China suspends cargo transit through Russia to Europe

Chinese shippers have begun to suspend transit to the EU via Russia, Report informs referring to Vedomosti newspaper.

This topic was discussed on March 1 at a closed meeting of the Council of Supply Chain Professionals, which unites more than 1,000 logistics companies. One of the meeting participants confirmed to Vedomosti that rail transportation from China to the EU against the backdrop of a military special operation in Ukraine “stopped because of the fear of cargo owners for the goods.”

The participant noted that there are no problems with the transportation of already shipped goods by rail, but there are almost no new orders for transit to the EU from China.

The tendency to refuse to send goods from China was confirmed to Vedomosti by sources in several large logistics companies.

At the same time, Russian Railways said that transit traffic by rail is carried out as usual, said representatives of TransContainer and the FESCO group.

Highway transit is also experiencing difficulties. At the crossing points towards Europe, congestion is formed due to the increased number of inspections by the EU customs authorities. According to experts, in the current conditions it is impossible to avoid a global restructuring of supply chains.

“Given the closure of airspace by many countries for Russia and the refusal to receive Russian ships in their ports, the load on other transport arteries will increase significantly,” reads the article.