CHINESE TRANSPORT INITIATIVES AND EASTERN BALTIC PORTS EXPECTATIONS

摘要

World economic crises, anti-Russian sanctions and counter sanctions destabilized handled cargo volumes in the Eastern Baltic ports. Seeking new cargo resources became an important problem for the port authorities. Asian direction, Chinese in particular, attract an attention of official institutes and business entities that are involved in transportation activities. Chinese-European traffic can be implemented differently: via railway, marine, avia infrastructure. Commodities owners - primary beneficiaries of transport networks - choose routes and logistical technologies to provide shortest, cheapest and fastest delivery of goods. Spatial development and logistics theories demonstrate simple and easy mechanisms of cargo routing traffic. The statistical data analysis permits us to issue the main hypothesis concerning the idea that in spite of the fact that Russia still occupies essential role in East-West transport traffic, one could observe the following phenomena: Baltic states substitute the former Soviet into Chinese traffic and trade flows. The goal of this paper is to identify major motives and triggers of Asian-European cargo traffic planning. To reach the goal we observe the following objectives: compare and analyze international trade flows between different countries (Baltic, Nordic, Russia, Kazakhstan) under consideration, summarize Eastern Baltic Port Authorities (Gdansk, Klaipeda, Riga) features, evaluate the political factor influence on trade and transport sector activities.