As the Zhejiang Free Trade Zone's goal of introducing efficient and convenient transportation gains momentum, the Yiwu-Xinjiang-Europe freight train – one of a number of China-Europe express services – has reportedly become a strong driving force for industrial supply chains, promoting China's dual-circulation model.
With the COVID-19 pandemic having greatly affected sea and air transportation capacity, China-Europe freight train services are said to have played a significant role in stabilizing international railway logistics.
Du Jianbo, director of China Railway Shanghai Group's Jinhua Cargo Center, said 1,399 China-Europe freight trains last year departed the prefecture-level city of Jinhua in East China's Zhejiang province – or the county-level city Yiwu under its administration – a year-on-year rise of 130 percent.
Zhejiang province is the source of 28 China-Europe freight train services that carry goods to 59 countries in the Eurasian region.
The commodities transported by the trains include hardware, textiles and clothing, auto parts, daily necessities and engineering equipment.
To meet surging demand, service operators have reportedly been working overtime. This year, the number of the Yiwu-Xinjiang-Europe freight trains is expected to reach 1,800 to 2,000.
In 2020, Jinhua's total foreign trade accounted for 1.6 percent of the national total, second only to Ningbo city in Zhejiang province.
In order to handle such huge transportation demand due to the city's large export and import volume, Jinhua has been speeding its moves to build the East China International Multimodal Transport New City.
The initial planning area of the new city is reportedly about 30 square kilometers.
Plans are for it to build a high-speed rail express zone, an international multimodal transport zone and a 1.5-million-sq-m bulk materials storage and trade zone.
