WANG XIAOYING/CHINA DAILY
THE recent conflict between Israel and Iran has not only escalated tensions in the Middle East but also emerged as a severe and imminent threat to the global order, including maritime shipping.
Given the pivotal role of shipping in international trade, the developments can disrupt supply chains and significantly impact the global economy.
Geopolitical and climate concerns have triggered a series of unprecedented disruptions in global supply chains, particularly along vital maritime trade routes. The disruptions, from the Covid-19 pandemic, the Ever Given incident in the Suez Canal, the persistent drought in the Panama Canal, the hostilities in the Black Sea, to the ongoing attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea by the Houthi rebels, have sent shock waves through the global economy.
With 90% of goods still reliant on sea transport, the potential impact on the worldwide economy is not just a cause for concern, but an immediate crisis, threatening to exacerbate inflation and other significant economic issues. Industries such as automotive, electronics, and fashion, which rely heavily on just-in-time delivery, are particularly affected.
While the shipping industry is undergoing numerous crises, rail transportation across the Eurasian landmass is thriving and developing rapidly.
According to statistics released by the China State Railway Group, freight traffic on the China-Europe route reached 17,523 trips in 2023, carrying 1.902 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of goods, representing yearly increases of 6 and 18%, respectively.
Among these, 9,343 trips were westbound, and 8,180 were eastbound. The number of China-Europe freight train trips reached 2,928 in the first two months of 2024, up 9 percent year-on-year. During this period, the route carried 317,000 TEUs, up 10% from the year before.
The railway route connects 120 Chinese cities with 219 cities in 25 European countries. The China-Europe railway is an intelligent and environmentally friendly means of transporting freight.
The share of capital-intensive and time-sensitive products such as photovoltaic modules, new energy vehicles, lithium-ion batteries, electronics, machine parts, jewellery and plastic products is proliferating.The soft infrastructure for such transportation is being improved at a rapid pace.
“On the China-Europe Express Railway routes, customs clearance and inspection are becoming more convenient, the business environment at ports of entry is constantly improving, and the rules and regulations related to cross-border transportation are becoming more standardised,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said.
For example, port facilities were expanded at two railway crossings between China and Kazakhstan, and customs procedures were optimised, reducing train stopping time to six to eight hours.The rail connections are not just growing. They are becoming more resilient and adaptable.
Today, trains take about 10 days to travel 9,908km from Xi’an in Shaanxi province to Duisburg in Germany, two days less than in 2023. Average carbon dioxide emissions during this journey are 15 times less than air travel and 10 times less than road transport, making it a more sustainable and secure option for global trade.
If rail transport in the Eurasian continent continues to grow, the obvious beneficiaries will be the landlocked Central Asian countries, as they will have direct access to both the Chinese and European markets, as well as the markets of the South Caucasus and Turkiye.
Being a transport bridge between Asia and Europe, Kazakhstan remains the only beneficiary of the growing traffic among the Central Asian countries. — China Daily/ANN
Djoomart Otorbaev is former prime minister of the Kyrgyz Republic and a professor at the Belt and Road School at Beijing Normal University. The views expressed here are the writer’s own.
