A brake on the China-Europe train: how the war in Ukraine impacts on the new silk route

Background for the first train between China and Europe 

March 2022 marked eleven years since the first China-Europe train was launched. As a vital flagship project under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), rail services between China and Europe have developed rapidly in the last decade. 

Officially proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, the BRI has provided a political and economic basis for this development. By the end of January 2022, more than 50,000 trains between China and Europe have transported more than 4.55 million TEUs worth US$240 billion. 

These trains operate on three routes, connecting China with 180 cities in 23 European countries. The main and most common route is the northern route, which runs through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Poland. The Yiwu (China) - Madrid route is also operated via this route.

First launched in 2014, the Yiwu - Madrid line is the longest rail transport service in the world: it covers 13,052 km in 16 days. It is capable of carrying a total of 30,560 cubic metres of goods weighing over 1,000 tonnes.

The operators behind these trains

Many logistics and freight forwarding operators, both local and of European origin, have been actively involved in the management of the China-Europe (CE) trains. In the current context of pandemic and global shipping congestion, this cross-border train has been "a very solid alternative for products with added value and the need for immediacy in their movement," according to Carlos Santana, former director of the Yiwu-Madrid railway company, YXE. 

• Sinotrans, one of the largest freight forwarding companies in China, has been one of the CE train operators with the widest service coverage. It has shipped more than 5,000 trains between China and Europe and developed more than 50 new lines. 

• In the cases of Cainiao and JD Logistics, as the own logistics companies of the two Chinese e-commerce giants Alibaba and JD.com, it has its own lines to transport cross-border e-commerce orders to expand into the European market.  Cainiao's main line is Yiwu-Liege (Belgium) and JD Hamburg/Duisburg-Xi'an. 
• As for European operators, DHL, DSV and DB cargo, among others, also offered services connecting several Chinese cities with Europe. However, in the wake of the war in Ukraine and sanctions against Russia, many operators prefer to avoid using services across Russia. 

Before the pandemic, the service took about 22 days to central Europe and 26-27 days to Spain, explains Jorge Valera, DSV's Strategic Accounts Manager for Rail & Short Sea Shipping. "For several months we experienced severe difficulties, as the Kazakh-Russian border was closed several times due to Covid-19 and this caused major bottlenecks," he says. Today, many global freight forwarders have stopped their CE train services, even though the operation of the trains has not been affected by the war. 

In addition to freight forwarders, shipowners are also involved in CE train operations in order not to lose market share and to take advantage of the opportunity to promote a complementary service to maritime transport: multimodal transport. 

• Cosco, the largest Chinese shipping company, has long been involved in the China-Europe rail-related business. In recent years, it has actively promoted the development of new international rail and mixed (rail-sea) corridors. 

• Recently, Maersk has also been actively involved in the development of the China-Europe trains in collaboration, for example, with the German rail operator RTSB. 

• Finally, CMA CGM is also involved through its subsidiary CEVA Logistics.