Key Findings
CPMM road and rail transport data for 2022 showed the following year-on-year changes from 2021 in the PRC:
- Both border-crossing duration and costs decreased substantially due to the easing of additional inspection and sanitation control measures.
- Road border-crossing time dropped from 23.3 hours in 2021 to 20.7 hours in 2022, and the cost was down to $638 from $1,219.
- Total road transport cost fell from $3,979 to $3,445.
- SWOD rose from 78.8 km/h to 83.5 km/h, and SWD from 22.3 km/h to 26.1 km/h.
- The time taken to cross borders by rail dropped significantly from 83.8 hours to 35.9 hours. The cost was down from $137 to $120.
- Total rail transport cost decreased from $896 to $771.
- Rail SWOD increased from 64.5 km/h to 82.3 km/h, but SWD slipped from 14.6 km/h to 13.4 km/h.
- For road transport, the Alashankou and Horgos BCPs showed a divergent pattern of border-crossing times. At Alashankou, it increased from 61.7 hours in 2021 to 81.3 hours in 2022; at Horgos, it dropped to 23.5 hours from 77.5 hours. Border-crossing cost at Horgos, the largest BCP in CAREC by truck crossings, fell from $5,809 in 2021 to $1,861.
- Both PRC BCPs registered a significant drop in rail border-crossing time. It was down from 80.2 hours to 30.5 hours at Alashankou, and from 58.7 hours to 34.8 hours at Horgos.
Table 3.3: Trade Facilitation Indicators for the People’s Republic of China,
2020–2022
| Road Transport | Rail Transport | ||||||||
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | ||||
| TFI 1 | Time taken to clear a border-crossing point (hour) | 7.1 | 23.3 | 20.7 | 18.3 | 83.8 | 35.4 | ||
| Outbound | 9.5 | 27.8 | 20.8 | 18.7 | 64.7 | 33.9 | |||
| Inbound | 1.5 | 2.3 | 0.3 | 17.5 | 149.6 | 53.7 | |||
| TFI 2 | Cost incurred at border-crossing clearance ($) | 424 | 1,219 | 638 | 115 | 137 | 120 | ||
| Outbound | 544 | 1,413 | 638 | 24 | 28 | 53 | |||
| Inbound | 157 | 170 | – | 150 | 266 | 130 | |||
| TFI 3 | Cost incurred to travel a corridor section ($, per 500km, per 20-ton cargo) | 1,710 | 3,979 | 3,445 | 678 | 896 | 763 | ||
| TFI 4 | Speed to travel on CAREC Corridors (km/h) | 47.2 | 22.3 | 26.1 | 16.8 | 14.6 | 13.5 | ||
| SWOD | Speed without Delay (km/h) | 82.0 | 78.8 | 83.5 | 62.5 | 64.5 | 82.4 | ||
km = kilometer, km/h = kilometers per hour, SWOD = speed without delay, TFI = trade facilitation indicator.
Source: Asian Development Bank.
Table 3.4: Border-Crossing Performance in the People’s Republic of China
2020–2022
| BCP, Corridor and Direction of Trade | Duration, hours | Cost, $ | ||||||||
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |||||
| Road Transport | ||||||||||
| Alashankou | (1, 2) | Outbound | 18.6 | 61.7 | 81.3 | 590 | 610 | 638 | ||
| Inbound | – | – | – | – | – | – | ||||
| Takeshikent | (4) | Outbound | 31.8 | 9.9 | 21.4 | 671 | 842 | 1,300 | ||
| Inbound | 4.9 | 5.4 | – | 221 | 221 | – | ||||
| Erenhot | (4) | Outbound | 6.4 | 6.0 | 2.9 | 117 | 54 | 17 | ||
| Inbound | – | – | – | – | – | – | ||||
| Horgos | (1) | Outbound | 16.4 | 77.5 | 23.5 | 1,658 | 5,809 | 1,861 | ||
| Inbound | 4.3 | – | – | 174 | – | – | ||||
| Torugart | (1) | Outbound | 2.1 | 4.2 | 8.3 | – | 6 | 218 | ||
| Inbound | – | – | – | – | – | – | ||||
| Karasu | (0) | Outbound | 2.8 | 10.5 | 42.7 | 51 | 156 | 171 | ||
| Inbound | – | – | – | – | – | – | ||||
| Rail Transport | ||||||||||
| Alashankou | (1, 2) | Outbound | 26.9 | 80.2 | 30.5 | 6 | 8 | 0 | ||
| Inbound | – | – | – | – | – | – | ||||
| Erenhot | (4) | Outbound | 15.0 | 36.2 | 44.4 | – | 18 | – | ||
| Inbound | 7.4 | 184.5 | 54.9 | 125 | 288 | 124 | ||||
| Horgos | (1) | Outbound | 12.7 | 58.7 | 34.8 | 13 | 15 | 2 | ||
BCP = border-crossing point.
Source: Asian Development Bank.
Trends and Developments
Strict COVID-19 Controls Eased in 2022
The PRC had stricter COVID-19 border controls than its neighbors throughout 2020 and 2021. During 2022, as the lethality and spread of the virus diminished and the economic impact of stringent border control measures became apparent, the government gradually eased these control. This culminated in a full reopening of its borders in early January 2023. The general improvements in the PRC’s TFI data resulted from this series of relaxation measures.
The PRC’s control processes on its border with Kazakhstan were simplified through several steps over the year:
- Starting in March 2022, the cumbersome PRC requirement that its export goods bound for Kazakhstan and beyond be placed on pallets, shrink-wrapped, loaded into special trucks on the PRC side of border crossings, and shuttled to a neutral zone for piece-by-piece transloading onto Kazakhstan trucks was eliminated. Under the new system, PRC trucks picked up an empty trailer left by a Kazakhstan truck in a neutral zone, brought it to the PRC customs-supervised warehouse for loading, and returned it to the neutral zone, where it was picked up by a Kazakhstan truck to complete the border crossing at Nur Zholy and continue toward its destination. This reduced both border-crossing times and costs.
- The Dulata border crossing south of the Horgos was reopened in the second half of 2022, which diverted some cross-border traffic from the Horgos BCP and lightened congestion there.
- From July onward, Kazakhstan trucks were permitted to go directly to the PRC’s customs-supervised warehouse in Horgos to pick up cargo. This eliminated the previous costly requirement that shuttle trucks be used to ferry outbound truck loads between Horgos and Nur Zholy.
The PRC’s Takeshikent BCP across from Yarant on its border with Mongolia, which opened only occasionally for special situations in 2021, was operational on most days in 2022. Beginning in March 2022, the PRC allowed Mongolia’s carriers to spot an empty trailer in the neutral zone for pick-up by a PRC truck and delivery to the border industrial park for disinfection. After a 24-hour quarantine, the trailer would be moved to the PRC customs warehouse for loading and its return to the neutral zone. Mongolia’s carriers would then take the loaded trailer to Yarant for inspection and clearance.
The sharp upward trend in the number of PRC express container trains and container units destined for Europe (including those terminating in Moscow) moderated somewhat in 2022 after 11 years of rapid growth. This followed a year-on-year high of 22% in train numbers and 29% twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2021. According to figures released by the China National Railway Group Work Conference on 1 March 2023, there were 16,000 trips during 2022 (up 9% from 2021)[1] and 1.6 million TEUs delivered (a 10% increase).
The slowdown in growth can be attributed to two main factors: the cargo diversion to alternative routes as a result of international sanctions brought on by the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine, and a precipitous drop in r ocean shipment rates from the PRC to Europe.
The volume statistics below illustrate the effects of these major factors. They compare the 2022 data with the 2021 figures on the container volumes carried by Joint Stock Company United Transport and Logistics Company—Eurasian Rail Alliance (JSC UTLC ERA)[2] a, a transit container service operator for block trains running between the PRC and European Union (EU) countries along the sanctioned Northern Corridor across Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation, and Belarus:
- 64,404 TEUs from the PRC to Germany, down 55.16% from 2021;
- 107,300 TEUs from Germany to the PRC, down 21.82%;
- 178,520 TEUs from the PRC to Poland, down 13.41%;
- 17,216 TEUs from Poland to the PRC, down 61.19%;
- 7,896 TEUs from the PRC to the Netherlands, a sharp 70.88% drop; and
- 6,788 TEUs from the Netherlands to the PRC, down 41.54%.
[1] The 1.6 million TEUs reported by China National Railway represents the PRC’s outbound cargo alone and thus does not encompass all Europe–PRC traffic. The numbers include trains handled by China Railways via the PRC’s BCPs with Mongolia at Erenhot, with the Russian Federation at Manzhouli, and with Kazakhstan at Alashankou and Horgos. Source: 2022年中欧班列开行1.6万列 (gmw.cn) Guangming Daily News.
[2] JSC UTLC ERA is owned by Kazakhstan Temir Joly , Russian Railway, and Belarussian Railway. Each has a one third interest.
Recommendations
Review the deteriorating performance at Takeshikent BCP. Border-crossing time and cost increased at the Takeshikent in 2022, while they generally declined at other PRC BCPs. Further simplifying the processes there in 2023 would improve this crossing’s CPMM performance.
Address congestion issues at Erenhot. Erenhot was the most time-consuming of the PRC’s BCPs for outbound rail traffic. It took an average of 44.4 hours in 2022 for trains to cross through Erenhot from the PRC into Mongolia at Zamiin-Uud. This was due to restrictions on rail movements created by congestion at Erenhot and Zamiin Uud due to its handling capacity of the BCP pair. Upgrade of physical infrastructure and more effective cross-border coordination on freight movement will enhance cargo throughput.
Ensure wagon availability.Inbound rail crossing times also remained high at Erenhot, averaging 54.9 hours in 2022. A wagon shortage was among the main reasons. Gauge change transfer took only 3 hours on average, but long waits for available PRC wagons account for most of the cross border delays.