ZHENGZHOU, Dec.21 (Xinhua) – A train loaded with 80 Bentleys and Land Rovers has recently left Hamburg, Germany for Zhengzhou, capital city of central China's Henan Province in 18 days, which was the first special train for automobile transportation from Europe to Zhengzhou since the launch of the railway line from July 18, 2013.
In recent three years, the Zhengzhou-Europe cargo trains have witnessed rapid growth with high operation efficiency.
So far more than 700 vehicles worth more than 1 billion yuan (146 million U.S. dollars) have been imported from Europe to Zhengzhou through the railway, according to Zhengzhou International Hub Development and Construction Co., Ltd (ZIH) figure.
Since October, the Zhengzhou-Europe cargo trains have seen four trains traveling from Zhengzhou to Europe each week and vice versa, Yuan Weidong, chairman of ZIH said. It is estimated that 240 trains will travel down the line by the end of the year, a much bigger number than 156 in 2015, Yuan added. The line plans to launch 350 trains in 2017.
Compared to sea shipping, China-Europe cargo trains provide better logistics services for the customers, which save a month in time and improve the efficiency of capital turnover, Jia Weiqiang, chairman of Zhengdeyuhua International Trade Co. Ltd said.
--- Better services by Zhengzhou-Europe freight trains
ZIH, an operation platform for the trans-Eurasia express in the city, has taken great effort to provide innovative logistics services for the customers. Customers could get "door to door" services when delivering their cargo via the logistics platform to save time and improve the efficiency.
So far, more than 1,680 enterprises and clients at abroad and overseas have transported 1,000 kinds of freights, including electronics products, textile and garment, furniture, automobiles and components via Zhengzhou-Europe cargo trains.
Meanwhile, ZIH has made cooperation with national railway corporations in Poland, Kazakhstan, and the Republic of Belarus along the routes between Zhengzhou and Europe, working closely on costs control, logistics distribution, trains dispatch, and transit junction, in bid to improve the logistics efficiency. Also, it joined hands with hundreds of famous logistics enterprises in the world, such as Kuehne & Nagel (K&N), DHL, UPS, and TEL, to share information and resources in supply of goods, containers, and trains.
Based on the Europe-Zhengzhou Line, Zhengzhou will further its rail network with major coastal Chinese cities in the east to consolidate its status as an important pivot in the Belt and Road Initiative, said Yuan.
Utilizing Zhengzhou as a traffic hub shortens the process for trades, Zhao Wenming, general manager of ZIH, agreed with the prospects. It also cuts the cost for transportations.
With all the plans being implemented, the China-Europe rail network looks set to become a more significant platform for China’s hinterland to open up. .
In October, the Five-Year Development Plan for the construction of China-Europe cargo trains released by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) to specify the tasks and development direction in the following five years.
According to the plan, around 5,000 trains will run between China and Europe via the network per year by 2020. It reiterates that the China-Europe rail network is a crucial grip to the development of the Belt and Road Initiative.
---Problems still exist in process of development
Despite the rapid development, however, the trans-Eurasia rail network does not go without problems. As the NDRC put it in the plan, the network has been plagued with high costs, disorderly competition and a supply-demand imbalance.
Not all of the lines are regularly delivering goods back and forth, said a customs official in Khorgos, a major gateway in northwest China. A lot of trains returned to China empty because of the lack of goods.
The waste of transportation capacity was partly down to the division and overlap of lines, which led to a situation where cities involved vied for cargo with unreasonable subsidies from local governments, causing overreliance on the subsidies.
Therefore, better regulation has been put on the agenda by the state planners, as the five-year plan laid emphasis on streamlining the 39 lines down to the three main routes of the China-Europe express, in order to improve the service and the network as a whole.
After all, for many, the market remains the key factor.
No more than 10 percent of the China-Europe trades were actually made via railway at the moment in spite of the rail network, which reflected the need to further open up the market for railway trades in China, Zhao admitted.
Wei Jigang, researcher at the Development Research Center of the State Council, agreed. We should make sure that the market plays the major role, while setting up more import ports is necessary, he said.
The enterprises involved in railway trades should also be encouraged to explore the market themselves, he added. Only by doing so can they attract more goods with more accurate services. Enditem (Edited by Ma Xin, Jiang Shengxiong maxin11@xinhua.org)
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