The partnership will see nine countries added to Kerry Logistics’ global network. They include Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Ukraine. Leveraging the booming trade between China and Europe, Kazakhstan, in particular, is expected to benefit most from the increasing transit cargo flow along the trade lanes.
William Ma, Group Managing Director of Kerry Logistics, said, “We are very excited about this joint venture, which is part of our development strategy to tap into the immense opportunities from the Belt and Road Initiative. The new partnership will allow the two groups to leverage each other’s competitive strengths and provide new options and cost-efficient multimodal solutions to our customers with greater flexibility and access to the strongest network in Asia.”
“While we will continue to develop an overland transportation network for road, rail and multimodal freight services from China to Central Asia and Europe, we will also build upon our expertise in project logistics within our global network to exploit new business opportunities,” added William Ma.
The move came at the heels of Kerry Logistics’ launch of its rail freight operations between China and Europe. The Group was the market pioneer to complete the first westbound charter freight from Yiwu, Eastern China to Madrid, Spain in August 2016; while the first UK-China eastbound freight train from London to Yiwu commenced its journey in April 2017.
