(Yicai Global) Feb. 15 -- The cargo trains traveling along the southern and Trans-Caspian East-West-Middle Corridor routes of the China-Europe Railway Express have not been affected by the earthquakes that struck Türkiye and Syria last week.

“The trains don’t pass through the earthquake-hit southern regions,” Yang Jie, the head of Europe-Asia Railway Logistics, told Yicai Global. 

The Middle Corridor has two routes, both departing from Xi’an in central China. The first passes through Kazakhstan, the Caspian Sea area, Türkiye, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Hungary to arrive in Slovakia. The second diverts to the port city of Poti in Georgia before reaching Türkiye, where cargo containers are shipped via the Black Sea to Constanta in Romania, Yang said.

Only 4,600 twenty-foot equivalent units were shipped between China and Europe via the corridor from January through April last year, equal to a total of 46 container trains or an average of 10 container trains a month, according to data from Kazakh authorities.

After the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out, the market has been optimistic about the southern route, which runs from Xi’an to Europe through Kazakhstan, Iran, and Türkiye, Yang added. But freight charges and railroad efficiency in Türkiye have no advantages, as the shipping fees between Europe and Asia have been declining, and very few China-Europe Railway Express trains ran last year, he noted.

The number of freight trains plying the China-Europe Railway Express will grow steadily this year, Yang forecast. But most trains from China to Europe will still go through Russia, he added.

The first China-Europe Railway Express from Xi’an to Ankara went into operation on Nov. 6, 2019.

Editor: Futura Costaglione