shipping from China to europe railway

In 2020, China-Europe freight trains will operate safely and steadily. The freight volume will be another record-breaking year, and the number of lines will increase against the trend. In 2020, 12,400 China-Europe freight trains will be launched and 1.14 million TEUs will be sent, an increase of 56% over the previous year, and the comprehensive heavy container rate will reach 98.4%. For the first time, the number of banks opened in the year exceeded 10,000 rows, and the number of rows opened in a single month was stable above 1,000 rows. New progress has been made in the construction of the new western land-sea channel. During the year, 3,600 trains and 190,000 TEUs of the new western land-sea channel were launched, up 73% and 80% year-on-year respectively.

Delays extended due to congestion

Due to the substantial increase in freight volume, China-Europe express trains have experienced serious congestion many times in 2020. At present, severe cold weather and regulations on epidemic restrictions between China and Kazakhstan have caused continuous congestion on the China-Kazakhstan border, which means long delays in railway and road freight. According to media reports in Kazakhstan, 7,000 containers were waiting to enter China through the borders of Dostyk (Dostyk port) and Altynkol (Atenkori) in late December, and some of them waited 42 days. The express train takes 16 days to run between Chongqing and Slawkow, Poland. Russian Railways and narrow gauge operator UTLC recently stated that they are trying to build a new border crossing point in Goryn and Udritsk to diversify freight flows and reduce the load on border infrastructure.

Lack of containers soaring freight rates

In addition, Siddique Khan, CEO of Globalink Logistics, a member of Kerry Logistics, said that border congestion and continued container shortages have led to soaring freight rates. He said: “Due to the impact of the epidemic restrictions, China-Europe rail freight has been severely affected, which has caused freight rates to rise by approximately US $ 5,000 / TEU.” The shortage of containers and the configuration of CN-EU lanes means that eastbound traffic from the EU to China has also been affected. In addition, Siddique Khan also said: “The fast truck transportation time from China to Europe is about 16-18 days. Due to speed, safety and economy, CEIBS Truck s door-to-door service is of high value for electronic products, fashion clothing and parts. The goods are attractive. However, due to the restrictions on the border between China and Kazakhstan, it currently takes 15 to 20 days to cross the border. Therefore, the freight solution for Eurasia is currently neither feasible nor economical. In the past two to three months, from China to Europe The price of Caban has almost doubled.

Ceva expands China-Europe rail freight services

Ceva Logistics is developing more China-Europe railway services and has announced the launch of a railway service from Jinhua to Dourges, France. It is reported that the first train of this new route departed Jinhua on November 26, loaded with 22 containers, and arrived in Durj 18 days later, passing through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Germany, covering 11,000 kilometers. The containers will be shipped from Durges to Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy. Ceva said that the new route will help ease the current service pressure.

 With the unprecedented demand for transportation and logistics services in the global supply chain, Ceva Logistics is committed to providing convenient and sustainable solutions for existing and potential customers. said Xavier Bour, head of global ground and rail products at Ceva Logistics

 France is an important logistics hub in the European market. Through this new service, Ceva has entered the railway market in Eastern and Western Europe. The railway business we will expand next will be the development of the Southern European market. 

Ceva added that, compared with the China-Europe truck service launched in 2019, the China-Europe Express can reduce emissions by up to 67%.

Last year, data on road services between China and Europe provided by DSV showed that its price was 40% cheaper than that of aviation, but the emissions of road services were 2.5 times that of railways and 8 times that of sea transportation.