Port operators to increase rail links to inland cities
October 31, 2012 Category Logistics, Railway transport
Shenzhen ports in Shekou and Chiwan are planning to strengthen their rail freight links with China’s western cities by setting up containerized cargo services to Chengdu, Chongqing and Kunming, Erik Yim, Managing Director of Shekou Container Terminal (SCT), said. The new railway freight services could start next year and would augment services between the two western Shenzhen ports and Changsha. He and other transport experts said further development of China’s high speed rail network would be important to the growth of containerized cargo services because freight trains could use the tracks previously used for passenger services. “If railway conditions can be improved, we hope that we can have a daily service from Changsha within two years,” he said. Rail freight experts are forecasting significant growth in containerized import and export cargo moved by rail, while operators DB Schenker Rail and DHL Global Forwarding are exploiting international containerized rail. Frederic Campagnac, General Manager of rail transport consultant Clevy China, said: “Chinese container rail has a lot of room for development.” Campagnac said around four million TEU per year is moved by rail, a figure that has remained stable for about five years. He added that just 1% of containers moved from Chinese ports are transported by rail compared with 85% by road. Sunny Ho, Executive Director of the Hong Kong Shippers’ Council, said that “so far the Chinese government has not given containerized rail a priority”. But he added that development of high-speed rail will leave the old capacity free to cater to cargo services.
Campagnac said China United International Rail Containers, whose shareholders include New World Services with a 30% interest, had opened eight container rail terminals. These facilities, including terminals in Kunming, Chongqing, Dalian, Qingdao and Wuhan, handled 20% more containers in the year to June 30. Yim said container volumes have risen by about 10% a year since rail container services to Shekou and Chiwan started in 2008. About 20 shipping lines, including Cosco Container Lines, Maersk, CMA CGM, APL and Taiwan’s Yang Ming Marine use the service. DHL Global Forwarding will start dedicated weekly container rail services next month from Shanghai to Poland in conjunction with China Shipping Container Lines which is providing the containers. The service would be 90% cheaper compared with shipping cargo by air and less than 10% more expensive that ocean freight. Transit time would be 19 days from Shanghai to Warsaw compared with 30 to 32 days by sea. A second service would start next year. The imbalance in trade between China and Europe meant freight trains returning to China would be less than 30% full. Ho said the development of containerized rail gives exporters more options to transport their products to Europe rather than relying solely on ocean freight where transit times had lengthened as lines cut ship speeds to save fuel and money, the South China Morning Post reports.
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