The number of China-Europe Express trains has exceeded 10,000 for two consecutive years, and the price is on par with that of ocean shipping, and the time is reduced by half
In 2021, once again witnessed the booming development of China-Europe Express.
According to the latest data from the Ministry of Transport of China, from January to the end of November this year, a total of about 14,000 China-Europe freight trains were operated and 1.332 million TEUs were transported, an increase of 23% and 30% year-on-year respectively.
This is the second time since last year that the number of China-Europe Express trains has exceeded 10,000.
Last year, due to the epidemic situation that caused traditional sea and air transportation to be unsmooth, the China-Europe Railway Express has emerged as the "passage of life" for transportation.
This year coincides with the 10th anniversary of the launch of China-Europe Express.
The above data also shows that in the past 10 years, the total number of China-Europe freight trains has exceeded 40,000, with a total value of more than 200 billion U.S. dollars (approximately 1.2 trillion yuan), and 73 operating routes have been opened, reaching more than 160 in 22 European countries. City.
In response, Yang Jie, senior coordinator of international affairs at the International Express Service Center of the China Transport Association, told CBN that the opening of China-Europe Express Express in 2021 will continue to be popular in 2020, “in the context of the continuing impact of the epidemic on the global economy. The international market’s strong demand for alternative transportation of China-Europe trains has directly led to the number of trains operating for the second consecutive year exceeding 10,000 trains. At the same time, it has also driven the terminal market freight rate, which has now exceeded the US$15,000 mark."
According to his understanding, the combined total of the four central and western cities of Chongqing, Xi’an, Chengdu, and Zhengzhou accounted for more than 70% of the country’s total. In addition, Jiangsu (including Suzhou, Nanjing, Xuzhou) and Yiwu (including Jinhua) , Changsha, Shandong, Wuhan, Hefei and other places have formed a normalized and stable operation, "China-Europe rail assembly centers continue to play a major role."
European freight forwarders increase the Chinese market
Since the beginning of this year, not only new routes have continued to emerge, but in the post-epidemic era, the promotion of trade between China and Europe has also attracted the attention of many foreign logistics companies.
At the end of November, the German Federal Railways (DB, hereinafter referred to as "Deutsche Bahn"), Europe's largest freight railway company, chose to set up its subsidiary directly in China.
At that time, Deutsche Bahn officially announced on its official website that it would establish a new subsidiary "DB CargoTranAsia" (DB CargoTranAsia) to realize direct freight connections between China and 18 European countries.
And this subsidiary is located in Shanghai, China.
Prior to this, Deutsche Bahn has been fully responsible for the rail freight business in Europe and Asia through its subsidiary "DB Cargo Euroasia".
But the headquarters of this subsidiary is in Berlin, Germany.
In response, Frank Schulze, general manager of Deutsche Bahn International Freight Forwarding (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., told CBN that after 2018, with the closer trade between China and Europe, Deutsche Bahn has increased its presence in the Chinese market. For example, the expansion of the team in Shanghai and Xi'an, China, "but in the face of the rapid development of the train trade, it seems that it is not enough."
China has always been one of the EU's most important trading partners and Germany's most important trading partner.
Most cargo transportation between these two regions is carried out by ships.
Deutsche Bahn officially opened the Europe-China train service in 2011. Only 900 containers were shipped that year. It mainly carried high-value electronic products exported to Europe and auto parts and accessories to various automakers in China.
By 2020, Deutsche Bahn Cargo has transported approximately 200,000 containers back and forth between Asia and Europe.
Xiuercai emphasized that after the establishment of the new subsidiary, Chinese freight customers can enjoy a complete set of services for pickup, transportation, and unloading. “In the past, customers usually had to entrust various service operators for this.”
Since the beginning of this year, thanks to the vigorous development of China-Europe freight trains, Deutsche Bahn Cargo has participated in the opening of several new freight routes between China and Europe.
What impressed Sauercai most was the connection between China's Shanghai and Hamburg, Germany, two cities with huge trade volume in the form of China-Europe Express.
At present, this "Shanghai" China-Europe train has realized the mutual operation of Shanghai and Hamburg.
"Our key task in the future is to continue to develop this market and welcome more customers to participate in this route." He said, "We will also continue to deepen our cooperation with China's strategic partner, China National Railway Corporation."
In addition, Schulcai also stated that Deutsche Bahn Cargo has also developed other border crossings to Europe this year. For example, it can transfer containers to Scandinavia, Scandinavia, Italy through the hub in Rostock, Germany. Rhone and elsewhere, "this means that Chinese goods have more opportunities to penetrate the European market."
In addition to the increase in trade volume between China and Europe, in Xiuercai's view, railway transportation is undoubtedly an "environmentally friendly" mode of transportation when all countries are emphasizing low carbon and emission reduction.
He contrasted that the carbon emissions of railway transportation are about 95% lower than that of airplanes and more than 80% lower than that of road transportation. "Rail transportation is economical and environmentally friendly."
Du Hua, an overseas staff member of Central Asia Baofeng International Logistics Co., Ltd., told the media that the current freight rate of China-Europe Express is basically the same as that of ocean freight, but it only takes half a month to travel by rail, which is more than half the time of ocean freight.
At present, the European Union has given a timetable for carbon emission targets and is increasingly relying on renewable energy.
Xiuercai believes that in the future, customers will pay more attention to the green supply chain, so there is huge space for cross-border rail transportation represented by China-Europe Express.
Deutsche Bahn estimates that it will more than double the transport volume of its European Express trains by 2025, from the estimated 250,000 containers this year to at least 500,000.
At the same time, in the future, the number of China-Europe express trains may increase by about 3,000 trains on the basis of 12,000 trains each year.
Is geopolitical fluctuation a "blocker"?
If the post-epidemic trade demand and green logistics between China and Europe are the potential for the future development of China-Europe Express, many "sweet troubles" have also emerged.
For example, the popularity of the China-Europe express train has directly led to the normalization of port congestion at home and abroad.
“The number of China-Europe Express trains operating between 12,000 and 15,000 per year has reached or is close to the upper limit of railway capacity under the current operating mode,” said Yang Jie. “From the second half of 2020 to the entire year of 2021, China-Europe Express The continuous and varying degrees of congestion at the four major ports exiting China is a reflection of this situation."
In the overseas transport section, various elusive geopolitical factors in 2021 have also added a little uncertainty to the passage of China-Europe express trains.
Earlier, when the refugee crisis between Belarus and Poland escalated, Belarus threatened to close its domestic freight channels in an attempt to allow the China-Europe Express to bypass Poland and enter Europe.
Recently, the tension between Russia and Ukraine has also increased unabated, and it was once exaggerated by the Western media as a raging war.
And Belarus, Poland, Russia and other countries deeply involved in geo-conflict are all necessary places for the China-Europe Express to enter Europe.
However, Yang Jie said that the current online content about the blocking of the overseas section of the China-Europe Railway Express is all false news.
He explained to a reporter from China Business News that there are currently about 60 or 70 China-Europe freight trains, but the ones that are truly normalized, lined up, and scaled are mainly those sent to Russia, Poland, and Germany. .
“It’s undoubtedly the most convenient way to enter Europe from Brest, Belarus, through the Malašević port in Poland.” Yang Jie said, “90% of the China-Europe Express trains between China and the EU use this route.”
According to data from the Polish Institute of Economics (PIE), the complete closure of freight traffic along the border between Poland and Belarus (road and railway crossing points) will mean a loss of at least 1.6 billion euros in export revenue to Belarus and a reduction of 1 billion euros in import expenditures.
And Poland is also worried that the transit goods of the China-Europe Express will be transferred to places outside Poland, which will also cause Poland to lose this huge benefit.
Of course, the practice of the China-Europe train in recent years shows that in addition to the Brest/Malašević channel, there are indeed channels to enter Europe, such as through Ukraine’s Qiaopu, Latvia’s Riga, and Lithuania’s Vilnius. Can enter Europe, but Yang Jie said that the above-mentioned channel is not as good as the operational advantage of the Brest/Marasevic port and the convenience of connecting with Central and Eastern Europe.
"Given that the main destination of the China-Europe Express train in Europe is Germany, compared with the Brest/Marasevic port, the above-mentioned border crossing points have longer mileage to Germany and lack of matching return cargo. There is no advantage in freight rate and timeliness." Yang Jie said.
Yang Jie believes that as the shipping market is expected to gradually return to normal within a year or two, coupled with the accelerating process of regional integration, and the flow of some production capacity from China to Southeast Asian countries, some of the cargo sources of China-Europe Express may face loss. "China-Europe Express If it is not possible to further develop overseas markets, extend its services to the domestic trade business field, and develop multimodal transport on the current basis, there may be a situation where various regions compete for foreign trade supplies again."
From the perspective of overseas transportation, Xiurcai said that in order to maintain the current good momentum of the China-Europe express train, it is also necessary to improve the operational efficiency of border ports, such as customs clearance, loading, and unloading speeds, increase different border crossing points, increase truck fleets, and Make better use of big data services such as IT systems.
(Author: Pan Yinru)