The rapid spread of COVID-19 has led to uncertainty and loss of confidence unseen since 2008. The market volatility has also risen extremely fast to a level unseen over the last decade. Even against this unfavorable environment, there are sectors that have taken a disproportionate hit, including tourism, passenger transportation, airlines, hotels — practically everything that has a built-in key cross-border dimension.

In the first half of 2021, 336,598 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) were transported along the Eurasian railway transit route in the China—Europe—China direction, which is 50% more than in the first half of 2020.