In ancient times, there were camel bells ringing along the Silk Road, but now there is an endless engine of China Europe freight trains. It came into being in response to the continuous expansion of China EU investment and trade, and grew with the continuous promotion of the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" initiative. Under the epidemic situation, China EU trains once again "ran" to a new record: the number of trains opened in July exceeded 1500 for the first time, and "thousands of trains per month" for 27 consecutive months.

At a special press conference held by the National Development and Reform Commission on August 18th, Xu Jianping, Director of the Opening up Department of the Commission, said that the China Europe freight train has become an important bridge for international economic and trade cooperation. With the continuous improvement of its scale and quality, the China Europe freight train has played an important role in promoting practical cooperation among countries and regions along the route.

Ensuring the stability of international industrial and supply chains

TCL, Dell, Lenovo, Geely, Volvo... In the face of sea and air transportation disruptions, China Europe freight trains have collaborated with a large number of enterprises to launch "customized freight trains" and provide full logistics transportation solutions. Since the beginning of this year, a total of 1150 customized trains have been operated, effectively ensuring the stability of the international industrial and supply chains.

"The China Europe freight train has built a new land transportation channel that is all-weather, high-capacity, green and low-carbon, which is a major innovation in the international transportation service system." Xu Jianping introduced that the transportation price of the China Europe freight train is 1/5 of that of air transportation, and the operating time is 1/4 of that of sea transportation. It is less affected by the natural environment, has high stability, and has strong attraction for products with a certain volume scale and high timeliness requirements.

Under multiple challenges, the China Europe freight train has developed a curve of rising against the trend: in 2020, it exceeded 10000 trains, reaching 12406 trains; 15183 trains will be launched in 2021.

In the face of the COVID-19, the China Europe Express has given full play to the advantages of international rail intermodal transport, such as "segmented transport" and less contact with personnel, and has made every effort to undertake the transfer of goods by sea and air. As of the end of July this year, the China Europe freight train has shipped a total of 14.2 million pieces and 109000 tons of epidemic prevention materials to Europe, becoming a "lifeline" for international anti epidemic cooperation.

After the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis, countries along the China Europe freight train worked together to resist risks, achieving "non-stop", "strong timeliness", and "stable growth" of the China Europe freight train. From January to July this year, the China Europe freight train operated 8990 trains, transporting 869000 TEUs of goods, maintaining a monthly level of one thousand trains for 27 consecutive months.

"It is precisely because the China Europe freight train has become a truly international public good that it continuously demonstrates strong development resilience and growth potential," said Xu Jianping.

Effectively promoting economic and trade cooperation along the Belt and Road

In the early stages of operation, the China Europe freight train mainly transported IT products such as mobile phones and computers. Now, the goods category has expanded to 53 categories and more than 50000 varieties, including clothing, shoes and hats, cars and accessories, grain, wine, coffee beans, wood, etc., covering all aspects of people's production and life in countries and regions along the route.

The China Europe freight train is an important carrier for deepening cooperation between China and countries along the route. As of the end of July this year, the China Europe freight train has laid out a total of 82 transportation routes, connecting 24 countries and 196 cities in Europe. The transportation service network covers the entire Europe, forming an international transportation artery that connects the Eurasian continent.

Xia Jun, Deputy Director of the Supervision Department of the General Administration of Customs, introduced that in the first half of this year, China's imports and exports with 24 countries connected by China Europe freight trains reached 3.45 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.3%; The proportion of import and export value to China's total foreign trade import and export value during the same period is about 17.4%. "The operation of the China Europe freight train has played a positive role in promoting economic and trade exchanges between China and relevant countries, especially those with convenient access to the train," Xia Jun said.

The China Europe freight train is still an important support for promoting regional economic development. After the launch of the China Europe freight train, the outward oriented industries in cities such as Zhengzhou and Chongqing in Henan Province achieved an average annual growth rate of about 30%. The international logistics hub status of cities such as Lodz in Poland and Duisburg in Germany is constantly improving, and locally produced specialty products are sold in large quantities to China by taking the China Europe freight train.

"The rapid development of the China Europe freight train has effectively promoted policy communication, facility connectivity, and smooth trade between countries along the route, driving financial and public connections, and promoting connectivity between Asia and Europe," said Xu Jianping.

Continuously enhancing international influence

On June 8, 2016, China Railway officially launched the unified brand of China Europe freight trains. China Europe freight trains with a unified brand and logo were sent out from multiple parts of the country at the same time. China Europe freight trains entered the "fast lane" of unified standards, win-win cooperation, and healthy and sustainable development.

Zhuang He, Director of the Freight Department of China Railway Group, said that with the joint efforts of all parties, China Europe Express has entered the stage of standardized and large-scale development, and the quality of its operation has been continuously improved, which has increasingly highlighted the effect of helping to jointly build the "the Belt and Road" with high quality. From 2016 to 2019, the number of China Europe freight trains increased from 1702 to 8225, a nearly 5-fold increase in three years.

In addition, in response to the actual needs of small and medium-sized enterprises, new formats and models such as "China Europe Express+Cross border E-commerce" and "China Europe Express+International Mail" are rapidly developing, which not only helps to facilitate the smooth flow of goods, but also provides strong support for the stable development of foreign trade. In the future, what further breakthroughs will the China Europe freight train make?

Xu Jianping introduced that he will focus on the theme of high-quality development, focus on the main line of "consolidating stability and improving" work, and coordinate and do a good job in related work: focus on strengthening the capacity of China Europe freight train facilities guarantee. We will focus on bottleneck sections and congested ports, actively promote the upgrading and renovation of domestic "bottleneck" sections and the expansion and renovation of key port stations of the China Europe freight train, and actively expand new operating channels with countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, West Asia, and other regions; Efforts will be made to improve the quality and efficiency of the operation of China Europe freight trains. We will continue to optimize transportation organization, vigorously expand the supply of return goods, and promote the intensive and efficient utilization of transportation resources. Enrich the brand connotation from multiple aspects such as operational efficiency, service quality, innovation ability, and brand culture, further expand and strengthen the China Europe freight train, and continuously enhance its international influence.