Russia anticipates that its trade volume with China will surpass $200 billion in 2023, a notable increase from $185 billion in 2022, according to a recent survey.

According to a report published by Container xChange September 28, entitled “Russia-China Trade Dynamics in a Post-War Era: Navigating Challenges and Opportunities,” trade between China and Russia grew substantially during the first seven months of 2023 to $134.1 billion, a 26.5% increase compared to 2022.

Chinese exports to Russia increased by 73.4%, topping out at $62.54 billion. Meanwhile, China’s imports from Russia also grew to $71.6 billion, an increase of 15.1%.

“There is significant cargo movement from China into Russia but very scarce movement back to China from Russia. Containers are piling up in Russia which means that the secondhand container prices are very low in Russia. You see a 40-foot-high cube container being on sale in Moscow for less than $1,000, while in other parts of the world, it is almost double or even more. This is significant and has a tremendously detrimental impact on the business of container logistics because of the high imbalance of demand and supply of containers,” said Christian Roeloffs, co-founder and CEO of Container xChange.

Russia's trade imbalance has hurt the country, which currently has a surplus of 150,000 stranded TEU.