Southern «Silk road» from Ukraine to china is open

The cargo from Ukraine to Georgia will be carried by sea, then by rail to Azerbaijan. Then again by the Caspian Sea to Kazakhstan, and then - again by rail as far as China. The train consists of 10 cars and 20 forty-foot containers. The Cabinet has dubbed this new way "Southern Silk Road". From Ilyichevsk to Dostyk station (China), the consignment will arrive in about 11-12 days.

Technical specifications allow you to send up to forty wagons with 80 twenty-foot or 40-forty-foot containers. The train is capable of carrying any cargo. According to the Ministry of Infrastructure, the new route has already interested domestic manufacturers of cardboard, stone, ceramic tile, metal structures, furniture, foodstuff and agricultural products.

The departure of the train was organized festively. Minister of infrastructure Andrei Pivovarsky, Minister of Economic Development and Trade Aivaras Abromavicius, head of the Board of the Ukrainian Railway Alexander Zavgorodniy and other high standing officials sent the train in its first journey. The Governor of Odessa region, Mikhail Saakashvili, also attended the event.

"We are opening a new way not just from Europe to China. Along this route, the Ukrainian goods will arrive to those markets where we have always had a very strong position: in Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and the markets which access is limited now, owing to the fact that the Russian Federation had introduced the restrictions for the transit of Ukrainian goods in other countries" Andrei Pivovarsky summed up.

Let’s remind that in 2015, the volume of supply from Ukraine to China increased by 11% compared to 2014. This is the highest figure over the past decade. At the moment, Ukraine exports to China nearly 24 million tons of goods.