,” said Misharin.
OJSC Russian Railways and Chinese Railways signed an agreement on electronic data exchange for the carriage of goods in international rail transport in Beijing on 21 June 2017.
The main purpose of this agreement is to ensure the transfer of shipping and accompanying documents in real time. However, electronic exchange does not nullify the existing document management system established by the agreement on international rail freight transport (SMGS).
In the future, the transition to electronic document management will simplify control procedures at checkpoints and reduce the time for customs clearance, thereby increasing the train speeds.
In addition, on 24 April 2017 the railways of Russia, China, Belarus, Germany, Kazakhstan, Poland and Mongolia signed a multilateral agreement on deepening cooperation on the organisation of container trains between China and Europe.
Cooperation will further increase the share of rail transport in the freight transport market and help to strengthen trade links and to integrate plans for infrastructure development.
It is also planned to increase jointly the volume of shipments, intensify activities to create logistics infrastructure, improve the organisation of transportation and introduce new technologies to reduce travel time.
