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Editor | L.Y.
Preliminary
Late night on September 24, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk suddenly announced the reopening of border ports with Belarus, which meant that the Central European line, which was shut down by Poland and caused global logistics tension, could finally be restored.
According to the news, many European entrepreneurs have breathed, and the Chinese side has also simultaneously adjusted some freight arrangements.
But is it really so simple?
Poland unilaterally suspended the port’s rail freight transit in July to “prevent border security risks.” Data show that the port is a key node on the Central European Northern Line (China-Kazakhstan-Russia-Belarus-Poland-Germany), accounting for approximately 35% of the Northern Line freight transit.
During the shutdown, the Central European line had to circumvent the southern line (China - Central Asia - Turkey - Hungary) or the western line (China - Russia - Finland - Sweden), not only extended the one-way transport time from 12 days to 18-22 days, but the cost of circumventing each container also increased by approximately $ 1.2 million. China National Railway Group data showed that between 7 and 9 September, Uber line traffic fell by 19%, with the northern line volume reduced sharply by 42%, and a large number of cross-border orders involving car parts and electronic equipment were forced to delay delivery.
The German Automobile Industry Association wrote a letter to the Polish government in early September warning that the shutdown of the ports has caused parts shortages in German Volkswagen, BMW and other companies in Central and Eastern Europe, and parts of the production line were forced to cut production; the French Foreign Trade Bank estimated that if the shutdown continued until October, the European manufacturing industry would face direct losses of more than €2.8 billion.
Early in the morning of September 25, the first re-opened Central European ferry (Chengdu-Roz) entered Poland from the port of Kozlovich, with 41 containers on the train, with both Chinese-made laptop motherboards, as well as car gearbox parts that European companies are in great need. China Rail Containers Transport Limited synchronized the transportation plan and expects the opening volume of the Northern Central European ferry in October to be restored to 85% before the shutdown, gradually digesting the pre-stocked order of about 300 freight trains.
Poland's Additional Requirements
On the day after the China-Europe train resumed traffic, the Polish Ministry of Infrastructure sent a written letter to the Chinese railway department and the China-Europe train operating enterprises, putting forward three "new requirements", pushing the game from "whether to release" to "how to pass" new stage.
The first requirement focuses on “transport share distribution”, the letter proposes that future Central European ships transiting through Poland should prioritize allocating at least 25% of cargo classes to Polish domestic logistics enterprises, and the tariff standards for Polish enterprises involved in transport links (such as loading, short-haul shipping) must be approved by the Polish Transport Administration. Polish Infrastructure Minister Andrei Adamczyk explained in a subsequent press conference that this requirement is to “guarantee the reasonable rights and interests of Polish logistics enterprises”, but China-European shipping operators generally believe that compulsory allocations will break the market scheduling rules, which may lead to a decline in the use rate of the cabin.
The second requirement relates to the “safety inspection fee”, Poland proposed from October 1 to charge 200 euros per container in the European container in transit, the “additional security inspection fee” to be borne by Chinese operating enterprises. Polish customs data show that in 2024 through the port of China containers in the European container number reached 18.7 thousand, if charged according to this standard, new annual revenue of approximately 37.4 million euros. China responded that the two sides had previously agreed that the security inspection fee included in the conventional transit cost, new charges lack the basis of an agreement, could constitute trade barriers.
The third requirement points to "data sharing". Poland requires China-Europe freight train operators to provide a detailed list of each batch of goods (including owner information, commodity code, countries passing through, etc.), and must access the "cross-border freight data platform" of Polish customs. The Cross-border Logistics Professional Committee of the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing pointed out that such data involves corporate trade secrets, and it is necessary to negotiate the scope of data sharing on the premise of ensuring information security. The practice of directly requiring access to the platform is not in line with international freight data exchange practices.
Differences within Europe
Hungary, Slovakia and other Central and Eastern European countries have openly supported the “new demands” of Poland, Hungary’s Foreign Minister Seyardo said he “understood Poland’s demands to safeguard the interests of domestic enterprises” and suggested that it may be possible to push the EU level to formulate “unified Central and European transit rules”; these countries’ logistics companies hope to use Poland’s demands to gain more Central and European cooperation opportunities and break the current German and Dutch-dominated transit services pattern.
Germany, France and other Western European countries are opposed.The Federal Transport Minister of Germany, Volk Wiesen, said directly at the EU Transport Council on September 27, that Poland's additional requirements "could undermine the market-based operation of the Central European line, pushing up the cost of importation of European companies"; German Railways also expressed directly that if Poland enforced the distribution of class places requirements, it would consider adjusting the centralized route of the Central European line in Germany and reducing the transit through Poland.
The attitude at the EU level is relatively cautious. European Commission spokesperson Anna Cohen-Bendit said that she had taken note of Poland's request and would "promote the dialogue between China and Poland on the premise of respecting the sovereignty of member states and safeguarding the EU's unified market rules". However, the EU has not yet formed a unified position on the transit rules for China-Europe freight trains. The "EU Coordination Framework for China-Europe freight trains" proposed in 2024 is still in the draft stage due to large differences among member states.
China’s response
In the face of Poland's "new requirements", China adopts the dual strategy of "dialogue and consultation + channel backup". On September 28, China State Railway Group held a video meeting with the Polish Ministry of Infrastructure. The Chinese representative made it clear that he supported the negotiation of transit arrangements on the basis of equality and mutual benefit, but opposed "unilaterally attaching unreasonable conditions" and proposed the establishment of a "China-Poland China-Europe Train Transit Coordination Mechanism" to regularly communicate on issues such as space scheduling and cost standards.
At the same time, China has further accelerated the construction of multiple channels for China-Europe trains and reduced its dependence on a single channel. On the southern line, China cooperated with Kazakhstan and Turkey to upgrade the Almaty-Istanbul railway trunk line. In September, two fixed-point train lines were added, increasing the capacity of the southern line by 20%; On the western route, China signed the Memorandum of Cooperation on Arctic Railway Freight with Russia and Finland, and plans to open the "China-St. Petersburg-Helsinki" cold chain train in 2026, mainly transporting fresh food and medicine.
Long-term impact of logistics patterns
Poland's move of "asking after release" reflects the complex interweaving of "geopolitical and economic interests" in the development of China-Europe trains. In the short term, the resumption of trains has eased the urgent needs of European enterprises and created space for China-Poland negotiations; However, if Poland's "new requirements" are implemented, they may become a precedent for other Central and Eastern European countries to follow suit, increasing the transit cost and uncertainty of China-Europe trains.
The China Logistics and Procurement Federation’s 2025 China-European Line Development Report pointed out that the core challenges of the future China-European line have shifted from “channel construction” to “regulatory coordination”, and it is necessary to promote the establishment of multilateral negotiation mechanisms covering transit countries, operating enterprises, cargo owners, to clarify the rules framework for critical issues such as cost standards, cabin layout, data security.
conclusion
For Poland, the essence of its “new requirement” is to find a balance between security and economic interests – both to demonstrate sovereignty through border control and not to lose the logistics dividends brought by the Central European line. But the unilateral approach of additional conditions may instead weaken its competitiveness as the Central European logistics hub, after all, among the Central Eastern European countries, Hungary’s Budapest and Czech Prague are actively fighting for the share of the Central European line, and Poland excessively emphasizes its own demands, which may lead to the division of the line resources.
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