Resumption of container transports from China by rail and via the Baltic Sea

DB Cargo Eurasia GmbH is resuming container transports to and from China by rail and via the Baltic Sea between Kaliningrad and Rostock for the first time following the outbreak of the corona epidemic in China.

The first train will leave the terminal in Xi'an/ China on 25 March 2020 to transport 50 containers via Kazakhstan, Russia, Lithuania and Belarus, and then via the Baltic Sea route from Kaliningrad to Rostock. For the entire transport, DB Cargo Eurasia as operator needs about 12 days to reach the destination Duisburg, from where the first train in the opposite direction will depart for Xian on 2 April. Some of the goods are already transferred to other modes of transport in Rostock. For example, some containers will be transported on to Verona by train, other containers will be transported to Sweden by container ship. The first train includes goods from the automotive sector, industrial goods and also medical products.

The container transports between Kaliningrad and Rostock will initially run on a weekly basis from April. The aim is to increase this to up to six trains per week in the future, with an average of 41 to 50 containers being transported per train. The transport is being realised together with the partners DB Schenker, DB Cargo Russia, XIAN ITL, UTLC, Mannlines and Rostock Hafen.

The route via Kaliningrad-Rostock is an attractive alternative for customers to the otherwise continuous rail transport between China and Europe via the Belarusian-Polish border Brest-Malaszewicze, where there are currently capacity bottlenecks due to construction work.

DB Cargo Eurasia forms the network of DB Cargo structures on the eastern external border of the EU and fills the rail traffic within the DB Cargo network with volumes to and from China. The transcontinental connections between China and Europe provide various customers with efficient and competitive alternatives to time-consuming shipping connections and cost-intensive air freight.