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Made in China
The Finnish company and Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ), the country’s national railroad haulier, have partnered to trial rail shipments along the Middle Corridor. The two plan to run trials in April-June 2022, sending China-Europe train sets via Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. If successful, the companies intend to establish a commercial offering by September 2022. In addition, Nurminen Logistics and KTZ will cooperate on the former’s China-Finland services. Specifically, they want to use Kazakhstan-registered & owned wagons to avoid falling under sanctions imposed on Russian rail companies.
Middle Corridor rail JV – in the making
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Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Turkey will set up a joint undertaking to facilitate Asia-Europe rail traffic through the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, also known as the Middle Corridor (a trade lane that omits Russia and Belarus). The JV will offer transport & logistics services, including an IT platform to automate the China-Turkey freight flow and then farther towards western Black Sea ports (Constanța, Odesa, and Istanbul) for onward shipment (also by rail to Poland via Ukraine). The new organisation is expected to be up & running by mid-2023. Plans also speak of linking the Middle Corridor (through Caspian ports) with the International North-South Freight Corridor (Iran, the Arabian Peninsula, Pakistan, India, and eastern Africa).
Second Vietnam-Belgium train – scratched before launch
The Railways of Transport and Trade Joint Stock Company (Ratraco) planned to connect Da Nang in Vietnam with the Belgian Liège. The service was due for launching in April 2022 to carry IKEA’s furniture, further distributed to Hamburg and Melzo from Belgium. Like the first Vietnam-Belgium container rail link (Hanoi-Liège), the new one was to cross the Chinese Zhengzhou on its way to Europe. Russia’s aggression on Ukraine has put Ratraco’s Asia-Europe business to halt.
COSCO’s new China-Europe container train
The company launched a new service between Qingdao and Mannheim, with the first set leaving the Chinese city on 18 February. The train carried 100 containers loaded with, among others, auto parts, daily necessities, and raw chemical materials and was expected to arrive in Germany after 22 days.
