MINSK, Belarus: June 21, 2018. The Belarus news agency BeITA reports the arrival of the first container freight train from Shijiazhuang, the capital of China’s Hebei Province, at the Kolyadichi terminal of Belintertrans (BTLC), the transport and forwarding subsidiary of Belarusian Railways.

The freight train had delivered 38 containers of industrial goods 9,500 kilometres in 15 days and is the first of what is expected to be 3-4 frequencies a month from Hebei Province.

BTLC director general Yevgeny Usenkov noted: “Business relations between Belarusian and Chinese commercial entities are evolving. Our job is to offer an optimal logistics scheme to minimize the cost of freight transportation.”

Usenkov also talked about the prospect of shipping rail freight from Hebei Province to Western Europe via Belarus: “Today we received cargoes of Belarusian recipients but the transport and logistics terminal Kolyadichi is an international container hub, from which cargoes are shipped to the CIS states, Western Europe, Baltic states, and Scandinavian countries.”

Xing Guohui, representing the city government of Shijiazhuang, added the establishment of new rail container routes helps enhance trade and economic cooperation between countries and implements China’s Belt and Road initiative.