Two years ago, the first freight train from Chinese Jinan left for Belgrade, which established the first railway cargo line between Serbia and China. The train brought equipment used by Chinese companies to build a high-speed railway from Belgrade to Budapest, and in 2020, another train brought medical aid to combat the pandemic.
The general director of the railway company Serbia Cargo, Dusan Garibovic, believes that the perspective of that type of transport of goods from China to Serbia is certain and that the number of trains will increase.
“Those two trains, which were dedicated, they actually say that the railway traffic from China to Serbia or some other destinations in Western or Central Europe will be more frequent and bigger and one day become regular.”
As the main incentive for the cargo connection with the railway of Serbia and China, which, as he said, used to be in the domain of science fiction, Garibovic states the project “Belt and Road”. And the current focus of cooperation in that area is with large Chinese companies that are already working in Serbia.
“At this moment, in addition to these direct trains, where we have just started (to run) and which will certainly become regular in the near future, we regularly transport 2,250,000 tons of goods to HBIS Smederevo, the Chinese company that bought our ironworks. During this year, we will transport about 700,000 tons of copper ore that goes from Bor to the port of Bar for Zijin Copper,” Garibovic pointed out.
Serbia Cargo has excellent cooperation with the Chinese company Cosco Shipping.
“Last year, we transported 1,328 container trains from the port of Piraeus to Serbia or further to Central and Western Europe, which is an increase of six times compared to 2014, when these container trains started coming from the port of Piraeus, ie when the Chinese company Cosco Shipping bought 51% of the shares in the port of Piraeus,” added Garibovic.
He also reminded that in 2020, 878,000 containers were transported by rail from China to Central and Western Europe, as well as the International Railway Organization’s estimate that by 2025, 75 percent of goods will be transported by rail and rivers, ie that the perspective of transporting goods in intermodal transport, Beta reports.
