The first international freight train of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor in Yongchuan departed from the Langantan Railway Hub Station. (Photo/Chen Keru)
Chongqing - Locally made goods from Yongchuan, Chongqing, are heading to overseas markets via a new rail connection to the sea. The first international freight train recently left the district’s Langantan Railway Hub Station with 36 40-foot containers bound for Qinzhou Port in Guangxi, where the cargo will continue its journey by ship.
The train carried 27 containers of Great Wall Motor's knock-down parts and nine containers of Lee & Man paper products. From Qinzhou Port, the cargo will be transported by sea to destinations including Brazil and Thailand.
The departure marked the operation of the Langantan railway dedicated line on the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor (ILSTC), adding a new logistics route connecting western Chongqing with international markets.
The new service gives manufacturers in Yongchuan direct access to a rail-sea route to overseas markets. Previously, some exporters had to move cargo by road to other railway hubs before putting it on freight trains bound for overseas markets. The dedicated line allows cargo to be consolidated, loaded, and unloaded in Yongchuan before moving by rail to Qinzhou and then by sea to international markets.
For Lee & Man Paper Manufacturing Co., Ltd., which produces packaging paper, tissue paper, and bamboo and wood pulp in Yongchuan, the service is expected to improve logistics efficiency and supply-chain stability. The company estimates that its trucking costs could fall by more than 20 percent.
The Yongchuan Dry Port of Beibu Gulf Port Group was officially inaugurated. (Photo/Chen Keru)
Alongside the train’s launch, Yongchuan inaugurated a dry port linked to Beibu Gulf Port to bring port services inland. The facility plans to offer booking, customs declaration, container loading and settlement, with integrated services under a single-bill, single-container model.
The Yongchuan district government also signed a cooperation agreement with New Land-Sea Corridor Operation Co., Ltd. to deepen cooperation on train operations, cargo consolidation, distribution and transshipment under the ILSTC.
The new service comes as exports of vehicles and vehicle components from Yongchuan continue to grow.
Government data showed that, in the first eight months of this year, Yongchuan Comprehensive Bonded Zone recorded 5.2 billion yuan (about 750 million U.S. dollars) in imports and exports, up nearly 80 percent year on year, while exports of vehicles and vehicle components surged 120 percent.
The Langantan Railway Hub, a key project of the Western Chongqing International Opening-up Hub, has a designed annual handling capacity of 300,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) and 2.8 million metric tons of cargo. The hub connects trunk railway lines with industrial parks, helping reduce the need for additional road transfers.
The line is scheduled to operate 12 freight trains under the ILSTC this year.
(Zhou Sheng, as an intern, also contributed to this report.)