The market seeks alternative transportation solutions, and demand for China-Europe freight trains surges

Ambassador Fu Cong, former head of China's mission to the EU, said that the China-Europe freight service is a flagship project of China-EU "Belt and Road" cooperation. As a land alternative, it is particularly useful in complex and volatile geopolitical situations, especially the outbreak of the Red Sea crisis. Since then, it has provided a fast, stable and reliable solution for the flow of large quantities of goods.

Ambassador Fu Cong published a signed article last month on Euractiv, a European news website focusing on EU policy issues. He said in the article: "At this critical moment, China-Europe freight trains have become the lifeline of China-Europe trade."

From 2011 to the end of February this year, according to China State Railway Group data, China-Europe trains have operated more than 85,000 times, connecting 120 cities in China and 219 destinations in 25 European countries. Last year, about 17,000 China-Europe freight trains operated, transporting 1.9 million containers.The latest data this year shows that in January and February, 2,928 China-Europe freight trains operated and 317,000 containers were sent, a year-on-year increase of 9% and 10% respectively.

Kang Yingfeng, deputy general manager of China Railway International Intermodal Transport Co., Ltd. (CRIMT), emphasized that the market demand for China-Europe train services has increased significantly since this year. In addition, the new China-Europe sea-rail combined transport route crossing the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea has also attracted huge attention.

The latest report from the international rating agency Fitch Ratings shows that compared with before the crisis, China-Europe railway line capacity has increased significantly.

Kong Weidong, general manager of Zhengzhou Branch of Shanghai Taihua Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd., said that China-Europe freight train inquiries have increased significantly since January this year. “The number of inquiries has soared more than ten times, and the final freight volume completed for export transportation has increased by three to four times. times."

According to Kang Yingfeng, the new interest in China-Europe freight train services mainly comes from customers in China, Europe and the United States. It also includes large international logistics companies such as DHL and Kühne+Nagel paying great attention to the southern corridor of China-Europe freight trains, which passes through Georgia and Turkey. A new sea-rail combined transport route to Europe.

Kang Yingfeng, deputy general manager of China Railway International Intermodal Transport, said that in addition to the increase in transport capacity, the service quality of China-Europe trains has also been improved.

The types of goods carried by the China-Europe trains have expanded from 53 types when the line started to more than 50,000 types now. "Many cities have launched customized services, such as the entire train transportation of ketchup, wood, tea, cooking oil and new energy vehicles."

In order to improve service quality, China-Europe trains will operate full timetable trains from October 2022. These full timetables for China-Europe trains further reduce transit times and allow customers to calculate transit times between cities, thereby improving service quality. Up to now, the China-Europe freight train has opened 5 routes in the full timetable, which has shortened the transportation time by 30% compared with the conventional China-Europe freight train. For example, the train transportation time from Xi'an to Duisburg, Germany, can be accurately calculated as 300 hours and 7 minutes.

Financial Times quoted DHL's China-Europe freight report as saying that since container ships began to bypass the Red Sea and Suez Canal and divert further to the southern tip of Africa in December last year, demand for China-Europe rail transportation transiting Russia has increased by 40%.

The shift in freight flows illustrates that in the crisis-ridden global transportation sector, the market is urgently seeking new solutions to replace traditional transportation modes.