Russia and China plan to spend USD3 billion to build two rail corridors aimed at encouraging the movement of containerized freight from the northeastern provinces of China to Russia’s Far-East ports.
Russian Railways is expected to launch containerized rail services on the two new routes by the end of decade, giving Chinese exporters better access to the ports of Vladivostok and Nakhodka.
Rail shipments between Russia and China mainly travel on the existing Makhalino-Hunchun rail route, over which about 850,000 TEU have been moved since the beginning of the year.
To make the new corridors attractive to shippers, the government plans to implement a special tariff policy that will make them significantly cheaper to use than the Makhalino-Hunchun route.
Although Russia and China plan to offer discounted tariffs on the new rail corridors, they have not disclosed the details of the discount, nor have they outlined the lengths of each corridor. Russia plans to invest the majority of the USD3 billion, with the remaining coming from China.
The corridor linking Suifenhe, China, to Vladivostok and Nakhodka, named Primorye-1, will handle 50 million TEU annually by 2025, while the corridor linking the southwest Primorye seaports of Posiet, Zarubino and Slavyanka to China will handle 60 million TEU a year, according to ministry estimates.
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