Rail transportation of containers from China to the EU through Russia, which collapsed after the start of the military activities in Ukraine, is recovering. According to Russian Railways, the container transit in the first quarter increased by 44% reaching 90 thousand TEUs, which is not much less than pre-crisis volumes: over the first quarter of 2021, Russian Railways carried 105,8 thousand TEUs in transit from China to Europe.
Experts assume that the impact of the events in the Red Sea may have prompted customers to pay attention to the trans-Russia route again. In early March, the FT quoted the market participants in a report that requests for rail transit through Russia had risen by 40% after the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.