News / China-Europe rail severely disrupted over Poland border closure

dreamstime.com

Poland’s decision to close its border with Belarus following joint military exercises between its neighbour and Russia have thrown a spanner into China’s €25bn a year trade route to the EU, with the leadership in Beijing urging Warsaw to reopen the border.

The border has been closed since Friday (12 September), Polish authorities citing security risks emanating from the joint Belarusian-Russian military exercises and, while those have now finished, Poland shows no sign of reopening amid escalating tension in the region.

Railfreight director at Polish Forwarding Company (PFC) Miłosz Witkowski said the closure would have “very negative consequences” for the three railfreight transshipment terminals affected by it, including Małaszewicze.

“It will also have very negative consequences for many companies involved in rail shipments from China to Europe and vice versa and will be felt not only in Poland but also by the rest of Europe, with 90% of all shipments to and from China pass through Małaszewicze,” he added.

One Chinese operator has provided several options for customers to help mitigate the impact of the border closure, including combined rail-sea transports between China and Europe and a shipping out of Russia to European gateways including Gdansk and Hamburg.

While that may help services yet to depart, Mr Witkowski noted the closure was leading to a build-up of containers on both sides of the border that would have a knock-on impact once the border was opened, with a source pointing out Poland had given no timescale on that.

Mr Witkowski said: “Rail can’t constantly stop or detour. Trains are constantly running and will be held up on sidings along various sections of the route. Trains will be stopped from Brest all the way to the China-Kazakh border. Wherever there’s a piece of free track.

“Once the crossing is unblocked, these trains will not be able to immediately continue their journey due to the next ones already on the route, and those ‘stopped’ will have to wait for a free window to proceed to Poland. Exports out of China are also siding, so expect delays.”

Some 3.7% of annual trade between China and Europe now moves by rail, with the route experiencing growth of more than 10% year on year in 2024, largely driven by surging ecommerce demand, that has seen total value jump 85% to surpass the €25bn mark.