China-EU Rail Freight: Analyzing TEU Traffic on the China Railway Express in 2019-2023

Since its launch in 2011, China Railway Express has annually increased the number of trains and volume of cargo transported along the China-Europe-China route, and was originally conceived as a land bridge between China and Europe. Trade relations between China and Europe play a crucial role in international economic development, and the development of China Railway Express is important for strengthening economic ties between China and Europe, offering diversified freight transport options, with delivery times shorter than sea freight and cheaper, than air freight. In recent years, the growth rate of China Railway Express’s main indicators has slowed down slightly, which may be due to the limited capacity of the main ports, as well as the global challenges that global logistics has faced in recent years due to the covid-19 epidemic, trade wars, sanctions and the unstable geopolitical situation in the world. In the literature, much attention is paid to the general indicators of China Railway Express and individual new routes, but there are practically no detailed statistics on specific directions of China Railway Express traffic to EU countries. Instead of the EU, general data is usually provided for the direction of Europe, which, in addition to the EU countries, also includes Russia, Kazakhstan and other countries along the Belt and Road that are not members of the EU. The purpose of this article is, based on a comparison of data from different statistical sources, to find out what volume of cargo transported along the China-EU-China route via China Railway Express and how this amount has changed since 2019. It turned out that, for example, the covid-19 epidemic did not negatively affect the volume of cargo transported along the China-EU-China route, however, starting in 2022 and after the imposition of sanctions against Russia, the main transit country for China Railway Express, the volume of cargo transported on the China–EU–China route decreased sharply, which, however, did not affect the overall freight traffic of China Railway Express, since the declining freight traffic to the EU was promptly redirected to Russia and other countries along the Belt and Road.