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The New Silk Road is strongly related to China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative. This is a broad initiative including rail and maritime connections between China and Europe and a related investment portfolio in logistics infrastructure, such as investment in seaports and in warehousing. In this paper we present the New Silk Road and compare this initiative with the container landbridge initiatives of the 1980s. We indicate how the New Silk Road can be compared to alternative routes like deep-sea, air-cargo and innovative solutions like unmanned cargo aircrafts. In addition we relate the New Silk Road with scenario’s related to re-export and broader investment schemes. Also the impact on port volumes will be discussed. The paper concludes with the impact on possible structural disruptions in the North-West European port system.

This paper is available only in the English version.

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