In the first four months of 2026, China-Russia trade volume reached US$85.2 billion, a year-on-year increase of 19.7%, and is expected to reach US$240 billion for the whole year.
The president of the China Industrial Overseas Development Association predicts that if this growth rate is maintained, the trade volume between China and Russia will exceed US$300 billion in the future.
At the same time, the scale of cross-border e-commerce is expected to exceed US$40 billion, and “three new” products such as automobiles and electronic equipment are selling well in the Russian market.
The mutual visa exemption policy between China and Russia has been implemented, the RMB settlement ratio exceeds 99%, and the policy and financial dividends are released together.
However, foreign trade companies face many pain points in the export process.
The timeliness of China-Europe freight trains is unstable. In February 2026, the port smoothness is low. Alashankou is congested, reloading is slow, and customs clearance backlogs occur from time to time. Different gauge systems cause reloading to be time-consuming and affected by weather and equipment. The core hub in Poland is severely congested, affecting the inventory turnover and payment collection cycle of enterprises.
Sea transportation is slow, taking 30 to 40 days from a Chinese port to Moscow. The turmoil in the Middle East has increased bulk freight rates, narrowing the freight advantage and squeezing corporate profits.
Border congestion also causes high time costs for enterprises. The waiting time for some freight vehicles at the Manzhouli land port to pass customs is as long as 8 to 12 hours, which exceeds the design capacity of the highway port by about 30%.
In this case, TIR international road transportation deserves attention as the rising “fourth logistics channel”.
TIR is a cross-border freight customs clearance system established in accordance with the United Nations Convention on International Transport by Road. The 78 contracting countries cover almost all major areas along the “Belt and Road”.
Vehicles holding TIR certificates can declare once, get one certificate to the end, and drive directly with one vehicle. There is no need to change vehicles, reverse equipment, or repeat inspections along the way.
Changchun Xinglong Comprehensive Bonded Zone’s TIR inbound and outbound business value reached 337 million yuan from January to April 2026, and the transportation scale accounted for 22% of the national total; in the first seven months of 2025, Qingdao Hedong Demonstration Zone’s TIR vehicle shipments increased by 134.3% year-on-year, and the value of goods increased by 190.5% year-on-year, and the transportation categories continued to increase.
The reason why TIR has become the new favorite of foreign trade export companies is that it finds a precise balance between timeliness and cost.
Compared with sea transportation, the timeliness is increased by about 40%, and the whole journey from major cities in China to Moscow takes about 8 to 15 days; compared with air transportation, transportation costs are saved by about 75%; compared with traditional road transportation, comprehensive logistics costs are reduced by about 20%.
More and more export companies are using TIR.
There are successful cases of TIR transportation in the fields of automobiles, consumer goods, industrial products, agriculture and cold chain.
Customs policies continue to be optimized, and cross-border e-commerce commodities and bonded goods have been included in the TIR transportation mode, which has improved the level of cross-border road transportation facilitation.
More than 99% of bilateral trade between China and Russia has been settled in local currency, and the RMB clearing time has been shortened.
However, companies also need to be alert to the problem of profit repatriation and plan the profit return path in advance.
China-Russia trade has broad prospects, but logistics is the key.
TIR international road transport is not suitable for all enterprises. For high-value, high-time-sensitive products, cold-transport temperature-sensitive goods, urgent goods that require direct “door-to-door” transportation, and transportation to destinations along the China-Kyrgyzstan-Wuhan Corridor and other southern corridors, TIR deserves special consideration.
More and more companies use TIR as a “supplementary option” for logistics to cope with market fluctuations and protect profits.
