Lianyungang Freight Service on China-Europe Railway Express "Stably" Exceeds 5000 Lines

From: Lianyungang Daily Updated: 2023-03-16 10:42

On March 14, with the whistle blaring and the wheels ringing, the China-Europe freight train loaded with auto parts, electronic products, home building materials and other goods slowly drove out of the Sino-Kazakhstan (Lianyungang) logistics cooperation base. This "iron and steel camel caravan" started a journey to Central Asia in the west, which is also the 5000th China-Europe freight train from Lianyungang since the first train launched in 2015, marking Lianyungang Port’s consistent adherence to the principle of "connection" and "stabilization" since the "Belt and Road" cooperation initiative was put forward 10 years ago. The port is striving to smooth the new Eurasian sea-rail intermodal transportation channel and constantly making new breakthroughs in the operation of scheduled trains.

As a place where two opportunities of the "Belt and Road" cooperation initiative and Lianyungang Area of Jiangsu Free Trade Zone meet and interact, Lianyungang follows General Secretary’s earnest instruction and accelerates the construction of strong fulcrums at the intersection of the “Belt and Road". Today, taking "two bases and one express" as the carrier, Lianyungang Port has laid out five exit ports, namely Alashankou, Khorgos, Kashi, Erenhot and Manzhouli, realizing full coverage of major stations in Central Asia, and has opened a total of six train routes to five Central Asian countries, as well as China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan, China-Mongolia, China-Russia, China-Europe and China Turkey (across the Caspian Sea).

The category of goods transported by the freight train has been expanded from initial automobile parts, electronic components to various types of goods such as building materials, household appliances, electromechanical, grain and minerals. A special freight train with goods like ferroalloy, cotton yarn, coil steel and potassium fertilizer has been developed. The goal of "arrival-departure with a heavy load" has been basically achieved, with the full load rate and heavy container rate reaching 100%. In the past year, Lianyungang has further opened Wuxi-Lianyungang Overseas (Xilian-Europe) international railway logistics channel through the Wuxi- Lianyungang connecting train, ensuring smooth logistics supply chain and helping Jiangsu branded goods to go abroad and enter the international market.

In order to continuously improve the operation efficiency of China-Europe Railway Express, Lianyungang Port has built a port production management platform to achieve intelligent scheduling, visual production and unmanned operation. It has real-time linkage with container terminals, shipping companies, Khorgos Gateway in Kazakhstan and other information platforms. Digital technology is used to enable the New Eurasian sea-rail intermodal transport channel to generate fruitful outcomes in an “express way”. Products of Central Asian countries can ride the east wind brought by the "Belt and Road" initiative and sail through the waves.

With the strong support of Lianyungang Customs, we will accelerate the expansion of basic businesses such as container disassembly and unloading, LCL, warehousing and storage. "We continue to expand the 'free tax+export' cargo container mix mode of China-Europe Railway Express, explore to innovate the 'ship vehicle (station) direct access without waiting' regulatory mode and promote the construction of ‘arrival-departure with a heavy load’, east-west two-way convection transportation pattern in Lianyungang’s international freight train service." Wu Jianbo, Deputy Director of Lianyungang Customs, introduced.

In addition, in the case of tight railway transportation capacity, Lianyungang Port actively maintains communication and coordination with Jiangsu Provincial Train Platform and Shanghai Railway Bureau Group, standardizes planned allocation, provides two-way operation services for inbound and outbound routes and ensures the stable development of train business.

"We have strictly implemented the provincial and municipal arrangements for the evacuation of transit containers and actively contacted customs, railway and other port units to decompress port container information. We have scientifically coordinated the scheduling plan to ensure that more than 80 transit containers can arrive every day." Zuo Xuemei, General Manager of Lianyungang China-Kazakhstan International Logistics Co., Ltd., said that they will continue to do a good job in optimizing the organization of the evacuation of transit containers, improve the quality and efficiency of the operation of China-Europe Railway Express and actively maintain the stability and good momentum of the China-EU freight train service in Lianyungang.