Europe and Asia have long commercial exchange experience and most freight volumes are still shipped by sea. Currently, many global companies are manufacturing their products in China and export them all over the world.
The 20,000 km distance between the two continents is covered in about 45 days on sea, but railway transport significantly reduces cargo travel times. For example, using the European railway networks to the Trans-Siberian-China region is the perfect alternative for freight exchange to Europe, China, Korea and Japan: distances are shortened by half, transit time is 3 weeks (compared to 6-7 weeks by sea transport), there is flexibility in the transport process and the entire distance benefits from several terminals, including for border stations.
“More and more transport companies develop new railway depots to deal with transport from Asia to Europe and vice versa. Due to demand from large multi-national companies, we are expecting the carriers to be forced to shift more freight to railways. Also, large suppliers’ chains manifest their interest towards developing distribution facilities in Central Europe to eliminate the double handling through distribution line transport and from there to end destinations in Central Europe”, declared in an interview Robert Gerendas, Board Member of Far East Land Bridge.
The transport system on Europe-Asia axis has to be competitive and, to meet the demand, operators have to improve their travel time and service quality, while managers to modernise transport infrastructure and increase capacity.
Thus, Russia and China have become aware of both the importance of a strategic position in the transport system and of the implementation of projects aimed to reduce the travel time. Russian Railways and Chinese Railways are investing more in high-speed trains and freight dedicated trains. In the coming years, transport via Russia could only take 7 days, helping reduce travel times between the two continents from 21-22 days (at the time being) to 15-17 days.
These objectives will significantly sti-mulate the shift of goods to railways and constantly increasing demands will boost transport volumes and the logistic market development respectively.
The launch of several projects, both on railway infrastructure and services, will increase competitiveness between transport modes, the harmonisation of legislations and, in the end, will make a difference in the choice of a transport mode, to the detriment of another. For example, the number of ships whose capacity exceeds 10,000 TEUs coming from Asia to the Baltic Sea is increasing and these vehicles can be handled in bigger ports. “This will stimulate competition between different transport modes and will generate a debate on the development of connections with the hinterland and of cargo distribution routes, especially using containers”, explained Hans-Georg Werner, Board Member of DB Schenker Rail. A decision of choosing railway freight transport between Europe and Asia will be followed by tough negotiations regarding the price, quality and services. There are promotion opportunities for this type of transport, especially if we consider travel times, cargo types and the environmental aspect.
The growth tendencies of freight volumes until 2030 are most of all due to an increasing interdependency between the EU and Asia since domestic political and economic concerns are heading towards Asian countries. Investments are being directed to new industrial facilities and railway projects, while freight dedicated corridors are being elaborated between the EU, Turkey, Russia and China. Challenges imposed by cargo demands in Eurasia and the relocation of production centres in China (from south-east to west) increase the probability of modal shift from maritime traffic to railway traffic.
For the EU, China is one of the most important trade partners, from the point of view of both exports and imports, especially since China’s export to Europe includes exports from the US, Japan, Korea and other Asian countries which transit China. This reflects in the massive reshaping of the trade activities, of locations/relocations of production centres and the development of a more balanced transport between Europe and Asia.
Over the last decades, commercial exchange between the EU and China have known a continuous growth, exports to China increasing from EUR 26 Billion (in 2000) to EUR 136 Billion (in 2011). In the first half of 2012, EU’s exports to China increased from EUR 66 Billion to EUR 73 Billion (compared to the same period of the previous year). In this context, the Black Sea Region plays a crucial role for important links to Asia, being considered the most valuable transport connection between Europe and Asia.
Over the last decades, the Black Sea Region has changed dramatically and, from 2000 to the outburst of the global economic crisis, it has experienced the fastest economic growth in the world, trade in member countries knowing a continuous ascending trend.
The good relationships with key players, including the United States, the countries in the European Union, China, Middle East and Central Asia are important because this area is vital for involved parties as it ensures freight transport between the east and the west.
Although the logistics market has seen its growth halted during the economic recession, currently, the market now records constant development due to the activity of countries such as Russia and Poland. Increasing productivity and the connection of manufactures with EEC countries has triggered the development of activity not only in capital, but also in regional cities, especially in the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia.
To answer the increasing freight volume demands, connections to port facilities, stations and handling spaces have to be developed in partnership with state-owned companies and private terminal owners, these being the most interested in the balanced capacity of railways which should be capable to offer the most precise estimations of demands. If private port operators plan new investments and expect new freight volumes, then railways have to be capable to cope with the demand in the region.
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