Recently, with a long whistle blowing, a China-Europe Railway Express loaded with household appliance accessories, transit vehicles and other goods slowly departed from Weihai International Logistics Multimodal Transport Center to Malaszewicze, Poland and Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
"Stability, safety and speed are the most outstanding advantages of China-Europe Railway Express." Sun Runmeng, Manager of Weihai International Logistics Multimodal Transport Center, said that more and more domestic and foreign customers choose to transport goods through China-Europe Railway Express.
As a concrete driving force for high-quality joint construction of the Belt and Road, China-Europe Railway Express has become a key force to promote global development and connectivity. Since the beginning of this year, China-Europe Railway Express (Weihai) has shipped more than 8,000 TEUs, marking a year-on-year increase of 3.5 times.
It is understood that the total number of international routes of China-Europe Railway Express in Weihai has reached 8, with 6 entry and exit ports, and more than 50 overseas cities and stations have been connected. The delivery range has expanded from Germany, Poland and other European countries to Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and other countries.
"This Railway Express carries 70 TEUs of goods, including traditional goods such as household appliance accessories and transit vehicles from South Korea" Sun Runmeng introduced that relying on the fast transportation of China-Europe Railway Express,Weihai's unique location advantage in trade with South Korea and the logistics advantage of sea-rail connection, combined with customs clearance logistics facilitation measures, the company's market competitiveness has been greatly improved, attracting more and more customers from South Korea to use Weihai as a transit channel to Europe and Asia.
"We have continuously optimized the supervision service for China-Europe Railway Express, implemented precise policies to promote information sharing and connectivity, and support the transformation of China-Europe Railway Express (Weihai) from 'point-to-line' to 'line-to-network,'” said GuRui, Director of Weihai Customs Office in Wendeng affiliated to Qingdao Customs District P.R.China. He noted that in recent years, the customs has taken measures such as advance declaration and appointment for customs clearance to improve the efficiency of goods inspection and release. Additionally, they have strengthened communication and coordination with border port customs to continuously unblock the "China-Europe Railway Express + sea-rail intermodal transport" transit channel, supported enterprises to open the "China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan" road-rail intermodal transport route, helped expand the scope and increase the efficiency of the Railway Express.
"The volume of shipments has increased this year, and transit goods are the absolute pillar." Sun Runmeng said that the enterprise has actively explored the potential of foreign markets, built a stable transit route, and continuously enriched the types of goods to be transported. Products such as auto parts and copper foil now also being carried on China-Europe Railway Express. "We have also laid out the 'China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan' railway project in advance and opened the new route 'Weihai-Kashgar-Central Asia', which has achieved excellent results and has become our main route."
It is understood that the "Weihai-Kashgar-Central Asia" route adopts road-rail intermodal transport of containers. After arriving in Kashgar, Xinjiang by railway, it will leave China from Torugart Port by road and finally arrive in Tashkent, Uzbekistan via Kyrgyzstan, taking 16 days. "Compared with the traditional exit through Khorgos Port, this route can save five days in transit time and provide a more efficient and faster logistics channel for trade exchanges between Weihai and Central Asia." said GuRui.
In the next step,Weihai Customs will continue to support the volume growth of China-Europe Railway Express, further promote efficient and smooth logistics channels, continuously optimize the business environment, and constantly upgrade opening-up, so as to contribute more customs strength to the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative. (Text by Shi Peng)
Disclaimer：The above content is translated from Chinese version of Qingdao Customs. The Qingdao Customs version shall prevail.