China-Europe-China container transit services offered by the United Transport and Logistics Company – Eurasian Rail Alliance (UTLC ERA) reached 49.1 thousand TEU in May, twice more than the similar period of 2019, which is ‘an absolute volume record in monthly Eurasian container traffic’, the company says.
The shipment of loaded containers to China in May grew by 2.2 times and amounted to 13 thousand TEU, while 33 thousand TEU of containers have been shipped to Europe, which exceeds the same last-year figure by 2.4 times.
In May 2020, UTLC ERA services in both directions on route China – Europe for the first time exceeded the milestone of 500 container trains per month.
The operator says that while is maintaining a nonstop ‘green corridor’ for shipment of epidemic protection equipment, clothes, toys, electronics and home appliances are transported on the Eurasian transport route.
“Together with our shareholders, we have managed to create a good buffer for the throughput of our corridor in the previous months to enable the May shipment record. We are receiving increasingly more customer requests for transport of E-commerce products,” UTLC ERA CEO Alexey Grom said.
The China-Europe-China container transit in April 2020 reached 41,2 thousand TEU exceeding company’s estimations. In the first 4 months of the year, UTLC ERA shipped 108,7 thousand TEU, including 33 thousand TEU in the direction of Europe – China and 75,7 thousand TEU from China to Europe.
For the company, the coronavirus crisis is not a problem but a new opportunity for rail logistics which also ensured medical supply including epidemic protection equipment that is in high demand with the EU countries.
UTLC ERA is using the transport infrastructure of Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus and has a last mile corridor reaching Lithuania, through Kaliningrad, and Poland. The company intends to transport 1 million TEU per year by 2024, a strategy that has huge opportunities provided by a high rail interest and geographic expansion. This year, the operator added five new locations in Europe of which three ibn Germany (Burghausen, Ludwigshafen and Sassnitz), one in Lithuania (Vilnius) and one in Poland (Gliwice, in Upper Silesia). The city of Shilong, in south-east of China, Guangdong Province, also attracted a strong interested to sea shipping.
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