Tri-state area of the east
China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative is also extending into the east of the country. A new inland port started operations in Hunchun recently that will focus on goods coming in from Russian ports by rail.
Hunchun has around 250,000 inhabitants – which makes it little more than a large village in the Chinese context. The northern Chinese town is nevertheless developing into quite a logistics hub, notwithstanding its population figures. One of the key factors supporting this process is the city’s location in the North Korean / Russian / Chinese tri-state area around Hunchun (China), and the investments being made in the region’s logistics infrastructure.
An inland hub called the Hunchun International Port started operations in August. The gateway, built at a cost of USD 141 million, is expected to become the key logistics hub in northeastern Asia.
Linking up with other ports
The new facility borders on an existing railfreight station in the city, and covers around 850,000 sqm. There are ten more similar inland ports close by, across the borders in Russia and North Korea. Various authorities, including customs, inspectorate and quarantine bodies, will operate from Hunchun International Port. The range of services in the centre has been designed to simplify goods handling. Connections to and from the Russian maritime ports nearby are particularly important. Posyet is a mere 42 km away; Zarubino is just 71 km distant.
A so-called ‘seafood train’, which will now be handled in the new logistics facility, is set to be amongst the regular links connecting Zarubino and Hunchun. Every train running in the new rail service will bring approximately 200 t of fish and seafood from Russian waters to China. These goods reached Hunchun by road so far, causing something of a seafood boom in the city over the past few year. The volume of produce traded was worth approximately USD 320 billion last year; the processing industry generated sales worth approximately USD 1.25 billion.
Going digital in Vladivostok
Steps to modernise the infrastructure have been given a boost on the Russian side too of late. A container train with goods from Japan destined for Moscow was processed exclusively with electronic documents in the port of Vladivostok recently, enabling quicker handling by four days. The new service is targeted explicitly at consignments from abroad; it is expected to simplify handling processes in the Pacific Ocean port and increase shipment reliability.
