New railway line to boost trade and tourism with Eurasia
May-27-2014 By : agxadmin
The 11,800-kilometer Suzhou-Manzhouli-Europe railway line, which opened last September, is expected to boost China’s trade with Eurasia. The train line starts in Suzhou in Jiangsu province, runs to the Chinese border city of Manzhouli and finishes in Warsaw, Poland. The whole trip takes 18 days. Compared to other train lines the new railway cuts traveling time by four days and reduces costs by USD2,100 per container. New lines connecting Manzhouli with Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province, as well as Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, are expected to start running soon. In the near future, Manzhouli is expected to become a hub for international logistics. In April, the line from Suzhou hosted four trains carrying LCD monitors and laptops. The combined value of the trains was USD9.4 million. From March to June a further 12 trains were due to run. Returning trains mostly carry vehicle parts from German automaker BMW bound for Shenyang and Beijing. The line is expected to benefit China’s trade with Poland, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Ukraine and Russia. Rail freight capacity from the Manzhouli hub could reach 70 million tons a year. Last year, capacity hit 30 million tons. Manzhouli is the country’s appointed auto parts and vehicle import port, due to its capacity.
Gefco’s new train route ties Chinese ports to Central, Eastern Europe
By : agxadmin
Gefco Group, the international arm of the Russian Railways specializing in automotive and industrial goods logistics, is launching a new door-to-door route between China and Europe. The new service allows overland cargo and ocean freight collected at China’s major ports to be delivered via Alataw Pass or Manzhouli, in China’s Xinjiang Uygur and Inner Mongolia autonomous regions, to such countries as Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Germany and Hungary. Christophe Poitrineau, Gefco’s Asia President, said that since rail service tends to be more expensive than sea freight, the company is working on solutions for better back-flow transportation, so costs can be lowered. “Now, it is often a one-way operation from China to Europe, and when the train returns, it is often empty. There is work to be done on both sides – the work of unifying one custom system along the Eurasian line,” Poitrineau said. Although there are regular block trains from Chongqing, Chengdu, Zhengzhou and Yiwu to both Europe and Central Asia, most haven’t been able to operate bi-directional services yet. As trade accelerates, Poitrineau said more products from Europe will be transported to China using rail routes in the coming years. Gefco is considering to invest in warehouse facilities in the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ). Automotive logistics is Gefco’s key market in China. Gefco has established two joint ventures that serve Dongfeng Peugeot-Citroen Automobile (DPCA) and Changan PSA Automobiles. It also opened a new branch in Chengdu in 2013. Headquartered in Courbevoie, France, Gefco’s global revenue hit €4 billion in 2013, and revenue from its China operation totaled €100 million the same year. Gefco will set up new branches in Ningbo and Dalian in 2014 to enhance its ocean transport capabilities. It also sees possibilities in establishing branches in Kunming and Urumqi, the China Daily reports.
Cities building rail links to Europe
By : agxadmin
As China builds a new Silk Road economic belt, more than a half-dozen cities are competing for goods and investment from multinationals to boost rail operations to Europe. With shorter transport times and lower freight costs, international rail lines linking western and central China to Europe have helped improve regional connectivity and trade. Since 2010, major Chinese cities, including Chengdu, Chongqing, Xian, Zhengzhou and Wuhan have all launched weekly or monthly modern block train services to different European destinations, as part of China’s efforts to turn its inland resource and labor-rich cities into international trade hubs. Chengdu expects a two-way express rail service with Lodz, Poland, to begin in the second half of 2014, Chen Zhongwei, Director of the Chengdu Logistics Office, said. The route opened in April 2013. Chinese cargos to Europe mostly consist of industrial yarn, automobile parts, new materials, IT goods, electronic and garment products, as well as daily necessities. Chinese trains usually return empty, driving up the costs. Transcontinental rail operators in Chongqing and Zhengzhou are also improving transport options to domestic and European clients – such as online booking, free short-term warehouse storage and services for loads measuring less than a container. Sales offices in Warsaw, the German city of Duisburg, Shanghai and Hangzhou are planned to attract manufacturers from different industries. A temperature-controlled freight cargo service on the Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe route is planned to gain more market share in handling temperature-sensitive products such as Dutch dairy goods, German vaccines and chemical products. Coastal cities such as Guangzhou, Lianyungang and Suzhou also plan to fully open new rail routes to Europe, the China Daily reports.
Xian develops as an international cargo hub
By : agxadmin
Xian, the capital of Shaanxi province, is expected to develop as an international cargo hub serving China, Central Asia and Europe, after a cooperation agreement was signed by the Xian International Trade and Logistics (ITL) Park and Kazakhstan’s National Railway Co. The agreement, which was signed on April 14 in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, aims to develop international logistics between China and Kazakhstan, said Yang Mingrui, Director of ITL’s Administration Committee. A trade delegation, led by Han Song, Deputy Mayor of Xian and Party Secretary of ITL, visited Central Asian countries in April to investigate and signed the agreement with Kazakhstan’s national railway company. Under the agreement, Kazakhstan is expected to establish a new railway express company to organize and coordinate the transport of goods from China to Kazakhstan and the transit of cargo across Kazakhstan, including goods sent from ITL. “Every month, two container trains will be sent from ITL to Kazakhstan and the goods will be distributed in Kazakhstan to other Central Asian countries. Meanwhile, Kazakhstan’s railway express company will make ITL its cargo distribution hub for its international logistics business,” Yang said. ITL intends to build a special economic zone industrial park in Horgos, a border city in Xinjiang next to Kazakhstan. A logistics pier in the park will distribute goods from China’s inland regions to Central Asia, Russia and Europe, Yang added. The Chang’an train was the first international cargo train to run from Xi’an to Kazakhstan and started operating on November 28, 2013. It was also the first freight train to run directly from inland Shaanxi province to Central Asian countries. China Railway Corp plans to form an express railway route from China to Europe. The Chang’an freight train will follow one main route and two branch routes. The main 9,850 km route was designed to link Xian with Rotterdam. One of the branch routes will run from Xian to Kazakhstan and the other from Xian to Moscow. To date the Chang’an international freight trains have run seven times. In April, the trains ran twice with 104 carriages, the China Daily reports.
Logistics upgrade needed to support China’s e-commerce boom
By : agxadmin
Alibaba’s plans for a giant initial public offering (IPO) in New York highlight vast potential for e-commerce in China – and the weak link the logistics industry must fix if explosive growth projections are to be reached. The ageing warehouses that supply goods to customers in China are lacking the automation and state-of-the-art technology that has fueled the rise in the United States and Europe of amazon.com. By 2020, China’s e-commerce sector will be larger than those of the U.S., Britain, Japan, Germany and France combined, consultancy KPMG said in a recent report. To cope with the China surge, as much as USD2.5 trillion may need to be invested in buying land and constructing warehouses alone over the next decade and a half. “Over the next 15 to 20 years, the real cost of building warehouses is going to be staggering,” said Jeff Schwarz, co-founder of Global Logistic Properties, the biggest foreign builder of logistics facilities in China. With each new facility the size of several large sports stadiums, that translates to about 2.4 billion square meters of new warehouses – an area close to two-thirds of the total land mass of Taiwan. Global Logistic estimates the USD2.5 trillion needed over the next 15 years will still only increase per capita fully-automated modern warehouse space to just a third of that in the U.S. Alibaba controls 80% of all online retail in China, and its logistics partners delivered five billion packages last year. Warehousing is a key to the supply chain across the e-commerce industry. Boston has more modern warehouses than the whole of China, says Stuart Ross, Director of Industrial at property consultancy firm JLL China. Less than 20% of China’s warehouses are categorized as modern. Improving the logistics of China’s warehouses has been prioritized by Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma, who announced a plan to lead a consortium to invest USD16 billion in the first phase of building Alibaba’s national logistics business unit. Since the beginning of last year, about USD22 billion has been earmarked by buyout firms, including Blackstone and Carlyle, and private companies, to buy land and build new warehouses in China, the South China Morning Post reports.
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