China's national railway announced a new operating plan with an emphasis on boosting international freight and coal transport. The new plan is being implemented across the country since April 8, China State Railway Group said. It will optimize the operation of several railway lines, and add international freight trains to increase coal transport capacity, the group said. A number China-Europe freight trains will be added to increase transport capacity. The Chengdu Railway Bureau will add three China-Europe freight train lines from Xinglongchang in Chongqing Municipality, Guiyangnan in Guizhou province and Chengdubei in Chengdu, Sichuan province, to Alashankou port in Xinjiang. In the first quarter, China-Europe freight trains made 3,630 trips and transported 350,000 TEU, up 7% and 9%, respectively, year-on-year.
Tommy Tan, President of Shanghai EPU Supply Chain Management, an agent for China-EU freight trains, attributed the growth to the rising demand from Europe. The main categories of goods include auto parts, electronic products and products traded on cross-border e-commerce platforms. “The newly added China-Europe freight train line is expected to strengthen the confidence of the market and offer more choices for customers to deliver their goods with wider railway coverage across the country,” Tan said. Despite the escalating crisis in Europe and resurgence of Covid-19 in March, the impact on the China-Europe freight train service is limited.
In addition to facilitating international logistics, the new railway plan is also aimed at optimizing and raising coal transportation capacity for the domestic economy. A total of 54 coal trains were added to meet medium- and long-term demand of Chinese coal suppliers.
China's coal supply used to be limited by the lack of transport capacity. However, the problem has been eased in recent years and the capacity should meet the demand, the Global Times reports. In the first quarter, the railway department delivered 350 million tons of coal, up 6.5% from a year earlier. China's railway cargo shipments reached 948 million tons in the first quarter, up 25.87 million tons year-on-year or 2.8%, higher than the target growth rate of 2.1% for the whole year.
