Shipping continues to navigate COVID-19 post-pandemic trends, the legacies of the 2021–2022 crunch in global supply chains, a softening in the container shipping market and shifts in shipping and trading patterns arising from the conflict in Ukraine.

China’s railway investment in the first quarter hit its highest level since 2013 amid government efforts to boost the economy and expand infrastructure in Western border regions that are of ever-increasing security and economic importance.