In the 45th week,  Alashankou and Khorgos maintained a reloading record of about 3-5 days; Manzhouli and Erenhot can smoothly handle the operation within 7 days at the shortest with some exceptions of 7-14 days for long queues.

In the European direction, freight trains shipped from domestic stations can arrive in Mala, Poland in 12-15 days, and then transit to most destinations in Germany and France in 15-17 days. In the direction of Russia, it takes 14-15 days to arrive in Moscow after leaving the country via Alashankou and Khorgos. Only a few experienced significant delays due to special reasons such as inspection and customs clearance. In addition, heavy snowfall has occurred in the eastern and northern regions of Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, and Jilin provinces this week, and it is expected that the reloading speed at the Manzhouli  may slow down. The actual impact will be further observed.

The supply of spaces and freight rates for each route are as follows:

European route:

WB: The supply of spaces is relatively tight, and many platforms have sold out their space in November. Yiwu appears to be most appalling which drives the flow of goods from East China to the surrounding areas. Although the booking prices of Xi'an Express trains are generally around 20% higher than the average price of regular trains, the spaces on the Express have been fully booked till end of Nov.. Supple at platforms such as Chengdu, Zhengzhou, Chongqing, and Jinan have also been released until the latter half of the year.

EB: The price of spaces on returned trips along the European route remains stable. The cargo returning from European cities this month has been fully booked on trains destined for Xi'an Free Trade Port, Zhengzhou, and Yiwu. Changsha has a small number of cabins, while Dalian and Jinan have sufficient supply of cabins.

Russian route: 

This week, the Russian direction has seen a slight surge, with a significant increase in spot freight rates. The price increases on platforms such as Chengdu, Xi'an, Chongqing, and Changsha range from about 300 to 500 US dollars. Due to planned cuts, the overall cabin space has been tightened in November - most routes in Wuhan, Shenyang, Hefei, Jinhua, Ganzhou, and other places are already full.

Central Asia route: 

The demand is stable. Most platforms will dispatch their spaces in mid to late November. The trains from Xi'an to Almaty, Tashkent and other places this month are currently collecting goods. The latest "Xi'an-Baku" service is scheduled to depart on the 5th and 25th of this month, and the first train has been successfully shipped. Zhengzhou sold out its spaces, the Central Asian train is scheduled to operate in Mianyang and Luzhou around Chengdu.  

Article source: Cargo Talk