Business news

MINSK, 10 April (BelTA) - Belarusian Railways signed a memorandum of understanding with DHL Global Forwarding, China's major logistics company, BelTA learned from the press center of Belarusian Railways.

Minsk played host to the talks between Belarusian Railways and DHL Global Forwarding China, an international division of DHL, the global market leader in the logistics industry. The meeting was attended by Belarusian Railways head Vladimir Morozov, CEO of DHL Global Forwarding Asia Pacific Kelvin Leung, Chief Executive Officer of Greater China at DHL Global Forwarding Inc. Steve Huang and Zafer Engin, Head of Value Added Services, DHL Global Forwarding China.

The parties considered cargo transportation in container trains along the China-Europe-China route. “The Belt and Road initiative and the construction of the Chinese-Belarusian industrial park Great Stone are stimulating factors for the development of container transportation along the China-Europe-China and China-Belarus-China routes,” Vladimir Morozov noted. More than 3,000 freight trains passed through the territory of Belarus in 2017. Some 275,000 twenty-foot cargo containers were transported along the China-EU-China route, which was twice as more as in 2016.

The parties also examined cargo transportation along the China-Belarus route, with the consolidation of cargoes at the Kolyadichi container terminal, and further to the EU. The cooperation between the Belintertrans - Transport-Logistics Center of Belarusian Railways (BTLC) and DHL Global Forwarding China in freight transportation along the China-EU-China route has been gaining momentum in the last few years. The companies have already launched the following freight trains: Hefei-Hamburg, Shenzhen-Duisburg, Chengdu-Tilburg, Chengdu-Nuremberg and Chengdu-Lodz which have connected the Western European countries with some Chinese provinces. In cooperation with DHL, Belintertrans launched a new freight train connecting Sian (the Shaanxi province of China) and Europe.

The head of Belarusian Railways also highlighted the importance of development of China-Belarus routes. The strategic goal of Belarusian Railways is to set up a large trans-shipment center (at Kolyadichy terminal) in Minsk which will act as a regional transport hub. It will consolidate cargoes and redirect flows, including in the North-South direction (using the specialized trains Viking and Bison). Three pilot container trains on the Shenzhen-Kolyadichy route were launched in 2017.

For his part, CEO of DHL Global Forwarding Asia Pacific Kelvin Leung pointed out the great capacity of the market of transportation services from China and other Asia-Pacific countries to Europe. According to him, DHL has a strong interest in making the full use of the Minsk hub to connect neighboring countries not only in the East-West direction but also in the North-South one. Currently, DHL Global Forwarding China holds a 10% share in China’s transport market.

The meeting resulted in the signing of memorandums of understanding between Belarusian Railways and DHL Global Forwarding, between Belintertrans and DHL Global Forwarding.