Europe-bound Chinese rail freight is expected to become a whole lot more expensive as Beijing looks to address multiple looming economic crises [The Loadstar].
Having spent years subsidising its rail freight network, with the intent of entrenching it as a legitimate alternative to the more dominant air and ocean cargo services, China’s government is reputedly lining up a faster-than-expected subsidy reduction.
At the end of 2020, the trade turnover between the Benelux countries and China amounted to about USD 98 billion, of which USD 26.09 billion accounted for exports to China and USD 71.86 billion - for import.
Geographically and historically, transport and trade have united Eurasia as much as geopolitical conflicts and imperial rivalries have kept it fragmented. Since the 2000s and even more so with the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Eurasian integration (EAEU) in progress, opportunities for a major diversification and modernization of the economies of continental Eurasia via transport and trade integration, at both a regional and global level, have risen dramatically and have in fact never been greater.
