New Khabarovsk-China Freight Logistics Centre To Be Fully Operational By 2027

A new transport and logistics centre to service freight transport between Russia and China is to be launched in Russia’s Far Eastern Khabarovsk, according to the Russian Corporation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic. This includes a vehicle checkpoint on the border with China on the Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island on the Amur River, becoming part of a substantial cross-border transport hub in the Khabarovsk region.

Several projects, taking advantage of the new border crossing with China are to be built, with an estimated value of ₽100 billion (US$1.1 billion).

The Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island is connected on the Russian side with the city of Khabarovsk, which in turn is the largest city in the Russian Far East with a population of about 670,000. It is on the Trans-Siberian railway, the Trans-Siberian Highway, and has major River Ports and air connectivity throughout Russia, China, and Central and East Asia. Its main industries are iron processing, steel milling, shipbuilding, machinery and light industry manufacturing, petroleum refining, flour milling, pharmaceuticals, and packaging.

The other half of the island belongs to China, and is connected to the Chinese city of Jiamusi, a major transit port and distribution centre of goods, serving as the economic hub of China’s eastern Heilongjiang province. It has a population of about 2.2 million. A new high-speed railway, the Jiamusi-Mudanjiang high-speed railway line, connects directly with Harbin, Dalian, Shijiazhuang and other cities. Jiamusi Airport also operates regular flights to Beijing, Dalian, Shanghai, Qingdao, Guangzhou, Sanya and Khabarovsk.

Jiamusi is connected to Khabarovsk by the downstream Songhua River, which flows south from the Amur. Jiamusi port provides seasonal cargo and passenger services, sailing up the Songhua River to Qiqihar, Harbin and Tongjiang as well as to Khabarovsk. The road distance between Khabarovsk and Jiamusi is 502 km.

Mikhail Plotnikov, the CEO of Russia’s A2 Group, who are involved in the construction, says that the integration of Russian and Chinese transport infrastructure will create conditions for Khabarovsk to become a global dry port, a cross-border centre for transport, industrial, economic and tourism cooperation.

According to Plotnikov, it is also planned to build warehouses, customs, quarantine and phytosanitary control facilities, refrigeration complexes, automobile posts, as well as transport and social infrastructure, including a hotel, an automobile service centre, an administrative building and a gas station with a total area of 137,000 square metres.

The concept of joint development of the Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island was signed in May last year during the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Beijing. In October last year, the Chinese side has already begun work on the construction of a permanent cargo and passenger checkpoint between the two countries. The Russian side should start the direct implementation of the project this year.

It is expected that according to the temporary scheme, the border crossing will be able to receive transport as early as 2026, and it will be put into full operation in 2028. By this time, according to preliminary calculations, its capacity will increase to 1.3 million tonnes of cargo and up to 1 million people per year.

This new cargo and passenger checkpoint, in conjunction with China’s plans to develop a similar infrastructure, will make it possible to form a new major international transport hub in the Far East servicing both Russian, Chinese and Far Eastern logistics.