Over the past year, rates have fallen for container shipping from China (according to the Drewry World Container Index). Pricing has approached pre-crises levels. Will this trend be reflected in retail business, and what issues are transport operators concerned with? Retail.ru took these questions to key players on the market.

Since the beginning of the Russian-Ukraine conflict, the countries in Central Asia (CA) became acutely aware of the severe limitations related to their transportation routes. With heavy dependence on Moscow, CA countries decided to engage in diversification of their import- export channels. For Bishkek and Tashkent such attempts resulted in the renewed interest in advancing the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan (CKU) railway project.