SHANGHAI: June 15, 2016. RZD Holding, part of Russian Railways, is developing a direct rail link with China across Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Belarus - the last two countries are members of the Eurasian Economic Union.

The announcement by Russian Railways president Oleg Belozerov follows a meeting with Lee Hechun, chairman of the China Yingkou Port Group, who confirmed interest in establishing a joint Russian-Chinese logistics center in the Moscow region.

The two sides plan container rail services linking Yingkou with Moscow via Gomel in Belarusia, and Yingkou to Dobra in Slovakia, in order to reduce transit times between China's southeast region and Europe by nearly 50 percent.

Belozerov commented: "Russia faces the acute question not only of developing the transport and logistics infrastructure in the country's eastern regions, but also of creating optimal overland freight delivery transit routes. This requires, on the one hand, using our national territory as much as possible, and on the other taking advantage of the opportunities presented by the integration processes across the Eurasian space."

Russian Railways is currently involved in the integration of the Baikal-Amur Main Line and the Trans-Siberian Railway that last year saw volumes increase 3.9 percent to over 113 million tons. Between 2010 and 2015 container traffic on the route has risen 57 percent to nearly 504,000 TEU.

"We provide a number of services that allow shippers to deliver freight door-to-door on a regular and frequent basis. Two of our main products are ‘The Trans-Siberian in 7 days’ and ‘The Baikal Shuttle’. However, we need more of these kind of services and are therefore developing a completely new range of high-quality products which we will soon be ready to offer to our customers," said Belozerov.

He added that TEU rates for transit container shipments on fast trains via Russia's Far Eastern ports to Europe are now discounting up to 60 percent, depending on the container size and the route.