But i wonder: could those prices, with more/better trains etc, become close to sea shipping, such that aliexpress, which is extremely cheap but uses very slow sea shipping, start using rail ?
Because at those timelines, even if using a local fulfillment center, the storage period is very short, so the cost becomes quite low, and without lots of trouble, suddenly aliexpress can offer much cheaper goods than Amazon, all across Europe, with fast shipping. Heck, they may not even need to build warehouses, using uber like warehouse model(i.e. flexe).
Absolutely! China's labor costs are not the cheapest anymore, but their tight infrastructure saves more than enough money to keep over-all production costs extremely competitive. This is simply a continuation of their economic strategy.
However, I doubt Europe will let Aliexpress dominate... China will be required to let other companies purchase and ship out of China as well.
But I suspect China will find a way.Maybe it would just be as simple as cheaper costs in the Asian part. Maybe it will be nudging Chinese companies to be "patriotic" now that it doesn't cost them more. If there's a will, there's a way.
This depends on the destination country. Recently the dutch postal service has entered some sort of agreement with aliexpress, all my stuff is here within a week nowadays.
The five main projects of the Belt and Road Initiative http://multimedia.scmp.com/news/china/article/One-Belt-One-R...
"The Chinese government had hoped to assemble a weightier guest list to Mr Xi’s premier international forum, which is occurring just months before he formally begins a second five-year term in office. But many heads of state and government, especially from G7 and OECD nations, were reluctant to participate in what they thought might be little more than a propaganda coup for China’s ruling Communist party.
Only seven EU heads of state or government, most from smaller eastern European countries, accepted Mr Xi’s invitation, while Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta will be the only top-level African VIP."
https://www.ft.com/content/f89060ac-36c7-11e7-bce4-9023f8c0f...
Not sure what they do about loading gauge. The UK has many limited loading gauge lines, due to old tunnels and bridges. No way will a double stack container train fit in the UK. Here's a brief world loading gauge summary.[1] The leftmost outline is the general UK limit; some lines have more clearance, especially the ones that connect to Eurotunnel. The next one is the general EU limit, small by world standards. Note the round top. AAR Plate B is the basic US limit; any Plate B boxcar can go on any US mainline track. 95% of US track accepts AAR Plate C, the "hi-cube" boxcar. AAR Plate H, 20' 3" high [2] is for double-stack container cars. Union Pacific and BNSF have upgraded to that level.
China and Russia go in for big loading gauges like the US, being big countries with long distances to cross. Watch for China lobbying the EU to upgrade for heavier freight.
[1] http://emdx.org/rail/Gabarit/ComparaisonGabaritsEuropenEtAAR... [2] http://www.icrr.net/plates.htm
Aeh, when was the last time you looked at a world map? You realize that the trains all have to go through Russia?
Soon, of course, heavier rails, longer trains, faster trains, more trains, better gradients, more electrification, alternate routes... China is funding high speed rail from Belgrade to Budapest. Now that's an infrastructure scheme.
[1] http://www.bbc.com/news/business-38654176