On the 7th of this month, with a whistle blowing, a cross-border public-railway intermodal transportation train of China-European Union liner sailed out from Xi'an International Port Station, like a "steel camel caravan" carrying battery protection boards and other goods across the Eurasian continent. Since its inception in 2011, the China-European Union (CEU) liner has become one of the major modes of transportation across the Asian and European continents with its advantageous features of all-weather, safety, high efficiency and stability. As of the end of February this year, the total number of China-EU trains has exceeded 85,000 trains. In 2023 alone, the China-Europe liner train will run 17,000 columns and send 1.9 million TEUs, with year-on-year growth of 6% and 18% respectively.
The British "Financial Times" on the 10th, citing data from European logistics companies and railroad operators reported that since the outbreak of the Red Sea crisis, across Eurasia, with the help of railroads will be transported from Asia to Europe's demand for a surge. Germany's Der Spiegel also recently reported that freight demand for China-Europe shuttle trains is increasing.
The person in charge of freight transportation department of China Railway Group said that since this year, China Railway Group has explored the opening of the South Passage to Georgia Poti, Baku, Azerbaijan, Istanbul, Turkey through Xi'an, Chongqing, Yiwu, etc. to open the China-European (Asia) liner, a total of 18 columns; to enhance the capacity and efficiency of the port clearance, the West Passage (Alashankou, Khorgos), the Middle Passage (Erlianhot), the East Passage (Manchuria, Suifenhe, the same) increased by 9% year-on-year. Jiangbei) increased by 9%, 19% and 4% respectively year-on-year.
National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Hebei Province, general manager of the International Land Port Co., Ltd. Liu Rui-Ling recently held during the National People's Congress mentioned a case: Shijiazhuang, a production of children's toys and electric bicycles in the foreign trade enterprises originally exported only by sea. Since Shijiazhuang has an international dry port, enterprises use the China-European liner exports, the annual short-distance freight can save more than 200 million yuan. At the same time, the sea transportation time is 40 days to Europe, while the China-EU shuttle train to Europe in only 15 days. The China-European Union liner has reduced the logistics cost and saved the transportation time for enterprises, realizing "doing foreign trade at home".
Ltd. told the Global Times that by the end of 2023, the company had exported nearly 100,000 units of white home appliances through 20 special trains on the China-European liner "Chang'an". "The China-European liner has greatly saved our transportation time, enabling timely delivery of customer orders." Chen Zhao said, this greatly improves the logistics, inventory and capital turnover speed, so that the enterprise's comprehensive cost has been significantly reduced.
Reducing costs and compressing the time limit
At present, the transportation service network of China-Europe liner basically covers the whole territory of Asia-Europe continent. The Global Times reporter learned in an interview that promoting the development of China-EU liner trains in the direction of higher quality, better benefits and greater safety has become the main task of the next stage.
Reducing costs and improving time efficiency are the two key words Yuan Xiaojun, general manager of Xi'an Free Trade Port Construction and Operation Co., Ltd, the platform enterprise responsible for operating the China-Europe liner "Chang'an", mentioned many times in his interview with the Global Times. He said that the functions and services of the China-European liner "Chang'an" have been enriched continuously, and one of the recent focuses is to provide "front assembly and direct loading upon arrival" services for export cargoes, which further reduces the costs related to the export of enterprises.
Yuan Xiaojun also introduced that the company is currently upgrading the original flow of documents and auditing methods, the use of information technology systems to integrate data to reduce the time spent on each link. He said, for example, before the company and the Kazakhstan Railway Company docking, all kinds of documents need to be transmitted by e-mail, timeliness is not strong, but also prone to confusion in the order. With the system upgrade and networking docking, the China-Europe liner "Chang'an" documents can be sent in real time to the Kazakh side, "the car has not yet arrived at the border, after the validation of the procedures have been prepared."
The Global Times reporter observed that, in order to better meet market demand, more and more special China-European Union (CEU) trains have been launched around the world. During the Spring Festival this year, containing 1740 tons of non-genetically modified rapeseed oil crude oil produced in Kazakhstan, "New Year's Special Train" arrived in Xi'an; in the first two months of this year, the China-European Union liner (Changsha) opened Zoomlion Heavy Industry, Sany Heavy Industry, Shanhe Intelligence, Xiangtan Geely, Star Intelligence, Foton and other customized special train more than 30 columns; last year, during the year, Chongqing, Guangdong, Henan and Heilongjiang have opened a special train of new energy vehicles to help China's foreign trade. During last year, Chongqing, Guangdong, Henan, Heilongjiang and other places have opened new energy automobile special trains, helping China's foreign trade exports "new three kinds" to the international market.
In addition, the transportation mode of China-European liner is also diversifying, and the public-rail-sea intermodal routes are gradually enriched. Recently, a number of total value of more than 900,000 yuan of electric water heaters from Thailand's Rayong Province, through Laos, Vietnam, Guangxi Friendship Pass entry, arrived in Chongqing Shapingba District Unity Village Railway Center Station by China-European Union Train, and ultimately arrived in Duisburg, Germany, the whole journey of about 12,000 kilometers. "Based on the gradual stabilization of the current international logistics network, our focus is to accelerate the high-quality development of the China-European liner Chang'an." Yuan Xiaojun said.
Advantages of Land Transportation Resilience Continuously Highlighted
Russian media index.com recently said in a report that the Red Sea crisis has led to a shift in cargo transportation to railroads. Rail transportation along all corridors between China and Europe is once again in the spotlight, becoming a "necessity" for shippers who need shorter transportation times. Rail rates are more stable than ocean freight. In addition, the sustainability of the supply chain and the diversity of intermodal transportation modes are also advantages. Hong Kong's "Wenhui network" that the Red Sea sea transportation obstruction triggered a global logistics crisis. At present, many European countries have increased demand for the China-European Union (CEU) liner, and have begun to seek a land instead of sea logistics program, which highlights the advantages of the CEU liner at this time.
CNBC website in February, citing the Netherlands Railway Bridge Cargo Executive Director Igor Tambaca said that the past four weeks, the China-Europe shuttle train bookings increased by 37%, "an explosive surge in demand for rail transportation". Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao newspaper also said that freight demand for China-EU trains has risen 100 percent after the Red Sea crisis broke out.
Yuan Xiaojun introduced to the Global Times reporter that in January this year, the growth of customers inquiring about booking was obvious, and the increase of the China-Europe liner in February was about 20%-30% or so.
A typical example is the full timetable line of the China-Europe liner, which is less affected by the external environment and has high stability, which has become an advantage that is hard to replace in the current international environment. The person in charge of freight transport department of China Railway Group said that since this year, the whole schedule of China-European Union liner has accumulated 45 columns, and the time limit of domestic and overseas transportation has been reliably guaranteed, which has been favored by the majority of customers.
Lu Zhao, head of a freight forwarding company in Chengdu, analyzed to the Global Times reporter that the full schedule line of the China-European liner, the railroads of the countries along the route arrange the fixed number of trips, routes, shifts and operating hours, focusing on the port station to change, handover and other operational aspects to be reasonably controlled, the domestic and foreign transportation time is relatively fixed, providing stability and certainty for the industrial chain, supply chain.
