Chinese Carriers Are Looking For Routes Bypassing Belarus
3- 28.09.2025, 13:26
- 5,344
One of them is through the Caspian Sea.
After the opening of the border between Poland and Belarus on September 25, the movement of freight trains on the China-Europe route began to recover. However, businesses are thinking about diversifying transportation routes, and carriers are considering alternative options, the Chinese publication Global Times writes.
After Poland closed its border with Belarus on September 12, the China-Europe overland trade route experienced a massive collapse. More than 130 trains traveling from China to the West by rail were stuck on the Belarusian side, near Brest, for nearly two weeks.
According to the head of Polish logistics company Fulfilio Sp. z o.o. Arkadiusz Filipowski, even after the border is opened on September 25, it will take 7 to 10 days to fully unload the accumulated volume with round-the-clock work. For especially high-priority or urgent cargoes, the delay can be reduced to one or two days. In general, two to five more days will have to be added to the standard delivery time. After that, the situation should stabilize.
General Director of ITL Group from Xi'an Shao Boer noted that the closure of the border did not affect cargoes going to Russia and Belarus, but seriously complicated delivery to the EU countries. Because of this, carriers began to look for workarounds: one route goes through the Caspian Sea, another involves multimodal transportation through St. Petersburg with subsequent loading on ships for transportation across the Baltic.
It is interesting that the pause due to the closure of the border coincided in time with the launch of the world's first Arctic container line China-Europe Arctic Express, which connects the East Chinese port of Ningbo-Zhoushan and the British Felixstowe.
But, according to Shao, the Arctic route is designed for large and long-term transportation, while the traditional China-Europe Railway Express, which runs through Belarus, is more convenient for medium and small shipments - they can send shipments of only 40-50 containers.
In the meantime, the situation has shown business how important it is to have several options for transport corridors. This has created a basis for further development of alternative routes, Shao emphasized.
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