Trucks Are Filling a 6,000 Mile Beijing-to-Berlin Supply Gap

  • Berlin startup designed app to move freight during lockdown
  • InstaFreight has drawn investments from Shell, Rocket Internet

Trucks and semi-trailers wait in line on a highway leading into the city in Shanghai, April 24.

Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
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The race to revive trade between Asia’s largest economy and manufacturers in Europe has created a 6,000-mile shipping route involving hundreds of trucks.

The improvised convoys traversing the Eurasian Steppe -- winding through Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Russia before reaching Europe -- show how companies have been forced to adopt new measures to keep their businesses afloat during a time of pandemic.