20170508 CNDY omPrintsite ASECT CHN-BRO NEW 006 006 … · 2017-05-08 · eran in starting the...
1
China Railway Express services connect 27 C Germany Duisburg Hamburg Tilburg Nuremberg Schwarzheide R Cherkessk Moscow UK London Latvia France Lyon Belarus Brest Minsk The Netherlands Rotterdam Spain Madrid Czech Republic Pardubice Poznan Malaszewicze Warsaw Riga Poland Chelyabinsk Growth in CR Express services 0 500 1,000 1,500 17 42 80 308 815 1,702 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Source: China Railway Corp Eastern route Central route Western route Proposed route Belgium Antwerp Lodz Stuttgart BELT & ROAD INITIATIVE 6 Cargo goes the distance, and drivers t By LUO WANGSHU For Zhong Junlan, taking the helm of a China Railway Express train is like running a relay race. “I drive to point A,” he said, “and then another driver takes over, then another, and so on, until the cargo reaches its final destination.” It is a race he has been running since 2013, when he was chosen to drive the first leg of the inaugural cross-border freight service from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, to Lodz in Poland. The journey to Guangyuan, 360 kilometers up the track, takes on average more than five hours, he said. From there, about 50 drivers will steer the cargo in shifts the rest of the way, some 9,466 km, over about 12 days. For safety reasons, drivers in Chi- na are restricted from working for more than six hours at a time. Zhong said if a CR Express train is scheduled to pass through Guang- yuan in the opposite direction within a day or so, he will drive that back to Chengdu. If not, he will take a day off and return to base for his next assignment. Although the 33-year-old is a vet- eran in starting the race, he has never seen the finish line. “It’s a pity that I’ve never been to Alashankou,” he said, referring to the city in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region where the train crosses the border into Kazakhstan, “or to Lodz, for that matter.” Zhong’s role percent of the he said the job “It’s a mo between Cheng with many up curves. So it smooth handl Express train b rying fragile or ties, such as e handicrafts or The maximu train is allowe CR EXPRESS CARRIES WE Rail freight services linking Chinese cities with destinations across Eurasia seen as critical to boosting trade and economic ties By LUO WANGSHU [email protected] The trees and plants exported by Sichuan Heshengde Import and Export Trade Co used to spend up to 35 days in transit before they reached their desti- nation markets in Europe. After being loaded onto a truck at the company’s base in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, the plants were driv- en to Xiamen Port on the southeast coast and trans- ferred to a ship, which crossed the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea before docking in Europe. Things changed in Decem- ber, however, when the com- pany switched to using a China Railway Express freight service that travels between Chengdu and the Dutch city of Tilburg in just 13 days. “It’s not only cut the travel time, but also wastage,” said Gao Yunfei, assistant to Hesh- engde’s general manager. “The rail journey has increased the survival rate of our plants by 10 percent compared with the previous shipping method. “The plants also look much better, which means they can be sold at a higher price,” he added. To date, the company has shipped nine containers load- ed with money tree plants, Chinese banyan or white wil- low on the freight service. Most containers are about 12 meters by 2 meters by 2 meters. Gao said about half of Heshengde’s exports now travel by train. “The price is higher, but considering the time and reduced wastage, the cost is about the same as by sea,” he said. “It depends on our customers’ require- ments, but as the supplier, we prefer rail.” The CR Express network is helping companies through- out China and neighboring countries to improve their trade with markets in Central Asia and Europe. China launched its first cross- border rail freight service — between Chongqing and Duis- burg in Germany — in March 2011. Since then, the number has risen to 51, connecting 27 Chinese cities with 28 destina- tions in 11 countries. Some 3,557 outbound and inbound journeys had been made on these routes, and that figure is expected hit 5,000 by 2020, according to a five-year development plan for the CR Express released in October by the National Development and Reform Commission. Seventeen Chinese cities have regular scheduled servi- ces, with the busiest being Chengdu, where 10 trains depart every week. The other 10 offer chartered services. The shortest run is between Chengdu and Lodz in Poland, which takes 12 days, while the longest starts in Yiwu in Zheji- ang and ends in Madrid, cov- ering 13,052 km in 18 days. CR Express services utilize three key border ports: Manz- houli in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, the east- ern gateway; Erenhot in Inner Mongolia, the central gateway; and Alashankou and Khorgos in the Xinjiang Uygur autono- mous region, which form the western gateway. As a logistical option, rail freight is faster than by sea and cheaper than by air, according to the network operator, China Railway Corp, which says almost all services arrive on time. Prices are not publicly disclosed. Plan to rebrand China’s first cross-border freight services were launched by local railway authorities, with a route’s name usually made up of the departure city, the border port and the desti- nation: Chongqing-Xinjiang- Europe, for example. Last year, the NDRC rebranded all services as CR Express as part of its develop- ment plan, which highlighted the rail links as crucial to the Belt and Road Initiative. First proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013, the initia- tive comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, and aims to boost trade and investment between China, Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa. Logistics services are seen as a physical link connecting Eur- asia that could prove the cor- nerstone for strengthening economic ties. However, the development plan states that better regulation is urgently needed to deal with the high costs, disorderly competition, inefficient customs clearance, and unsuitable infrastructure. The plan sets a target to have three gateways and 43 transit hubs as part of the CR Express network by 2020. Two-way traffic Over the past six years, not only has the frequency and capacity of China’s freight trains increased, but the cargo they carry has also changed. In the early days, containers were mainly filled with elec- tronic devices made in China, such as laptops and cell- phones, but today, products range from plants to shoes to Christmas decorations. Indi- viduals can even rent space to ship their personal belongings when they move home. As the domestic consumer market has grown, more trains are also returning to Chinese cities loaded with European goods. “More than 1,000 kinds of small commodities, from clothes to Christmas gifts, ride the freight train from Yiwu to Europe,” said Liu Xilin, who runs the Shanghai office of China Railway Container Transport Corp. Yiwu is the world’s largest hub for small commodities, manufacturing about 1.8 mil- lion various kinds of goods, from air conditioners and pow- er tools to hats and auto parts. Eight rail freight routes con- nect the city with destinations across Eurasia, including Lon- don, which in January became the westernmost point of the CR Express network. The inau- gural service transported daily supplies, clothes, suitcases, bags and fabric to the British capital, and returned loaded with maternity products, soft drinks and vitamins. “Since the London service started, my cellphone has not stopped ringing with calls from customers in China and abroad,” said Fang Xudong at Yiwu Timex Industrial Invest- ment, which helps companies use CR Express services. Last year, 120 trains left Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, bound for Europe, and 102 trains returned carrying goods. “Red wine from Bordeaux, milk and edible oil from Bela- rus, and flour from Russia were transported on those freight trains to Wuhan,” said Wu Guangming, president of Wuhan Asia-Europe Logistics. “Those products were stored in customized refrigerated containers and sold at a rea- sonable price, allowing ordi- nary people to enjoy the benefits of the Belt and Road Initiative.” His company rented five for- eign-designed refrigerated con- tainers last year, but Wu said this year it will use a domestically developed container. “Technolo- gy can support international trade and meet more customers’ requirements,” he added. The CR Express management office in Chengdu has pledged to improve the efficiency of its ser- vices and is working with third- party companies to better cater to clients’ demands. “Customers can now talk directly with account managers who coordinate the entire pro- cedure, including customs clear- ance and storage,” said Zheng Shuangli, marketing director at Chengdu Inland Port Operation Co, a logistics agency. “Clients no longer need go through all procedures alone,” she added. The CR Express freight service has turned Alashankou in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region into a bustling border port. CHEN JIAN / FOR CH Workers unload a car at Chengdu inland port that was shipped from Nuremberg in Germany using a China Railway Express freight service. CHEN JIAN / FOR CHINA DAILY Since the London service started, my cellphone has not stopped ringing with calls from customers.” Fang Xudong, employee at Yiwu Timex Industrial Investment Chinese cities with 11 countries Chengdu Suzhou Hefei Shenyang Guangzhou Harbin Dalian Lanzhou Nanjing Kuerle Taiyuan Xining Shihezi Chifeng Yingkou Russia Changchun Nanchang Yiwu Dongguan Kunming Chongqing Changsha Wuhan Xi’an Tianjin Beijing Zhengzhou Irkutsk Zabaikalsk Monday, May 8, 2017 CHINA DAILY 7 In Chongqing, traders are getting on the right track By CHEN YINGQUN In ancient times, Chinese merchants headed west to transport tea to Europe. Today, Italian trader Nicola Sangiovanni is helping Euro- pean wines travel east to Chi- na. Two years ago, he was inspired to start a business selling imported food and drink in Chongqing, a bus- tling metropolis in the southwest, after hearing about the Belt and Road Ini- tiative. “I think China is very open, and this kind of opening up (the initiative) is a good opportunity for cooperation,” he said, standing in the Ital- ian Pavilion at the Chongqing International Exhibition and Trading Center, where his business is based. “Moreover,” he added, “the Chongqing-Xinjiang- Europe freight trains pro- vide fast, low-cost and convenient transportation, which makes importing and exporting easier.” The service, now part of the rebranded China Rail- way Express network, departs from Chongqing and travels more than 11,000 kilometers across Kazakh- stan, Russia, Belarus and Poland before arriving in Duisburg, Germany. The ser- vice has been credited with greatly boosting trade and investment between China and countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. Chongqing, which the Yangtze River runs through, has more than 1,000 piers and is an important connec- tion point between shipping and the railways. Goods from neighboring provinces and Southeast Asia all pass through here, with the freight trains able to deliver cargo to 36 cities in 12 Euro- pean nations. Since 2011, more than 1,000 trains have ridden on the Chongqing-Europe rail link, according to Yang Liq- iong, deputy director of the local economy and informa- tion technology commis- sion. She said the number this year is forecast to hit a record 500, up from 432 last year. “The rail service is much faster than shipping and much cheaper than on an air- plane,” Yang said, adding that the train takes only 12 or 13 days to arrive in Duisburg — 30 days quicker than a ship — and is one-fifth the cost of air- freight. Gu Yonghong, general manager of Chongqing Logistics City, where the rail services depart and arrive, said laptops and other elec- tronic devices make up the majority of outbound cargo. The city manufactures about one-fourth of the world’s laptops. Last year alone, 3,200 con- tainers carrying laptops were sent to Europe, he said, along with mechanical goods, petroleum explora- tion equipment, clothes, and agricultural products, including lemons. “The goods arriving from Europe are mainly auto parts, food, milk, wine, luxury prod- ucts, and raw materials like feed grain and nonferrous metals,” Gu said, adding that the Belt and Road Initiative “will greatly strengthen Chongqing’s image overseas and bring great benefits to Chinese manufacturing and trade”. Yang said the city has worked to improve its freight train services in recent years, such as by fit- ting containers with digital locks that have GPS and an alarm function to boost security, as well as doing research on containers that can store products in extremely cold temperatures for weeks at a time. She said the local authori- ties also plan to connect the railway with air transport ser- vices, which would allow trading companies to send their goods to Chongqing by air and then onto Europe by rail. Central Asian foods offer a taste of things to come By CHEN YINGQUN chenyingqun@ chinadaily.com.cn With a long whistle to her- ald its arrival, the freight train Chang’an pulled into the sta- tion at Xi’an, the capital of Shaanxi province, in late March. On board was 1,000 metric tons of rapeseed oil and 1,000 tons of sunflower seed oil from Kazakhstan. It was the first time the freight service had carried goods produced in the Cen- tral Asian nation. The oil was bound for Xi’an Aiju Grain and Oil Industry Group, and in a few months it will be on Chinese dining tables, according to the com- pany’s chairman, Jia Heyi. Jia had been searching for business opportunities in Central Asia ever since Presi- dent Xi Jinping proposed the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, but it wasn’t until he visited an expo in Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan, in 2015 that he spotted one. “I bought some local wheat flour and used it to make noo- dles, which were really tasty,” he said. “In Kazakhstan, peo- ple use traditional ways to plant crops. They seldom use chemical fertilizers or pesti- cides. Its wheat yield is much lower than China’s, but the quality is good.” He said he went on to learn that Kazakhstan is about 13 times the size of Shaanxi, but has only half the population, which means large areas of rich arable land is often left unused. “Every year, about a third of the land remains unplanted, and farmers don’t have the technology or the networks to grow various crops and sell them to the right markets,” he said. Not long after getting a taste of the country, Jia began sourcing agricultural prod- ucts from Kazakhstan. To date, Aiju Group has import- ed about 2,300 tons of oil, 5,000 tons of flour and 1,500 tons of wheat. The company is also build- ing two factories in the North Kazakhstan Region, which will process up to 1,000 tons of wheat and 1,000 tons of sunflower oil a day, as well as a base to plant wheat and sunflower seeds over 33 hec- tares. The base will be fin- ished by 2020 and create 300 jobs, Jia said. “We can bring high-effi- ciency planting and process- ing technologies to Kazakhstan, which will help with local economic develop- ment,” he said. “The projects can also benefit China, as they will safeguard food secu- rity and sustainable agricul- tural development.” He added that he plans to start importing beef, mutton, honey and milk products from Central Asia, too, as transpor- tation is so convenient. Xi’an launched its first cross-border rail freight ser- vice to Almaty in 2013. Since then, it has started services to Moscow, Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Warsaw in Poland, Hamburg in Germa- ny and Budapest in Hungary. So far, 317 trains have trav- eled on the network and exported a combined 474,000 tons of cargo, according to the official data. Bai Qinbin, deputy director of port management for the Xi’an International Trade and Logistics Park, said the city’s large transportation network can help boost trade and investment between China and countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative. “We’re working on starting a service between Xi’an to Teheran this year, as the Mid- dle East is in great need of Chinese goods, especially food and commodities for daily use,” he said. Xi’an is also building up its airfreight and shipping net- works, he said. Since the start of last year, charter flights have been departing from Xi’an bound for Amsterdam and Seoul to serve cross-bor- der businesses. “We want Shaanxi people to be able to buy from the world and sell to the world — even without leaving Shaanxi,” Bai said. take it one step at a time e may only cover 4 e entire journey, but b is far from easy. ountainous region gdu and Guangyuan, ps and downs and requires extremely ling to drive a CR because it can be car- r valuable commodi- electronic products, plants,” he said. um speed a freight ed to go in China is 120 km/h, although Zhong said he takes it slow. “I have been driving freight trains on this stretch of track since 2009. I know every corner and every hill,” he said, adding that experience has taught him when to adjust the speed to keep a train steady depend- ing on its length and weight. Since the first rail freight service left Chongqing in 2011, the number of international freight services has risen rapidly. So too has Zhong’s workload. “When I first started to drive freight trains, it was less work, as there were only a couple of trains a week. Now, one to three trains leave Chengdu every day,” he said. “We also used to have fewer drivers, and we worked on other assignments. Today, CR Express drivers only take the helm of CR Express trains. “My dream is to one day take the train all the way to Alashankou, or even Lodz, to see the changes our services bring to locals along the railway,” he added. EIGHT OF EXPECTATIONS HINA DAILY A freight train leaves Yiwu in Zhejiang province bound for Madrid on April 15. CHEN JIAN / FOR CHINA DAILY A display of handicrafts at the Kazakhstan section of an international trade fair draws visitors in Xi’an, Shaanxi province. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY The rail service is much faster than shipping and much cheaper than on an airplane.” Yang Liqiong, deputy director of Chongqing Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology
Transcript of 20170508 CNDY omPrintsite ASECT CHN-BRO NEW 006 006 … · 2017-05-08 · eran in starting the...
China Railway Express services connect 27 Chinese cities with 11 countries
ChengduSuzhou
Hefei
Shenyang
Guangzhou
Harbin
Dalian
Lanzhou
Nanjing
Kuerle
TaiyuanXining
Shihezi
Chifeng
Germany
Duisburg
HamburgTilburg
Nuremberg
Schwarzheide
Yingkou
Russia
Cherkessk
Moscow
Changchun
NanchangYiwu
Dongguan
Kunming
ChongqingChangsha
Wuhan
Xi’an
Tianjin
Beijing
Zhengzhou
UK
London
Latvia
France
Lyon
BelarusBrest
Minsk
The NetherlandsRotterdam
SpainMadrid
Czech RepublicPardubice
Poznan Malaszewicze
Warsaw
Riga
Poland
Chelyabinsk
Irkutsk
Growth inCR Express
services
0 500 1,000 1,500
17
42
80
308
815
1,702
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
Source: China Railway Corp
Zabaikalsk
Eastern routeCentral routeWestern routeProposed route
BelgiumAntwerp
Lodz
Stuttgart
BELT & ROAD INITIATIVE6
Cargo goes the distance, and drivers take it one step at a timeBy LUO WANGSHU
For Zhong Junlan, taking thehelm of a China Railway Expresstrain is like running a relay race. “Idrive to point A,” he said, “and thenanother driver takes over, thenanother, and so on, until the cargoreaches its final destination.”
It is a race he has been runningsince 2013, when he was chosen todrive the first leg of the inauguralcrossborder freight service fromChengdu, the capital of Sichuan
province, to Lodz in Poland.The journey to Guangyuan, 360
kilometers up the track, takes onaverage more than five hours, hesaid. From there, about 50 driverswill steer the cargo in shifts the restof the way, some 9,466 km, overabout 12 days.
For safety reasons, drivers in China are restricted from working formore than six hours at a time.Zhong said if a CR Express train isscheduled to pass through Guangyuan in the opposite direction
within a day or so, he will drive thatback to Chengdu. If not, he willtake a day off and return to base forhis next assignment.
Although the 33yearold is a veteran in starting the race, he hasnever seen the finish line.
“It’s a pity that I’ve never been toAlashankou,” he said, referring tothe city in the Xinjiang Uygurautonomous region where thetrain crosses the border intoKazakhstan, “or to Lodz, for thatmatter.”
Zhong’s role may only cover 4percent of the entire journey, buthe said the job is far from easy.
“It’s a mountainous regionbetween Chengdu and Guangyuan,with many ups and downs andcurves. So it requires extremelysmooth handling to drive a CRExpress train because it can be carrying fragile or valuable commodities, such as electronic products,handicrafts or plants,” he said.
The maximum speed a freighttrain is allowed to go in China is
CR EXPRESS CARRIES WEIGHT OF EXPECTATIONSRail freight services linking Chinese cities with destinations across Eurasia seen as critical to boosting trade and economic ties
By LUO [email protected]
Thetreesandplantsexportedby Sichuan Heshengde Importand Export Trade Co used tospend up to 35 days in transitbefore they reached their destination markets in Europe.
After being loaded onto atruck at the company’s base inChengdu, capital of Sichuanprovince, the plants were driven to Xiamen Port on thesoutheast coast and transferred to a ship, which crossedthe Indian Ocean and the RedSea before docking in Europe.
Things changed in December, however, when the company switched to using aChina Railway Express freightservice that travels betweenChengdu and the Dutch city ofTilburg in just 13 days.
“It’s not only cut the traveltime, but also wastage,” saidGao Yunfei, assistant to Heshengde’s general manager. “Therail journey has increased thesurvival rate of our plants by10 percent compared with theprevious shipping method.
“The plants also look muchbetter,whichmeanstheycanbesoldatahigherprice,”headded.
To date, the company hasshipped nine containers loaded with money tree plants,Chinese banyan or white willow on the freight service.Most containers are about 12meters by 2 meters by 2meters.
Gao said about half ofHeshengde’s exports nowtravel by train. “The price ishigher, but considering thetime and reduced wastage,the cost is about the same asby sea,” he said. “It dependson our customers’ requirements, but as the supplier, weprefer rail.”
The CR Express network ishelping companies throughout China and neighboringcountries to improve theirtrade with markets in CentralAsia and Europe.
Chinalaunchedits firstcrossborder rail freight service —between Chongqing and Duisburg in Germany — in March2011. Since then, the numberhas risen to 51, connecting 27Chinese cities with 28 destinations in 11 countries.
Some 3,557 outbound andinbound journeys had beenmade on these routes, andthat figure is expected hit5,000 by 2020, according to afiveyear development planfor the CR Express released inOctober by the NationalDevelopment and ReformCommission.
Seventeen Chinese citieshave regular scheduled services, with the busiest beingChengdu, where 10 trainsdepart every week. The other10 offer chartered services.
The shortest run is betweenChengdu and Lodz in Poland,which takes 12 days, while thelongest starts in Yiwu in Zhejiang and ends in Madrid, cov
ering 13,052 km in 18 days.CR Express services utilize
three key border ports: Manzhouli in the Inner Mongoliaautonomous region, the eastern gateway; Erenhot in InnerMongolia, the central gateway;and Alashankou and Khorgosin the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, which form thewestern gateway.
As a logistical option, railfreight is faster than by sea andcheaper than by air, accordingto the network operator, ChinaRailway Corp, which saysalmost all services arrive ontime. Prices are not publiclydisclosed.
Plan to rebrandChina’s first crossborder
freight services were launchedby local railway authorities,with a route’s name usuallymade up of the departure city,the border port and the destination: ChongqingXinjiangEurope, for example.
Last year, the NDRCrebranded all services as CRExpress as part of its development plan, which highlightedthe rail links as crucial to theBelt and Road Initiative.
First proposed by PresidentXi Jinping in 2013, the initiative comprises the Silk RoadEconomic Belt and the 21stCentury Maritime Silk Road,and aims to boost trade andinvestment between China,Central Asia, the Middle East,Europe and Africa.
Logistics services are seen asa physical link connecting Eurasia that could prove the cornerstone for strengtheningeconomic ties. However, thedevelopment plan states thatbetter regulation is urgentlyneeded to deal with the highcosts, disorderly competition,inefficient customs clearance,and unsuitable infrastructure.
The plan sets a target to havethree gateways and 43 transithubs as part of the CR Expressnetwork by 2020.
Twoway trafficOver the past six years, not
only has the frequency andcapacity of China’s freighttrains increased, but the cargothey carry has also changed.
In the early days, containerswere mainly filled with electronic devices made in China,such as laptops and cell
phones, but today, productsrange from plants to shoes toChristmas decorations. Individuals can even rent space toship their personal belongingswhen they move home.
As the domestic consumermarket has grown, more trainsare also returning to Chinesecities loaded with Europeangoods.
“More than 1,000 kinds ofsmall commodities, fromclothes to Christmas gifts, ridethe freight train from Yiwu toEurope,” said Liu Xilin, whoruns the Shanghai office ofChina Railway ContainerTransport Corp.
Yiwu is the world’s largesthub for small commodities,manufacturing about 1.8 million various kinds of goods,fromair conditionersandpower tools to hats and auto parts.
Eight rail freight routes connect the city with destinationsacross Eurasia, including London, which in January becamethe westernmost point of theCR Express network. The inaugural service transported dailysupplies, clothes, suitcases,bags and fabric to the Britishcapital, and returned loadedwith maternity products, softdrinks and vitamins.
“Since the London servicestarted, my cellphone has notstopped ringing with callsfrom customers in China andabroad,” said Fang Xudong atYiwu Timex Industrial Investment, which helps companiesuse CR Express services.
Last year, 120 trains leftWuhan, the capital of Hubeiprovince,boundforEurope,and102 trains returned carryinggoods.
“Red wine from Bordeaux,milk and edible oil from Belarus, and flour from Russiawere transported on thosefreight trains to Wuhan,” saidWu Guangming, president ofWuhan AsiaEurope Logistics.“Those products were storedin customized refrigeratedcontainers and sold at a reasonable price, allowing ordinary people to enjoy thebenefits of the Belt and RoadInitiative.”
His company rented five foreigndesigned refrigerated containerslastyear,butWusaidthisyear it will use a domesticallydeveloped container. “Technology can support internationaltradeandmeetmorecustomers’requirements,” he added.
The CR Express managementoffice inChengduhaspledgedtoimprove the efficiency of its services and is working with thirdparty companies to better cater to clients’ demands.
“Customers can now talkdirectly with account managerswho coordinate the entire procedure, includingcustomsclearance and storage,” said ZhengShuangli, marketing director atChengdu Inland Port OperationCo, a logistics agency.
“Clients no longer need gothrough all procedures alone,”she added.
The CR Express freight service has turned Alashankou in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region into a bustling border port. CHEN JIAN / FOR CHINA DAILY
Workers unload a car at Chengdu inland port that was shipped from Nuremberg in Germany usinga China Railway Express freight service. CHEN JIAN / FOR CHINA DAILY
Since the Londonservice started, mycellphone has notstopped ringingwith calls fromcustomers.”Fang Xudong, employee at YiwuTimex Industrial Investment
China Railway Express services connect 27 Chinese cities with 11 countries
ChengduSuzhou
Hefei
Shenyang
Guangzhou
Harbin
Dalian
Lanzhou
Nanjing
Kuerle
TaiyuanXining
Shihezi
Chifeng
Germany
Duisburg
HamburgTilburg
Nuremberg
Schwarzheide
Yingkou
Russia
Cherkessk
Moscow
Changchun
NanchangYiwu
Dongguan
Kunming
ChongqingChangsha
Wuhan
Xi’an
Tianjin
Beijing
Zhengzhou
UK
London
Latvia
France
Lyon
BelarusBrest
Minsk
The NetherlandsRotterdam
SpainMadrid
Czech RepublicPardubice
Poznan Malaszewicze
Warsaw
Riga
Poland
Chelyabinsk
Irkutsk
Growth inCR Express
services
0 500 1,000 1,500
17
42
80
308
815
1,702
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
Source: China Railway Corp
Zabaikalsk
Eastern routeCentral routeWestern routeProposed route
BelgiumAntwerp
Lodz
Stuttgart
Monday, May 8, 2017 CHINA DAILY
7
In Chongqing,traders are gettingon the right trackBy CHEN YINGQUN
In ancient times, Chinesemerchants headed west totransport tea to Europe.Today, Italian trader NicolaSangiovanni is helping European wines travel east to China.
Two years ago, he wasinspired to start a businessselling imported food anddrink in Chongqing, a bustling metropolis in thesouthwest, after hearingabout the Belt and Road Initiative.
“I think China is very open,and this kind of opening up(the initiative) is a goodopportunity for cooperation,”he said, standing in the Italian Pavilion at the ChongqingInternational Exhibition andTrading Center, where hisbusiness is based.
“Moreover,” he added,“the ChongqingXinjiangEurope freight trains provide fast, lowcost andconvenient transportation,which makes importing andexporting easier.”
The service, now part ofthe rebranded China Railway Express network,departs from Chongqing andtravels more than 11,000kilometers across Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus andPoland before arriving inDuisburg, Germany. The ser
vice has been credited withgreatly boosting trade andinvestment between Chinaand countries along the SilkRoad Economic Belt and21st Century Maritime SilkRoad.
Chongqing, which theYangtze River runs through,has more than 1,000 piersand is an important connection point between shippingand the railways. Goodsfrom neighboring provincesand Southeast Asia all passthrough here, with thefreight trains able to delivercargo to 36 cities in 12 European nations.
Since 2011, more than1,000 trains have ridden onthe ChongqingEurope raillink, according to Yang Liqiong, deputy director of thelocal economy and information technology commission. She said the numberthis year is forecast to hit arecord 500, up from 432 lastyear.
“The rail service is muchfaster than shipping andmuch cheaper than on an airplane,” Yang said, adding thatthe train takes only 12 or 13days to arrive in Duisburg —30 days quicker than a ship —and is onefifth the cost of airfreight.
Gu Yonghong, generalmanager of ChongqingLogistics City, where the rail
services depart and arrive,said laptops and other electronic devices make up themajority of outbound cargo.The city manufacturesabout onefourth of theworld’s laptops.
Last year alone, 3,200 containers carrying laptopswere sent to Europe, he said,along with mechanicalgoods, petroleum exploration equipment, clothes, andagricultural products,
including lemons.“The goods arriving from
Europe are mainly auto parts,food, milk, wine, luxury products, and raw materials likefeed grain and nonferrousmetals,” Gu said, adding thatthe Belt and Road Initiative“will greatly strengthenChongqing’s image overseasand bring great benefits toChinese manufacturing andtrade”.
Yang said the city hasworked to improve itsfreight train services inrecent years, such as by fitting containers with digitallocks that have GPS and analarm function to boostsecurity, as well as doingresearch on containers thatcan store products inextremely cold temperaturesfor weeks at a time.
She said the local authorities also plan to connect therailwaywithair transport services, which would allowtrading companies to sendtheir goods to Chongqing byair and then onto Europe byrail.
Central Asian foods offera taste of things to comeBy CHEN [email protected]
With a long whistle to herald itsarrival, the freight trainChang’an pulled into the station at Xi’an, the capital ofShaanxi province, in lateMarch. On board was 1,000metric tons of rapeseed oiland 1,000 tons of sunflowerseed oil from Kazakhstan.
It was the first time thefreight service had carriedgoods produced in the Central Asian nation.
The oil was bound for Xi’anAiju Grain and Oil IndustryGroup, and in a few months itwill be on Chinese diningtables, according to the company’s chairman, Jia Heyi.
Jia had been searching forbusiness opportunities inCentral Asia ever since President Xi Jinping proposed theBelt and Road Initiative in2013, but it wasn’t until hevisited an expo in Almaty, thelargest city in Kazakhstan, in2015 that he spotted one.
“I bought some local wheatflour and used it to make noodles, which were really tasty,”he said. “In Kazakhstan, people use traditional ways toplant crops. They seldom usechemical fertilizers or pesticides. Its wheat yield is muchlower than China’s, but thequality is good.”
He said he went on to learnthat Kazakhstan is about 13times the size of Shaanxi, buthas only half the population,which means large areas ofrich arable land is often leftunused.
“Every year, about a third ofthe land remains unplanted,and farmers don’t have thetechnology or the networks togrow various crops and sell
them to the right markets,” hesaid.
Not long after getting ataste of the country, Jia begansourcing agricultural products from Kazakhstan. Todate, Aiju Group has imported about 2,300 tons of oil,5,000 tons of flour and 1,500tons of wheat.
The company is also building two factories in the NorthKazakhstan Region, whichwill process up to 1,000 tonsof wheat and 1,000 tons ofsunflower oil a day, as well asa base to plant wheat andsunflower seeds over 33 hectares. The base will be finished by 2020 and create 300jobs, Jia said.
“We can bring highefficiency planting and processing technologies toKazakhstan, which will helpwith local economic develop
ment,” he said. “The projectscan also benefit China, asthey will safeguard food security and sustainable agricultural development.”
He added that he plans tostart importing beef, mutton,honeyandmilkproducts fromCentral Asia, too, as transportation is so convenient.
Xi’an launched its firstcrossborder rail freight service to Almaty in 2013. Sincethen, it has started services toMoscow, Rotterdam in theNetherlands, Warsaw inPoland, Hamburg in Germany and Budapest in Hungary.
So far, 317 trains have traveled on the network andexported a combined 474,000tonsof cargo, according to theofficial data.
Bai Qinbin, deputy directorof port management for theXi’an International Trade and
Logistics Park, said the city’slarge transportation networkcan help boost trade andinvestment between Chinaand countries involved in theBelt and Road Initiative.
“We’re working on startinga service between Xi’an toTeheran this year, as the Middle East is in great need ofChinese goods, especiallyfood and commodities fordaily use,” he said.
Xi’an is also building up itsairfreight and shipping networks, he said. Since the startof last year, charter flightshave been departing fromXi’an bound for Amsterdamand Seoul to serve crossborder businesses.
“We want Shaanxi peopleto be able to buy from theworld and sell to the world —even without leavingShaanxi,” Bai said.
Cargo goes the distance, and drivers take it one step at a timeZhong’s role may only cover 4
percent of the entire journey, buthe said the job is far from easy.
“It’s a mountainous regionbetween Chengdu and Guangyuan,with many ups and downs andcurves. So it requires extremelysmooth handling to drive a CRExpress train because it can be carrying fragile or valuable commodities, such as electronic products,handicrafts or plants,” he said.
The maximum speed a freighttrain is allowed to go in China is
120 km/h, although Zhong said hetakes it slow.
“I have been driving freight trainson this stretch of track since 2009. Iknow every corner and every hill,”he said, adding that experience hastaught him when to adjust thespeed to keep a train steady depending on its length and weight.
Since the first rail freight serviceleft Chongqing in 2011, the numberof international freight serviceshas risen rapidly. So too hasZhong’s workload. “When I first
started to drive freight trains, itwas less work, as there were only acouple of trains a week. Now, one tothree trains leave Chengdu everyday,” he said. “We also used to havefewer drivers, and we worked onother assignments. Today, CRExpress drivers only take the helmof CR Express trains.
“My dream is to one day take thetrain all the way to Alashankou, oreven Lodz, to see the changes ourservices bring to locals along therailway,” he added.
CR EXPRESS CARRIES WEIGHT OF EXPECTATIONS
The CR Express freight service has turned Alashankou in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region into a bustling border port. CHEN JIAN / FOR CHINA DAILY
A freight train leaves Yiwu in Zhejiang province bound for Madridon April 15. CHEN JIAN / FOR CHINA DAILY
A display of handicrafts at the Kazakhstan section of an international trade fair draws visitors inXi’an, Shaanxi province. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
The rail serviceis much fasterthan shipping andmuch cheaper thanon an airplane.”Yang Liqiong, deputy directorof Chongqing MunicipalCommission of Economy andInformation Technology
