New transport route set to revive ancient Silk Road, promote exchanges among BRI partners

The opening of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR) will revive the historical prosperity of the ancient Silk Road by fostering economic, trade, and people-to-people exchanges among China, Kazakhstan, and other Belt and Road partner countries, personnel involved in the TITR project said on Wednesday.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Kazakh counterpart Kassym-Jomart Tokayev jointly attended an official opening ceremony of the transport route in the Kazakhstan's capital Astana on Wednesday, with the two leaders watching via video link as the route was put into operation.

The ceremony marked the first official crossing of Chinese freight from the Kazakh ports of Kuryk and Aktau along the Caspian Sea section of the TITR, which is also known as the 'Middle Corridor', with the two presidents giving the order for a convoy consisting of 26 freight trucks and 110 containers to be shipped across the Caspian Sea.

The route's opening marks the establishment of a new transport corridor linking Asia with Europe via the Caspian Sea. It also represents the first-ever connection between China and Europe through a Trans-Caspian road transport route, enabling Chinese trucks to transit through Kazakhstan and reach Europe for the first time.

This provides a new avenue and injects fresh momentum into China-Europe international logistics, significantly bolstering economic and trade cooperation among China, Kazakhstan, and other countries along the Belt and Road, and delivering more high-quality cooperation.

Wednesday's official opening brought immense excitement to both Chinese and Kazakh personnel involved in the project. They believe that the route will greatly boost economic and trade cooperation between the two countries, while also fostering economic, trade, and people-to-people exchanges among China and Kazakhstan, and to other countries located along the transport corridor.

Many also anticipate the project will help to revive the roaring success of the ancient Silk Road, one of the great historical trading routes which spanned across Eurasia to China for many centuries.

"During the visit of the Kazakh President to [northwest China's] Xi'an in 2023, the two countries signed an inter-governmental agreement involving road transportation. The agreement grants Kazakh carriers direct access to large Chinese freight enterprises and major cities, enabling door-to-door pickup and delivery services. Following the signing of this agreement, China is capable of transporting goods across the territory of Kazakhstan. Today, we stand as witnesses to the outcomes of this collaborative agreement. It can be said that we are reviving the prosperity of the ancient Silk Road," said Ali Altai, chairman of the Committee for Road Transport and Transport Control of the Ministry of Transport of Kazakhstan.

Now that the route is formally up and running, project leaders are now aiming to significantly expand the total volume of freight passing through Kazakhstan's Caspian Sea ports. "Moving forward, we will work with our counterparts from China's Ministry of Transport to annually verify the container quantity within the framework of the signed agreement. We will coordinate the overall cooperative mechanisms and future transport routes. At present, Aktau Port has a capacity of 110,000 containers, and our plan is to raise it to 300,000 containers by 2025," said Kirimbayev, director of Coastal Port Authority of Kazakhstan.

"The rise in cargo volume not only brings profits and creates job opportunities for the port itself but also elevates the importance of Kazakhstan as a vital transportation hub in the Eurasian continent. We will closely collaborate with our Chinese counterparts," said Amir Atambayev, chief engineer of Aktau Port.

"The opening of this route is believed to significantly enhance economic, trade and people-to-people exchanges among China, Kazakhstan, and other countries along the Belt and Road. Going forward, we will implement comprehensive measures to ensure the continuous and stable operation of this route, particularly for the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route connecting China and Kazakhstan, as well as China and Europe. This will guarantee the stability of the industrial and supply chains between China and Europe," said Cai Tuanjie, director of Transport Service Department from China's Ministry of Transport.

New transport route set to revive ancient Silk Road, promote exchanges among BRI partners

Chinese stock markets dropped on Monday, as AI and tech stocks continued to see-saw, according to China Global Television Network (CGTN) market analyst Timothy Pope.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closed down 0.59 percent at 3,882.01 points, with the Shenzhen Component Index, which has more exposure to the tech sector, closing 2.13 percent lower at 13,794.29 points.

Trading volumes on the two indices rose with around 2.01 trillion yuan (about 296.28 billion U.S. dollars) traded on Monday, up from 1.88 trillion yuan (about 280 billion U.S. dollars) last Friday.

Traditional sectors such as precious metals, coal mining, and insurance led the gains, while bio-tech stocks were among the top decliners.

The ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, lost 3.21 percent to close at 3,431.89 points on Monday.

The STAR Composite Index, which tracks the performance of stocks on China's sci-tech innovation board, closed 3.10 percent lower on Monday at 1,896.16 points.

"The A-share markets seem locked in this cycle of rally and rout for those growth stocks, particularly in the AI and adjacent sectors. Today was very much on the rout side so, while the Shanghai Composite Index was down 0.6 percent, we saw the Shenzhen Component down more than 2 percent, the ChiNext board was down 3.2 percent and the STAR 50 down 3.1 percent. Those last three are more exposed to the tech rally than the Shanghai Composite. The big losers as I said were AI hardware companies - Shenzhen Gongjin Electronics was down 10 percent, Zhongji Innolight fell more than 7 percent. But they weren't alone because the other big winning sector of the last few weeks - biotech - was in retreat today as well. Investors were rotating into gold and coal stocks as well, and agricultural stocks extended the food security trade rally that we saw at the end of last week. There were a number of stocks across those sectors, all of those were hitting the upper limits of trade today," said Pope.

Pope said the rest of the week will be dominated by earnings reports from some of China’s biggest companies.

"The rest of the week is going to be mostly about earnings. The end-of-August filing deadline is fast approaching. Friday will be a really big day on the earnings calendar. We've got BYD, PetroChina, Shenhua Energy and a lot of big banks as well. Earnings that we are going to see for ICBC, China Merchants Bank and others will give us an insight into how much pressure the big banks are under with their margins. BYD is also going to be an interesting one in light of the government's anti-involution campaign and its efforts to avert a bit of a race to the bottom in the EV sector. And before we get there, there are Nvidia results in the US on Wednesday which will doubtless impact every stock in the AI space," he said.

Chinese stock markets start week lower on AI volatility: analyst