MINSK, 11 January (BelTA) – In 2020 Belarusian Railways transported over 1 million containers in terms of twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), 1.4 times as much as in 2019, the Belarusian Railways press service told BelTA.
According to the source, container transportation by rail has been rising for the last few years. To compare, in 2015 these shipments totaled 254,000 TEUs while in 2020 the volume quadrupled. Transportation between China and Europe remains promising, with over 550,000 TEUs transported across Belarus by rail in 2020 or 1.6 times as much as in 2019. Virtually no containers were transported between China and Europe by land in 2011.
Most of the container trains travelling between the East and the West go via the border checkpoint Brest-Terespol. In 2020 the transshipment volume at the Brest-North railway station increased by 15% in comparison with 2019. Taking into account the dynamic growth of container shipments Belarusian Railways will continue working with participants of the market of transportation services in order to develop transportation via the Belarusian-Polish border checkpoints Bruzgi – Kuznica Bialostocka and Svisloch-Siemianowka.
As part of a joint project involving the railway administrations of Russia and Kazakhstan – the united transportation and logistics company UTLC ERA – Belarusian Railways organizes container shipments between China and Europe in the 1,520mm railway gauge space. In 2020 Belarusian Railways continued vigorous cooperation with PAO TransContainer, AO RZD Logistics and other market players in order to develop new shipping directions and routes.
Belarusian Railways interacts with international transport organizations in matters concerning the development of transit shipping in accordance with the agreement on tighter cooperation between the railway administrations of China, Belarus, Germany, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Poland, and Russia in the organization of container train shipping between China and Europe.
