Road and rail volumes from China to Russia and western Europe will continue to grow in the coming years, according to Ambrose Linn, head of road and multimodal freight in the North Asia-Pacific region at DHL Global Forwarding.

Mr Linn said that while Europe's overland market was largely mature, high growth rates in China, on intra-Asia routes and between Asia and Europe could be expected in 2011 and beyond.

"Customers of all sizes are becoming more receptive to switching parts of their less time-critical shipments from air freight to trucking," he said.

"In China considerable finished goods and merchandise are being conveyed point-to-point across China by road.

"Significant enhancement of road and rail infrastructure has resulted in continuous growth in demand for trucking."

Overland exports from China to Mongolia, Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States had seen average growth of 20 per cent year-on-year in recent years and this would continue, he said.

"I also envisage ample opportunities in the coming years for cross-border trucking between China and Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore," he added.

"Both large and mid-sized companies are constantly looking for commercially viable and environmentally friendly transport alternatives to traditional single air or ocean freight modes to gain measurable cost savings, sustainable logistics and comparable transit time performance," said Mr Linn.

Source: Shipping Gazette