Lianyungang and Xuzhou Jointly Establish National-Level China-Europe Railway Express Hub, Setting Regional Collaboration Benchmark

From: Lianyungang Daily Updated: 2025-07-24 08:38

At Lianyungang Port’s New Oriental International Container Terminal yesterday morning, a “spectacle of logistical precision” unfolded: new-energy vehicles produced in Xuzhou were meticulously loaded into containers like transformers, bound for Kenya via cargo ships. Since Lianyungang and Xuzhou launched their joint national-level China-Europe Railway Express hub, Lianyungang’s deep-water channel advantages and Xuzhou’s railway network have synergized, creating a dual-circulation development paradigm with northern Jiangsu characteristics and emerging as a pivotal growth node in the China-Europe Railway Express network.

As key nodes in the China-Europe Railway Express transport network, hubs serve as critical centers for cargo consolidation, transshipment, and distribution, typically located in major cities or logistics nodes along the routes. This year, China upgraded nine hubs, including the Lianyungang-Xuzhou hub, to national-level status, following existing hubs in Zhengzhou, Chongqing, Chengdu, Xi’an, and Urumqi. To deepen collaboration, Lianyungang Port Group and Xuzhou Land Port Group signed an agreement to enhance platform connectivity, joint port development, and regional logistics vitality.

“The most direct benefit is the elevation of rail-sea intermodal capacity between Lianyungang and Xuzhou, strengthening radiating and aggregating effects in the Jiangsu-Shandong-Henan-Anhui border region,” said a Xuzhou Land Port Group representative. “This aids in securing railway transport capacity and shifts operations from ‘point-to-point’ to ‘hub-to-hub’ models.” A Xuzhou Land Port Group official cited that Xuzhou Port, a key national transshipment and reserve base for north-south coal transportation and west-east coal transmission, has deepened collaboration with Lianyungang Port in the first half of 2025. The Lianyungang-Xuzhou hub achieved year-on-year double-digit growth in coal deliveries to the Yangtze River Delta region.

The collaboration has ushered in a new era of multimodal transport. Last month, Jiangsu’s first “single-bill” rail-water intermodal train departed from Xuzhou’s Tongshan Railway Logistics Base, with 10 containers transiting through Lianyungang en route to Guangzhou. This model, centered on “one commission, one bill, one container, and one settlement”, achieved seamless rail-water integration, reducing total transport time by over five days. The launch marks not only a technical breakthrough since the hub’s establishment but also a vivid example of national multimodal transport optimization.

Rail-sea intermodal traffic between Xuzhou and Lianyungang has surged this year, with cumulative cargo volume exceeding 600 TEUs, nearly tripling year-on-year. Through the “port function relocation” model, Lianyungang’s empty containers are pre-positioned at Xuzhou Land Port, enabling advance allocation and turnover. This innovation saves enterprises 3-4 days in empty container redistribution and cuts logistics costs by approximately 15%.

Leveraging a differentiated development strategy from inland hubs like Zhengzhou and Xi’an, the Lianyungang-Xuzhou China-Europe Railway Express hub prioritizes serving the Yangtze River Delta’s smart manufacturing exports and cross-border trade with Japan and South Korea. More profoundly, it advances the deep integration of “hubs + industries”, cultivating new economic growth poles. “Through the China-Kazakhstan Logistics Cooperation Base, we attract returning cargo such as Central Asian agricultural products and European auto parts,” explained He, general manager of Lianyungang Port’s Container Division. “Xuzhou operates regular specialized trains for construction machinery, driving bulk exports of XCMG heavy trucks to Southeast Asian and Central Asian markets. This two-way logistics corridor will accelerate deep alignment between regional industries and global markets.” The collaboration between Lianyungang and Xuzhou ports, he noted, helps establish a cross-border industrial loop combining “high-end equipment exports and strategic resource imports”, significantly boosting the global reach of “Made in Jiangsu” products.