Ukraine reaffirms its future role as a transit country for Chinese goods

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Ukraine’s future role as a transit country for Chinese goods to Central Europe was reaffirmed Wednesday by the arrival from China of a 44-car freight train at Dobra, Slovakia, just across the border from Chop, Zakarpattia.

Carrying Chinese goods for Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, the train took 14 days to travel to Slovakia from Xi’an, in central China. Slovakia wants to win 50% of all railway traffic between Europe and China, writes  RailFreight.com. With the collapse of eastern trade with the former Soviet Union, Slovakia has the capacity to handle 25 additional container trains from China, estimates Slovakia’s Ministry of Transport and Construction.

Due to geography, the shortest and fastest route to Slovakia is through Ukraine. “Transport through Ukraine was more than competitive [than Belarus and Poland], as transit time was some 32 hours,” Martin Koubek, Silk Road director for Metrans, a Prague-based railroad, told RailFreight.com.

“We see big potential in this route.” Noting that Ukraine’s new government is upgrading customs procedures to EU standards, he said: “From this perspective, it may become even easier to transport trains via Ukraine.”

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