Problems in Eurasian Container Supply Chains

Transportation of goods exchanged between China and Europe is performed mainly in containers. Due to economic reasons, most of the containers are transported by maritime corridors. Within the frame of the Chinese initiative One Belt One Road (OBOR), often referred to as the New Silk Road (NSR), substantial investments are made to develop rail connections between China and Europe. In this paper, major challenges in container transportation on the route China-Europe on strategic, tactical and operational level are analysed. Among others they include infrastructure design, location problems, container handling, allocation of resources, service network design, routing and scheduling as well as adjustments deriving from dynamic changes in environment. The main focus is on empty container repositioning problem.