China-Europe rail trade getting back on track

A freight train loaded with 44 carriages of walnuts on Thursday departed Urumqi, capital city of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, destined for the Turkish port of Mersin through from the Khorgos Land Port in China.

The quantity of the China-Europe Railway Express freight trains has seen a gradual increase.

"As of Monday, there have been 365 export-product freight trains that left Khorgos Station, with a year-on-year increase of 23 percent," according to the China Railway Urumqi Group.

The freight trains mainly transported goods including general merchandise, building materials and auto parts. The return trains usually took daily necessities, mechanical equipment and cotton yarn, the group statement added.

As of Tuesday, China's largest land border port of Manzhouli in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region has seen 265 China-Europe freight trains from the beginning of the year, according to the China Railway Harbin Group.

To ensure the smooth transport of import and export products of domestic enterprises after the resumption of work, Manzhouli Station has optimized the transportation and customs clearance process in cooperation with customs and other departments, ensuring that customs clearance times of China-Europe freight trains at Manzhouli port will not exceed three hours.

There are currently 52 routes for China-Europe freight trains via Manzhouli port, which help promote trade between over 60 Chinese cities and 28 cities in 13 European countries including Germany, Poland and Belgium.

On Tuesday evening, a freight train heading to Rostov in Russia departed from Shenyang East Railway Station in Northeast China's Liaoning province, marking the resumption of China-Europe Railway Express (Shenyang) freight train service after the outbreak of NCP.

The train was loaded with 509.7 tons of goods including mechanical equipment, electronic products and auto parts.

Due to the epidemic, China Railway Shenyang Group halted service in early February.

The quantity is expected to continue to increase, which can help ensure smooth operational logistics in the Northeast region, according to the group.