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Covid-19 breathes new life into struggling China-Europe rail freight, but will the virus crisis have a lasting effect?
Reaction to the flu pandemic, with virtual shutdowns of traditional modes of economic operation, has forced changes in old methods that that stand to be portals of discovery, even inspiration in years to come.
For instance, the cancellations of sailings from Chinese ports to western harbours worldwide, plus the grounding of passenger aircraft that carry 70 per cent of air cargo globally, has given a boost to still uneconomic and highly subsidised rail freight between China and Europe.
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Dealing with problems of the China trade that lay dormant for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic crisis
Once the coronavirus crisis is firmly behind us, conflicts that have been held in abeyance for the duration will emerge in the here and now and have to be faced again.
Approaches taken to these questions in weeks to come will determine the outcome of matters that loomed so large before the pandemic struck, and upon which, hinges the fate of the China trade the foreseeable future.
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Looking at Belt and Road in the Caucuses - and the promise it holds for the Caspian Sea's role in the China-Europe trade
One of the least contentious aspects of China's Belt and Road Initiative, which invokes the spirit of Marco Polo's trade route to the West, is the Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia (TRACECA) and its help in developing of the Port of Baku, the principal harbour of Azerbaijan (pop 10 million) on the southern west coast of the Caspian Sea.
While other Belt and Road projects are fraught with political intrigue and suspicions of ulterior motives on the part of Chinese funding agents, there is not much wrongdoing suspected in the Port of Baku.
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Vested interests in supply chains tend to resist growth of technology, which is best hope for most of us everywhere
The larger the commercial entity, the more powerful are the vested interests to protect the status quo, or at least protect their interests within that economic sector.
One classic example are the longshore unions of America and to a lesser extent everywhere else that have choke hold on the markets they ostensibly serve, but in reality master by having physical control over the flow of the goods crossing the docks they rule.
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