Русский
Russian Railways has reported that between January-July 2024, cargo transportation in both directions through various railway crossings on the Russian-Chinese border increased by a total of 18.2% compared to the same period in 2023 – up to 23.8 million tonnes. That is broken down into Chinese export volumes to Russia amounting to 1.6 million tonnes (at the same level of January-July 2023), while 22.2 million tonnes were exported by Russia to China.
The following border crossing handled the bulk of Russian exports:
Grodekovo (Primorsky Krai) – Suifenhe
4.9 million tonnes of cargo were exported from Russia (an increase of 3.2%). This volume includes 2.1 million tonnes of coal (an increase of 1.7 times).
Kamyshovaya (Primorsky Krai) – Hunchun
2.1 million tonnes of cargo were exported from Russia through the border crossing (an increase of 1.4 times), including 2 million tonnes of coal (an increase of 1.4 times).
Nizhneleninskoye (Jewish Autonomous Region) – Tongjiang
Export cargo transportation through the new railway border crossing during the period amounted to 3.1 million tonnes (an increase of 1.9 times), including 2 million tonnes of coal (an increase of 1.8 times) and 963,000 tonnes of iron ore (an increase of 2 times).
Zabaikalsk (Zabaykalsky Krai) – Manzhouli
11.9 million tonnes of cargo were exported to China via this route (an increase of 11.5%). This volume includes 4.4 million tonnes of coal (an increase of 1.3 times) and 2.7 million tonnes of iron ore (an increase of 22.4%). We further discussed the development of this route here.
Other Routes
These numbers are expected to increase. Russian rail is already running at capacity to China, however new rail routes are to come online. The Blagoveshchensk railway port & logistics zone next to Heihe in China is expected to be completed next year, while the Skovorodino railway, with connections through to Mohe in China’s Heilongjiang Province is also being studied. In addition, both sides are looking at developing multi-modal routes to take the pressure off the railway network. In this regard, shipping via inland rivers between Russia and China is also being made a priority development task.
Further Reading
