China’s rail freight shipments to Europe are at record levels as demand surges for Chinese-origin gooods to the backdrop of COVID-19.
July saw 1,232 cargo trains travel from Chinese cities to European destinations – the most ever in a single month and an increase of 68% on the same month a year ago, according to The South China Morning Post which quoted the latest figures from the China State Railway Group.
In addition, the trains are getting longer as 113,000 standard cargo containers were shipped last month, a year-on-year increase of 73%.
In the first seven months of 2020, freight services between Chinese cities and destinations along the Eurasia trade routes tallied 6,354 trips, an increase of 41 % from a year earlier, the railway group said.
The surge in railway transport shows not only that China has restarted its vast manufacturing apparatus after bringing the coronavirus under control at home, but that the nation has also developed a reliable transport route to send its manufactured products to clients abroad – a sign of resilience in China’s export sector, the newspaper noted.
In July, China posted a trade surplus of US$62.33 billion, with exports surging 7.2% as imports fell 1.4%
Despite the coronavirus having hit global demand, analysts have pointed to strong shipments of medical supplies and work-from-home equipment as a driving factor behind the surge in exports.
Yiwu, an export hub in east China’s Zhejiang province, sent 33,452 containers to central Asian and European countries by train in the first seven months of 2020, tripling the amount transported during January-July 2020.
In the first seven-months of this year, the city of Chengdu, in Sichuan province, dispatched about 1,200 trains on the China-Europe railway – a year-on-year increase of 58.6%.
The freight service along belt and road trade routes was once regarded as ornamental in terms of China’s trade flows, and many Chinese exporters were even found to have shipped empty containers on the railway route to claim government subsidies. However, the coronavirus, which has grounded many flights and made cross-border truck transport more difficult, has seen many exporters turn to railway transport, the newspaper highlighted.
Even Guangzhou, southern China’s manufacturing hub with easy access to maritime ports, is stepping up northbound railway transport. The city launched a new railway freight service to Russia earlier this month.
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said last month that freight trains had transported 27,000 tonnes of medical supplies from China to European countries, an increase of 41% year on year, the newspaper added.
