On April 26, a freight train carrying iron alloys from Kazakhstan arrived at the China-Kazakhstan International Logistics Base in Lianyungang city, located in east China’s Jiangsu Province.
The logistics base, which was built following the Belt and Road Initiative proposal, has been operational since July 2014. The base’s intelligent dispatching center, referred to as the “brain” of the base, has ensured smooth operations. Cheng Fei, the chief dispatcher of the logistics base, uses a smart command system to instruct drivers on loading, resulting in thousands of China-Europe trains passing through the logistics base, which is at the eastern end of the New Eurasian Land Bridge.
Cheng and his colleagues have benefitted from the logistics base’s modernization, as the smart command system continues to improve. Cheng reports that “two workers can complete regular dispatches on a shift,” and a driver can operate three railroad cranes, improving efficiency and reducing risks.
Innovative models of China-Europe freight train services have emerged at the logistics base, including land-sea-air transportation of containers and integrated customs clearance. These advancements have reduced transit time from over four days to less than a day, cutting transport time by half. As of March 14, 2023, the logistics base had facilitated more than 5,000 China-Europe freight train trips.
To date, the logistics base has handled over 1.71 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of goods, with China-Europe freight train routes operating at 104 international freight stations. The freight train services have expanded to include a wide range of goods such as building materials, furniture, electronics equipment, grain, and minerals. Almost 100 percent of fully loaded containers are carried by China-Europe freight trains in both directions.
Thanks to its land-sea transport services, Lianyungang Port handled 1.46 million TEUs of goods in the first quarter of the year, weighing a total of 76.35 million tonnes, representing an increase of 9.8 percent and 15.5 percent, respectively.
