The high-profile freight train route between China and Europe, supported by the Belt and Road Initiative, achieved another significant milestone by completing its 90,000th trip on Saturday, underscoring its crucial role in stabilizing global supply chains and driving economic development along the route.
A freight train loaded with 55 containers carrying a diverse range of goods, including LCD monitors, auto parts, clothing and daily necessities, departed on Saturday morning from Xi'an in Northwest China's Shaanxi province, marking the 90,000th trip, according to the China State Railway Group, the operator of the service.
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The train will travel westward, exiting China through the Horgos border port in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, and pass through Kazakhstan and Russia before reaching Malaszewicze, Poland, in about 15 days.
Since 2011, the freight train service has transported over 8.7 million containers with goods valued at more than $380 billion, the operator said.
The remarkable growth of the service reflects strong market demand. A freight train is more cost-effective than sending cargo by air and more reliable than transporting goods by sea, serving as a strategic and viable option for international freight.
The annual number of trips on the China-Europe freight train route surged from a few dozen at the beginning to over 17,000 last year.
Between 2016 and 2023, the annual number of China-Europe freight train trips increased from 1,702 to over 17,000, representing nearly tenfold growth with an average annual growth rate of 39.5 percent.
The progression from the first freight trip to the 10,000th took 90 months, while the leap from the 80,000th trip to the 90,000th required only seven months.
In 2016, the annual value of goods transported on the route was $8 billion, which soared to $56.7 billion last year. This rapid development signifies the increasing acceptance and recognition of the service by customers in China and abroad.
Shaanxi Konka Smart Home Appliance is a company based in Xi'an that primarily manufactures home appliances, with dishwashers being one of its main products sold overseas.
Chen Zhao, general manager of the company, said that about 80 percent of Konka dishwashers are exported, with destinations including European countries such as Germany, France, Italy and Spain.
Initially, the dishwashers were sent to Europe via sea routes from coastal cities like Qingdao, Shandong province, and it took them around 45 days to reach their destinations.
The China-Europe freight train service has reduced the transportation time to two to three weeks, Chen said, noting that the strategic location of Xi'an as a hub for the freight service played a crucial role in the company's decision to establish a new factory in the city.
Chen added that the Red Sea attacks have disrupted sea cargo routes, extending shipping time between China and Europe to 60 days, and making the advantage of the freight train route more prominent.
Smartlog, an international transportation and logistics company with a presence across Eurasia, established an office in Xi'an in 2022.
"Thanks to the Belt and Road Initiative, overseas enterprises like us can experience rapid development in China," said Nursulu Zolbaskanova, head of the company's Xi'an office.
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Over the past two years, the office's monthly usage of the China-Europe freight train service has increased from two trips to 70, reflecting the growing importance of this mode of transportation.
Shao Boer, general manager of Xi'an International Inland Port Multimodal Transportation, a logistics company based in the provincial capital, said that most of the company's logistics business is dependent on the China-Europe freight train service.
So far, the network of the China-Europe freight train service has reached 223 cities in 25 European countries, connecting more than 100 cities in Asia.
Zhu Diqi and Fu Xuewen contributed to this story.
