According to Russian Railways, in January–September 2025, the volume of export rail shipments to China amounted to 28.6 million tons, which is almost the same as last year's result. Despite the stability of the overall indicator, the structure of cargo flows shows multidirectional trends in various directions.
The Zabaikalsk–Manchuria section traditionally remains the largest border crossing, through which 15.3 million tons of export cargo passed, which is 0.2% more than a year earlier. At the same time, the supply structure has changed: the volume of coal decreased by 21.7% to 4.4 million tons, iron ore – by 4% to 3.5 million tons. At the same time, there is an increase in a number of other areas — paper exports increased by more than 30%, and fertilizer supplies increased 2.5 times.
At the Grodekovo – Suifenhe crossing, the cargo volume amounted to 6.4 million tons (+1.7%). There has been an increase in coal shipments (+14.2%) and iron ore (1.7 times), but a sharp drop in timber shipments (-27%). The Nizhneleninskoye–Tongjiang section recorded an increase in volumes by 18.2%, to 4.8 million tons, including coal (+12.8%) and ore (+30.7%). In the Kamyshovaya–Hunchun direction, on the contrary, there is a decline of 32.9%, which is primarily due to a reduction in coal supplies (-39.3%). At the same time, exports of petroleum products increased almost fivefold.
In general, the share of coal in the total volume of railway exports to China is about 44%, or 12.6 million tons, which is 11.5% lower than last year. Thus, there is a gradual redistribution of the export structure: against the background of a decrease in coal supplies, the share of fertilizers, paper and petroleum products is growing.
The total volume of shipments in export-import traffic between Russia and China for the first nine months of 2025 amounted to 30.4 million tons, which is 1% less than in the same period of 2024. Experts note that as the market adapts to new logistics routes and technological constraints, such stability indicates the preservation of stable ties between the two countries.
Russia and China continue to be key partners in the field of railway trade, and despite fluctuations in certain categories of goods, the trend towards strengthening transport corridors between the countries remains.
