“Silk way” around Russia has led the Ukrainians to a standstill

The first container train, which was shipped from Ukraine to China on the 15th of January on the “silk road” to bypass Russia, comes with a two-day delay. According to preliminary data, this method of transporting goods to China is unprofitable at least twice.

According to the expert in the field of transport and infrastructure Alexander Kava, the experiment showed that this path is possible in principle, but from the point of view of competitiveness and the cost is clearly losing ground shipments via Russian territory. This means that shippers will be rare to use Ukrainian “innovation”, but because the ferries will leave from the port of Odessa half-empty.

The same thing happened with the container train, which was released in the path from Ilyichevsk. Because it was partly loaded, the ferry company went not directly to Georgia, as required by the route, but to the Bulgarian port Varna, in a very opposite side, there to load the ship by other goods. However because of the storm the ferry stayed in Varna for two days, that’s why it was late in China.

“If we compare the route from the station Dostyk, which is located on the border of Kazakhstan and China, to the Ukrainian border station Chop, then the price for transportation through the territory of the Russian Federation one forty-foot container will amount to $ 3900. When using the TRANS-Caspian route, which was an experimental train, such carriage will cost 7950 dollars, that is twice more expensive,” said the expert.