This photo taken on March 17, 2023 shows a freight train at the railway port in Manzhouli, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. (Photo by Li Fachun/Xinhua)
BEIJING, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- Since the launch of the China-Europe freight train service, it has made 81,000 trips and transported 7.6 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of goods with a total value of more than 340 billion U.S. dollars, connecting 217 cities in 25 European countries.
As a significant gateway for the China-Europe freight trains to enter into the European Union (EU), Poland has seen around 90 percent of the trains pass through or arrive in the country, driving the growth of Poland's economy, trade, and logistics industries.
-- Creating opportunities for companies
In the main warehouse of SYMLOG, an international logistics company based in Poland's capital city Warsaw, 80 percent of goods come from China. These goods will be distributed throughout Poland and to other EU countries such as Germany, France, Italy, and Spain.
Opposite the main warehouse, a new warehouse covering 6,500 square meter built by SYMLOG will be put into use soon.
According to Miskiewicz, the founder of SYMLOG, since cooperating with Zhengzhou International Hub Development and Construction Co., Ltd. in 2016 after connecting with the China-Europe freight train service, the company's annual turnover rose from 1 million euros to nearly 10 million euros.
Miskiewicz has now registered a trade company in Poland to provide consulting and services to Polish companies that carry out import and export business in China, facilitating and bridging further cooperation between the two sides.
-- Bringing quality goods into Eurasian markets
David Szymanski lives and owns two men's clothing stores in Czestochowa, a city in southern Poland. The Chinese Shopping Centre near Warsaw is an important source of inventory for his stores.
Established in 1994, the Chinese Shopping Centre is large commodity and logistics center covering an area of 40 hectares, with more than 1,000 multinational merchants operating in it.
The China-Europe freight train service has provided reliable transportation support for the center, said Han Baohua, general manager of the Chinese Shopping Centre, adding that by leveraging the efficient transport capacity of the China-Europe freight train service, a variety of high-quality Chinese products reach households throughout Europe via retailers in Poland and neighboring countries.
In recent years, Chinese products such as electronics, textiles, clothing, shoes and toys have reached the Chinese Shopping Centre through the China-Europe freight trains, making it the largest distribution center for Chinese goods in Central and Eastern Europe and even the whole of Europe.
Data showed that in the first nine months of this year, some 13,000 China-Europe freight train trips have been made, shipping 1.42 million TEUs of goods, up 7 percent and 20 percent year on year respectively.
The goods shipped from China to Europe have expanded from electronic products such as phones and computers to more than 50,000 types of products including automobiles and mechanical equipment. Goods shipped from Europe to China have grown from products like timber, automobiles and spare parts to mechanical products and medical devices.
-- Promoting transformation of logistics hubs
Malaszewicze used to be an important land transit station in Poland but gradually declined after the 1990s. The operation of China-Europe freight train has revitalized this small border town, turning it into a significant railway logistics hub within the European Union.
Currently, it takes only 10 days for the freight trains to reach Malaszewicze from Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province. Goods carried by the trains are first transferred here upon entering the EU, before being shipped to various places in Europe.
At its peak, Malaszewicze railway freight station had up to 120 containers loaded with goods from China every day. To further improve the transfer capacity, the station has just completed its modernization renovation, which can accommodate more than 1,800 containers now, said the deputy head of Malaszewicze railway freight station.
On November 15 this year, the Karsznice Railway Logistics Center was officially put into operation. Located on the outskirts of Lodz, an important industrial city in central Poland, the logistics center occupies 13 hectares, with a total investment of approximately 32 million U.S. dollars.
The center will become Poland's highest-automated railway logistics center, playing an even more significant role in the efficient operation of the China-Europe freight train services, said the construction manager of the Karsznice Railway Logistics Center.
(Edited by Tian Shenyoujia with Xinhua Silk Road, tianshenyoga0524@163.com)
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