News / Railfreight boxes in Russian Customs logjam being returned to China

© Christopher Rawlins

Rail containers from China en route to Europe but held up in Russia, some for months, are being returned to their point of origin, The Loadstar understands.

In October, the Putin administration issued a directive broadening restrictions on goods with a potentially dual use – ie, civil and military – which had immediate and significant repercussions for containers on trains from China bound for Europe via Russia.

Last month, Alice Arduini, CEO of Italy-based freight forwarder Alix International, told The Loadstar the Russian authorities appeared to be checking every container, leading to a backlog of hundreds of boxes waiting to be processed.

“We have one shipment that has been stuck there since 4 November, having left China on 22 October. At the time, nobody was expecting Russia to stop all trains [to inspect goods],” she said at the time.

Speaking to The Loadstar this week, she said the situation had worsened, with the Russian authorities now making inspections of containers that had already been given the go-ahead to depart, as the range of ‘non-compliant’ commodities has been widened to include machinery, electronics and camouflage clothing.

“They found one shipment in a container groupage and ordered the entire box to be returned to China. I also received word that 100 containers were being returned,” Arduni explained.

“We are waiting for some information on the transit time of boxes back to China, in order to understand if we will be able to have the goods shipped on to Italy by air,” she added.

Yang Jie, head of Eurasian Railway International Freight Forwarding (Shanghai) told social media the directive gave Russian Customs significant authority to detain goods they suspect might have military or dual-use applications.

“Inspections can occur at any station, meaning goods that clear the border may still face delays or detention deeper into Russian territory.”

Meanwhile, Liu Zan, general manager of Bangdatong Logistics (Hunan), told China’s Caixin news outlet that the container of one client that had shipped clothing for Christmas was still being held. About 70 of Bangdatong’s containers have been affected so far.

Once a container has been stopped for checks, its Chinese forwarder must provide documentation, which is passed through foreign agents to Russian Customs. It then inspects the shipment, which is either returned, confiscated, or allowed to continue under a guarantee proving the goods are for civilian use.

The same report quoted another logistics professional who estimated that nearly 100 containers from their company had been detained, with more than 1,000 containers affected overall.

Smolensk – a key transit hub near Russia’s border with Belarus –  is said to be congested with a backlog of containers.

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