Belarus sets new record in moving containers between China and Europe
Belarus is continuing to strengthen its footprint on the New Silk Road. Its state-owned railway undertaking, Belarusian Railway, moved around 930,000 TEU containers from China to Europe and back in 2021, which is the record volume for the company. The overall container traffic on the country’s railway network also set a new milestone, around 1.3 million TEU.
Belarusian Railway ended the past year with a 25-per cent growth in terms of container traffic as it moved more than 1,245 million TEU. The vast majority of this volume, around 930,000 TEU, was generated by the container trains running on the New Silk Road. Almost 25 container trains of this type run via Belarus daily. They deliver freight from 60 cities in China to 170 cities in 23 European countries.
Previous years
Compared to the 2020 data, the China-EU container traffic via Belarus has increased by more than 1.7 times. In a period between 2011 and 2017, this type of freight showed a growth of 100 times, namely from 2,500 to 257,000 TEU. Meanwhile, the overall container traffic on the Belarusian railway network also increases at a rapid pace: 40 per cent in 2020, 15 per cent in 2019, 21 per cent in 2018. In 2020, the Belarusian Railway handled a remarkable volume of boxes, slightly more than 1 million TEU.