The Export-Import Bank of China (Cexim) has provided a loan for the export of Chinese trains to Belarus.

The ECA has contributed around US$99.3mn of the total US$116.9mn capital required to purchase 18 locomotives built by CNR Datong Electric Locomotive and supplied by China National Electric Import and Export. The delivery time is 21 months. The borrower is The Belarusian Railway, the national railway operator.

Cexim has also provided a US$68mn loan for the electrification of an 80km railway route between Zlobin and Gomel in Belarus, covering 85% of the total US$80mn project cost.

The loans were announced as Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko visited Beijing to try to develop trade links between the two countries.