this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2023
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Maybe not shipping, the size of those shipping barges is incomprehensible with the sheer amount of tonnage they can carry, and dealing with tariffs, taxes, border inspections, and crossing land borders is a whole hassle in and of itself that a lot of countries and companies won’t want to deal with.
Plus, North America, South America, Oceania, and massive economies such as Japan are still separated from the rest of the world and inaccessible to rail.
Fair, I don't expect shipping to go away entirely. It's worth noting though that you still have to get goods on and off the ship, which is done by land. So, the bottlenecks end up being in moving things to and from the port, hence why we tend to see big economic centres close to the ports with a fall off as you get fruther from the port. On the other hand, trains have the potential to connect a lot of areas that aren't close to the water, and kick start economic development in places where it wasn't cost effective previously.
And of course, in the context of US trying to contain China, it makes a lot of sense for China to focus on creating economic routes through land where US can't interfere with them.