GERMANY's Port of Duisburg is teaming up with Cosco Shipping Logistics to build Europe's largest inland container terminal, as it looks to tap "booming" Silk Road rail volumes, reports London's Loadstar. However, the move follows claims that Chinese subsidies were turning the burgeoning rail route into a "huge bubble," due the large number of empty blocktrains leaving China. According to port operator Duisport, the EUR100 million (US$111.6 million) Duisburg Gateway Terminal will be built by 2022 on a 240,000 square metre site, with an intermodal facility that will include six gantry cranes, 12 blocktrain platforms, five loading areas, three berths for inland vessels and a 60,000-square metre container storage area. "Even now, around 30 per cent of all rail-based trade between China and Europe runs through the Port of Duisburg," it said. This translates to 35-40 trains a week running between Duisport and a dozen destinations across China, it added, noting the new terminal would significantly increase this to 100 China-bound trains a week. "Rail traffic on the European rail corridors, in particular to eastern and south-eastern Europe, and inland waterway services to seaports, will [also] be able to operate from the Duisburg Gateway Terminal, which will thereby generate an annual throughput of around 850,000 TEU upon completion," the company said. Duisport and China's Cosco Shipping Logistics each own 30 per cent of the new venture, while Swiss intermodal operator Hupac and Dutch inland waterway company HTS both hold a 20 per cent share. Backed by China's Belt and Road Initiative, China-Europe rail volumes have enjoyed a rapid rise, jumping from 142,000 TEU in 2016 to 370,000 TEU in 2018.