The China-Russia Arctic container liner was officially launched
Recently, a container ship operated by China's Xinxin Shipping Company set sail from the Russian port of St. Petersburg to China along the Arctic route.
A container ship carrying paper, cardboard, chemicals and fertilizer, which was operated by China's Xinxin Shipping Company, departed from the First Container terminal of St. Petersburg Port at 13:00 local time on Wednesday. It will take more than 20 days to cross the Arctic route and arrive at Shanghai Port in China.
Zhou Liqun, president of the China General Chamber of Commerce in Russia, said in his speech that today (July 7), the first liner has departed from St. Petersburg and will arrive at a Chinese port along the Arctic route, which marks a new channel for regular logistics and transportation between China and Russia and will play a major role in the development of practical economic and trade cooperation between China and Russia.
In order to realize the weekly operation of container ships on the China-Russia Arctic route, Xinxin Shipping has invested five high-ice class container ships.
It is expected that the route will be able to operate from July to the end of October, weather conditions permitting.
Xinxin Shipping is confident to build the Arctic container liner route into a boutique route between China and Russia, and contribute to the joint construction of the "Polar Silk Road" between the two countries.
New logistics and transportation channels between China and Russia
Gao Shixian, economic counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Russia, pointed out at the ceremony that the operation of the Arctic route by Chinese and Russian container liner is of great significance to expand the scale of trade, vigorously develop the interconnected logistics system, consolidate the all-round cooperative partnership, promote the exchange and high-quality cooperation in the field of technology and innovation.
In addition, the operation of the Arctic shipping routes by Chinese and Russian container liners will play an important role in the cooperation between China and Russia on Arctic shipping routes, the expansion of the Maritime Silk Road and the extension of the Belt and Road cooperation to the Arctic Ocean.
Zhou said in his speech that the opening of a regular China-Russia container liner transport channel along the Arctic waterway will improve the current situation that the existing transport capacity of the two countries cannot effectively meet the growing logistics and transport demand of the two countries.
It will play an important role in the security of logistics and transportation channels and the development of China-Russia economic and trade cooperation, and will help the scale of China-Russia economic and trade cooperation jump to a new level.
The launch of the China-Russia Arctic container liner has opened up a new logistics corridor for bilateral trade, said Rosatom's special representative for Arctic development, Sergei Panov.
The opening of this logistics route has quickly solved the pain point problems of long logistics cycle and insufficient transport capacity between Russia and China. Many enterprises have shown great interest in the transport capacity of the Arctic route during the voyage period from July to November.
The new approach of logistics cooperation between Russia and China will drive the new development of bilateral economic and trade cooperation and achieve the $200 billion trade target set by the heads of state of Russia and China at an early date.
In her speech, Ms. Kirilova, head of the joint project "Eurasian Agricultural Logistics" of the EAEU member states, said that the official opening of a container liner transport route to China on the Arctic route is of great significance.
At the same time, the Arctic route is a shorter, cheaper and safer shipping route than the traditional route through the Suez Canal. With the development of the Arctic route, the two-way logistics efficiency of energy products and agricultural products between Russia and China is expected to be significantly improved, and the economic and trade cooperation between the two countries will also gain new impetus for development.
Trade between China and Russia
Under the influence of serious inflation, economic weakness and geopolitical conflicts in Europe and the United States, more and more enterprises are turning their attention to Russia, and the export to the Russian market and the trade between China and Russia are paying increasing attention.
In 2021, China-Russia trade amounted to US $146.887 billion
In 2022, China-Russia trade amounted to $190.271 billion
China-russia trade will reach $200 billion in 2023
According to the analysis of industry professionals: from the trade data in recent years, China and the European Union in the Russian trade accounted for roughly the same proportion.
Preliminary calculation, China's import in Russia accounted for about 30%, and this figure is still increasing, it can be said that China occupies an absolute advantage in Russia's foreign trade.
In terms of import and export goods, China's demand for Russian agricultural products, seafood, wood, fertilizer and other imports is expanding. Russia is further expanding its imports of mechanical and electrical equipment, daily consumer goods and electronic products from China.
In the future, the two sides may deepen cooperation in tourism, e-commerce, finance, logistics and digitalization.
In addition, from the perspective of the trade structure between China and Russia, the trade complementarity between the two countries is very strong, and the trade cooperation between China and Russia has great potential.
