Xinhua News Agency, Chongqing, July 17th, title: How can the China-Europe Express train continue to be stable and far-reaching in the post-epidemic era?
Xinhua News Agency reporters Zhao Yufei, Qu Lingyan, and Liu Huaipi
Since 2020, the freight volume of China-Europe freight trains has grown against the trend.
In the future, how to solidify the explosive growth of China-Europe Express trains into a long-term brand value advantage?
In the post-epidemic era, high-quality development is undoubtedly the key word for China-Europe Express.
According to industry insiders, starting from the aspects of opening up jams along the route, increasing the organization of return sources, and accelerating the coordination of the train operation platform, China-Europe trains will be further transformed into an internationally influential logistics supply chain.
Since the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia, the explosive growth of freight volume has put the capacity of China-Europe Express trains to a test.
The reporter visited Chongqing, Yiwu, Zhengzhou and other places and found that due to the transfer of a large amount of cargo from the sea, the China-Europe Express also has a tight space.
"In this special period, we can only give priority to guaranteeing long-term cooperation customers." said a person in charge of the China-Europe freight train operation platform in China.
“It’s becoming more and more difficult for China-Europe freight trains to book space.” Xie Yuanpeng, deputy manager of the International Transportation Department of Sinotrans Chongqing Branch, said that only by finding key jams along the line and opening them, can it be possible to increase the capacity of the train. The ports of Central European countries became one of the blocking points during the epidemic.
Lin Huihuan, general manager of Yiwu COSCO International Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd., suggested that while upgrading the domestic infrastructure, it is also necessary to invest in overseas hubs and transportation hubs to break up jams and improve the service guarantee capacity of China-Europe Express overseas sections.
The phenomenon of "going more and returning less goods" in China-Europe freight trains has also become more prominent during the epidemic, which has become one of the reasons for the higher operating costs of freight trains.
"The shortage of goods on the return journey is due to both objective reasons and subjective reasons such as fewer overseas locations and insufficient market development." said Che Tan, deputy secretary-general of the Asia-Europe Land Bridge Logistics Branch of the China Communications and Transportation Association.
Che Tanlai believes that it will promote qualified central enterprises such as China Ocean Shipping (Group) Corporation, China Foreign Trade and Transportation Corporation, and domestic freight train operating platforms to "go global", go overseas to establish their own operating platforms, and strengthen the organization of return sources of goods .
"It is necessary to focus on cultivating a suitable customer base and tap the sources of the'two high' and'two internal' goods, that is, the high value of goods, high timeliness requirements, and the supply of goods from inland China to the European inland, so that these sources will form a new source for China-Europe trains Depends on the path." Che Tan said.
At the same time, behind the more than 70 China-Europe Express train lines are various local operating platforms, and there is still room for further overall planning and integration.
“You can first moderately concentrate resources, make some of the train operation platforms bigger and stronger, create more high-quality routes, and stabilize routes.” Yang Wenjun, executive deputy general manager of Zhengzhou International Dry Port Co., Ltd. suggested, for example, for high-quality train operations and market development. China-Europe Express trains operating cities with outstanding levels of modernization and innovation capabilities will provide key support in technology and finance.
In addition, in the view of industry insiders, China-Europe Express should further improve service quality, reduce operating costs, and enhance brand competitiveness and influence in the international logistics market.
Among them, the improvement of service quality mainly includes the provision of systemic services such as cargo collection, loading, tracking along the way, customs clearance, and distribution, gradually developing from "station to station" to "door to door"; in terms of reducing operating costs, various operating platforms can be grouped together Improve the bargaining power of the railway enterprises of the countries along the route, and further reduce the railway freight rate.
On the other hand, the whole chain from futures, short-distance transportation, handling, warehousing, distribution and other links reduces operating costs.
In fact, the national level is beginning to solve the problem by strengthening the top-level design.
In July last year, the National Development and Reform Commission announced that it will allocate 200 million yuan within the central budget to support the construction of a demonstration project for the assembly center of the China-Europe Railway Express in 5 China-Europe Express Hub cities including Chengdu, Zhengzhou, Chongqing, Xi’an, and Urumqi. This will be beneficial to this. The five major cities use their geographical advantages to integrate market resources, improve market competition mechanisms, and promote the overall high-quality development of China-Europe Express.
In May of this year, the Office of the Leading Group for Promoting the Construction of the “Belt and Road” went to Khorgos, Xinjiang to conduct on-site special investigations on the China-Europe Express trains and held a meeting to propose that the “quantity” accumulated by the China-Europe Express trains should be transformed into the “potential” for future development. To form a stronger market competitiveness; it is necessary to vigorously improve the operation level, and create a "1+N+X" policy system that supports the development of China-Europe Express; it is necessary to promptly break through the blocking points and implement a number of key ports and "stuck necks" Expansion and renovation projects of road sections, efforts to improve infrastructure support capabilities, etc.
"It is foreseeable that the future China-Europe Railway Express will become an international logistics chain with complete infrastructure, balanced return, more market competitiveness and brand value." Che Tan said that it will build a major domestic cycle. Provide strong support for the new development pattern of mutual promotion between the main body and the domestic and international double cycles.