Freight traffic via railway crossings from China to Russian Far East increases 23% in Jan-Nov - Russian Railways

VLADIVOSTOK. Dec 22 (Interfax) - Cargo transportation via border crossings with China in the Far Eastern Federal District in both directions in January-November 2023 increased 22.8% YoY to about 13.2 million tonnes, the Far Eastern Railway (a division of JSC Russian Railways) said.

This growth comes mainly from an increase in exports to China through the Grodekovo (Primorsky Territory) - Suifenhe border crossing. Exports included 2.2 million tonnes of coal (a 40% increase), 1.8 million tonnes of metal ore (a 9.4% increase), 1.1 million tonnes of container cargo (a 60% increase), and 440,000 tonnes of grain cargo (a nearly 2.1-fold increase). Imports from China totaled 172,000 tonnes of cargo (a 19.7% increase).

In total, export-import cargo transportation through the Grodekovo-Suifenhe crossing totaled 7.5 million tonnes (a 20% increase).

In Primorye, cargo traffic also crosses the Kamyshovaya-Hunchun border crossing by rail (traditionally, this is mostly coal); Russian Railways does not disclose statistics for this route.

Export freight traffic through the new Nizhneleninskoye (Jewish Autonomous Region) - Tongjiang railway border crossing for the 11 months of 2023 came to nearly 2.9 million tonnes, of which 2.2 million tonnes was coal and 623,000 tonnes ore, while 13,900 tonnes of cargo were imported from China.

The Far Eastern Railway passes through the territories of six Russian constituent entities: Primorsky and Khabarovsk territories, Amur and Sakhalin regions, the Jewish Autonomous Region, and Yakutia.