Containers are lined up at Manzhouli port on February 9, 2023 Photo: Pang Yue/GT

On a cold Thursday at the Manzhouli port in North China's Inner Mongolia, the roar of trucks and excavators was constant. An endless stream of cargo trucks passed through the port and on the roadside, and long lines of trucks and excavators were waiting to be transported across the border to Russia. 

The busy scene at the largest land port between China and Russia captures the fast-rising bilateral trade, with cargo traffic through the port hitting a record in the first month of 2023. Amid surging Russian demand for Chinese goods ranging from vegetables to machinery and China's resumption of normal port operations, local cargo forwarders expect even busier times in the coming months. 

"The surge in exports to Russia [via Manzhouli] started in 2020 when other ports were closed and traffic was moved here, and the surge will continue. I feel that Russia's demand for Chinese products is getting bigger and bigger," Xiao Yanhao, who runs a freight forwarding company in Manzhouli, told the Global Times on Thursday. 

Xiao said that facing Western sanctions, Russia has become more reliant on alternative products from China, and that trend is especially vivid at the Manzhouli port. "There used to be lull seasons and peak seasons… but now it feels that there is always a lot of traffic," he said. 

The trend is reflected in official data. In January, cargo traffic through the Manzhouli border crossing reached record high, Russian news outlet Sputnik reported on Saturday, citing the Russian Consulate General in Harbin, Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. 

During the month, cargo volume on the cross-border railway between Manzhouli and Russia's Zabaikalsk surged by 82.9 percent year-on-year to around 1.5 million tons, the consulate general said, adding that bilateral trade is expected to keeping rising following China's grand reopening, according to Sputnik. 

In 2022, China's trade with Russia hit a record of 1.28 trillion yuan ($190 billion), increasing 34.3 percent year-on-year, according to Chinese customs data. China and Russia have set a goal of lifting bilateral trade to $200 billion annually by 2024, and they're on track to meet that goal. 

Freight forwarders in Manzhouli are confident that bilateral trade will grow rapidly, as Russian demand for Chinese goods continues to rise. 

"Their demand for products has become largely reliant on China, with Russian clients coming to find Chinese clients to buy a lot of products," Jiang Tao, who also runs a freight forwarding company in Manzhouli, told the Global Times on Thursday. 

Jiang said that Russian demand for Chinese components, daily necessities, construction equipment and trucks in particular saw a surge, as supplies from countries like Germany and Japan were hit by Western sanctions. 

Two workers check goods at a container yard in the Manzhouli port on February 9, 2023. Photo: Pang Yue/GT

Efforts by authorities at the port to ensure smooth operations amid the epidemic also played a major role in ensuring stable trade between China and Russia. Jiang said that cargo volume dropped during the initial stage of pandemic, but it has seen steady rise since last year. Only around 20 cargo trucks passed through the port during the early days of pandemic, but it has risen to about 200, according to Jiang.  

Xiao's company also saw a surge in the number of cargo trucks through Manzhouli, with the number hitting 2,000 in 2022, up about 500 from 2021. Each truck carries about 20 tons of goods, indicating the rapid rise in cargo volume, according to Xiao. 

Due to the combined impact of the international situation, economic stagnation and the virus, global sea and air transport fares surged, which boosted the role of Manzhouli as a major land port helping stabilize supply chains for neighboring countries along the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the local customs authority said in a statement sent to the Global Times on Thursday. 

The statement said that to bolster the port's important role, Manzhouli customs in 2022 took 20 measures to boost foreign trade, including improving port efficiency. 

Due to such efforts, Manzhouli has become a major port for exports of large construction machinery. In 2022, construction machinery exported via Manzhouli surged 220.4 percent year-on-year to more than 21,600 units, according to the statement. 

"Due to disrupted port operations caused by the pandemic, various departments made a lot of efforts, including coordination and extended work times. They are befitting of the biggest [land port]," Xiao said. 

With disruptions from COVID-19 having been eliminated and China-Russia bilateral trade continuing to surge, local authorities and businesses will continue to hear the nonstop roar of trucks and machinery, and watch the endless line of trucks in the foreseeable future.