MINSK, 25 September (BelTA) – In January-August of this year rail freight traffic to China rose by 23.6% or 1.2 times year-on-year to exceed 4 million tonnes, BelTA learned from the press center of Belarusian Railways.
Major items were fertilizers, chemicals, machinery and equipment, hardware goods, forestry products, paper and consumer goods. In January-August, the container shipment of Belarusian products to China has doubled to 14,000 twenty-foot containers (TEU).
"Export promotion is the strategic priority for Belarusian Railways. Together with other stakeholders, Belarusian Railways has been working to create the necessary conditions for projects, both new and current, to deliver Belarusian cargo to China by full-capacity container trains. Projects have been implemented to send pulp and sugar, to ramp up the volume of timber export, to continue promoting meat and dairy exports. Belarusian Railways also ensures timely transportation of goods along the China - Europe – China route," the press center noted.
In order to increase the transit attractiveness and competitiveness of the East - West - East transport corridor through Belarus, Belarusian Railways completed the modernization of the container terminal of the Brest-Severny railway station in 2019. As a result, the average daily transshipment capacity has increased. So has the container storage area. In January-August of this year, more than 150,000 TEU heading East-West-East were reloaded at the container terminal, which was up 10% over the same period of 2019, the press center informed.
