Number of China-Europe freight trains up 17% in first four months

China-Europe freight train service has witnessed solid growth in the first four months of this year, given a continuous rise of transport capacity and efficiency, data from China State Railway Group showed. 

A total of 5,611 China-Europe freight trains ran from January to April, a year-on-year increase of 17 percent, and about 609,000 standard containers of goods were transported, up 32 percent from a year earlier, the company said.

In April alone, the number of China-Europe freight train trips increased by 25 percent year-on-year to 1,459, and the trains carried about 160,000 standard containers, up 45 percent year-on-year.

Ma Siwei, general manager of Heze-based Shandong China Post International Logistics Co, told the Global Times on Sunday that the company has witnessed a jump of freight trains to five Central Asian countries in recent months.

"Almost 60 percent of my goods have been transported to Central Asian countries, which is a huge increase," he said.

Freight transport is now in an upward trend, Ma said, explaining that the profit for one container has jumped to 2,000-3,000 yuan ($285-428) in the past one or two months, while that was only a few hundred yuan during the Spring Festival holidays.

In the first half of 2022, there were no goods to transport, but this year it is completely different, and profits are rising too, he said.

A logistics agent surnamed Yu told the Global Times that the company's 10,000 square meter warehouse in South China's Guangzhou sent about 15-20 containers every day through the China-Europe Railway Express in May, while the warehouse in Yiwu sent about 10 containers every day.

"We also opened charter trains to Belarus and Russia. Now, there are only few containers left for trains departing from Yiwu in late May. Each train carries about 55 containers and it takes 35-45 days for a single trip," said Yu.

As of the end of April, the number of domestic departure cities of the freight train services had reached 109, providing links to 211 cities in 25 European countries, China State Railway Group said.

During the just concluded China-Central Asia Summit in Xi'an, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province on Friday, China vowed to strengthen the construction of transportation hubs of China-Europe freight train service.