China has displaced russia as Ukraine’s largest trading partner

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China has displaced russia as Ukraine’s largest trading partner, according to new data posted by the National Bank of Ukraine. In the first quarter of this year, China-Ukraine trade hit $2.55 billion, or 10.6% of Ukraine’s foreign trade. During the same period, russia’s trade dipped to $2.34 billion, or 9.7% of Ukraine’s foreign trade.

At the same time, the boom in China-Europe train traffic is bypassing Ukraine due to russia’s restrictions on freight trains transiting its territory to Ukraine. Through, August, the number of freight trains passing through the China-Kazakhstan Khorgas checkpoint doubled over last year to 2,105. During the same time, the number of containers passing through Belarus, also doubled, hitting 178,300.

To accommodate the China traffic, Belarusian Railways completed this month a $10 million, 150% expansion of its rail car processing at its Brest North station. Ukrzaliznytsia wants to develop Kovel, the Volyn rail hub 130 km south of Brest, as a rail alternative for the booming China trade.

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