China and Russia port traffic jam!

Border crossings between Russia and China have come back to life this spring, and trade between the two countries has increased significantly, it was reported on May 15. In this context, the Russian side of the Baigarsk-Manchuria International highway port outside the Russia-China border was severely congested with trucks.

According to Izvestia, the queue of lorries at the border checkpoint in outer Begarsk can be as long as seven to 10 kilometers, with truckers only able to travel about 90 to 100 meters a day, and the waiting time can take weeks. Drivers clashed with each other from time to time because of the heavy congestion.

Russia has noticed a significant increase in bilateral trade volume through the Russia-China border port, the head of the Far Eastern Department of the Russian Federal Customs Agency said on Monday, citing Russia Today. At present, about 340 to 350 vehicles pass through the port every day, and about 700 vehicles queued up at the port on Monday morning, he said. “We will work together with our Chinese counterparts to resolve these issues to reduce congestion. A 24-hour working day will be introduced at the port from today. We want to increase the capacity so that the queue time is not more than two days.” “Radkin said.

As China has optimized its COVID-19 prevention and control policies and trade between China and Russia has become increasingly frequent, the volume of cargo on the border between the two countries has continued to increase. Russia Today reported that data released by the Russian Federal Customs Service showed that since the beginning of this year, the freight volume between Russia and China through road ports in the Far East has increased by nearly 50 percent year-on-year to more than 75,000 vehicle times.

Global Times cited experts as saying that the serious queuing of heavy trucks at China-Russia border ports after the end of the epidemic could be attributed to Russia’s inadequate infrastructure for customs clearance, low efficiency of customs clearance and differences in working hours. The Russian government has approved a number of big projects in the past four months, most of them involving infrastructure in the Far East.

The Russian Customs Service pointed out that local customs and other regulatory agencies are operating beyond the designated capacity of the port. Therefore, the Customs Service has decided to extend the opening hours of the port. The opening hours of Kraskino port have been extended to 21 o ‘clock local time, and the opening hours of Bogranich port have been extended to 23 o ‘clock local time. Until the last car is booked.

In addition, Anton Kozlov, head of the foreign projects and international cooperation department of the Russian State Railway Transport company, said recently that the company hopes to resume passenger rail transport with China in the future. Meanwhile, things are going well in the area of freight transport between Russia and China, with the volume of goods moving through the Sino-Russian border increased by about 70 percent in the first quarter of 2023.

“Because the timing of the lifting of quarantine restrictions coincides with the huge demand for such transport and the opening of the new railway crossing point, the Lower Leninskoye-Dong River,” Kozlov stressed. He added that in the first quarter of 2023, for example, cargo traffic through Sino-Russian border crossings increased by about 70 per cent – about 40m tonnes of goods were transported.