felb
At the Railfreight Summit – Special Edition on 6 April, which took place booth in Brussels and online, industry experts discussed the opportunities and potential of the Middle Corridor via Kazakhstan through the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey to Europe.
By February 2022, about 90 per cent of the transports from China went via the Northern Corridor, the route from China via Kazakhstan or Mongolia through Russia. Due to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, the middle corridor is gaining in importance. However, capacities are insufficient.
The problem with the central corridor: customers are reluctant to buy a product that – compared to the northern corridor – takes significantly longer and demands much more investment.
Uwe Leuschner, CEO FELB Group, comments on the current situation: “Multimodal services and creativity are in demand. But the decision-makers for this are situated in the customer-oriented companies! In General rail transport can be considered very important because the arguments of rail are still valid: “Quicker than sea, cheaper than air and more sustainable than other transport modalities!”
The market is definitely going through a challenging time. However, what became obvious at the event, is the cohesion of the industry and the tireless will to find and offer solutions.