The average shipping time between China and Europe is 28 days. Road transport will reduce this time by one week, and rail transport can reduce it by two weeks. The “China-Europe Express Construction and Development Plan (2016-2020)” formulated by the National Development and Reform Commission has identified three major logistics channels, namely the East Line, the Central Line, and the West Line, and four border land port nodes, namely Manchuria, Erlianhot, Alashankou, and Horgos, and has clearly defined the five-year development goal, namely, by 2020, a comprehensive service system with a reasonable layout, complete facilities, stable transportation volume, convenient and efficient, safe and smooth operation will be basically formed, and the annual operation of China-Europe Express will be about 5,000.
In fact, the number of China-Europe Express trains in 2018 has exceeded 6,363, with 51 train lines arranged, mainly in the export direction, and the number of return trains has reached half of the outbound trains. The number of “China-Europe·Yuxinou” trains accounts for 45% of the total number of China-Europe Express trains in the country. The opening of the China-Europe Express has given the closed hinterland areas the opportunity to transform into China’s open frontier areas, and to deliver export goods directly to the hinterland of Europe. As domestic manufacturing has shifted from coastal areas to inland areas, the trains have balanced the supply chain costs and transportation timeliness of enterprises to a certain extent.
The overall price is half of the air freight price, and the running time is half of the sea freight time. The Zhengzhou-Xinjiang-Europe Express can reach Warsaw in 13 days and Hamburg in 16 days. After picking up the goods, it can be transferred to the whole of Europe in 2-3 days. The time limit will be shorter when passing through Russia, Central Asia and Eastern Europe. It departs on time, the route is stable, and there are indoor transshipment places at the border between Alashankou and Dostyk. It is not affected by weather and other reasons, and it does not stop all year round. There are few restrictions on cargo specifications, and it supports the transportation of live, liquid, powder and other goods, and supports whole trains, whole containers and bulk cargo consolidation.
“China-Europe Express + Overseas Warehouse + Bonded Warehouse” is undoubtedly an ideal combination, suitable for products with high added value and high turnover, and also suitable for sellers and importers in the European market. Its normal operation has also played a role in alleviating the shortage of air transportation. Therefore, the train has derived many supporting services for trans-Eurasian railway freight, such as customs clearance, transshipment and document procedures, forming a two-way operation of the entire channel, such as empty container collection, receipt, customs declaration at the place of origin, customs clearance, multimodal transport, pick-up and delivery, unpacking and distribution.
When the World Railway Organization was first established, it did not include mail and express delivery in the scope of transportation, which made the customs of various countries unclear about the supervision of cross-border railway mail transportation, while air and sea transportation have mature systems for this. After China joined the Convention on the International Carriage of Goods by Rail, electronic supervision was implemented for international railway mail transport, making regular train mail transport no longer complicated. Mail can be successfully shipped out of the country in the original box and vehicle at Alashankou. The EDI systems of countries along the way are interconnected to submit transit documents in advance, so that non-stop customs clearance can be achieved without unpacking, unsealing, or changing the mode of transportation. After the goods enter Europe, pan-European distribution of air-rail transport, sea-rail transport, and land transport is relatively mature.
Railway resources are special and scarce, and many local governments are also actively responding to join the ranks of opening. The source of goods is the primary issue for the development of China-Europe trains. At present, it is overly dependent on local subsidies from the main source of goods to the inland railway hub nodes, and the intensity and sustainability of subsidies are also directly related to the freight market price.
There are duplicate train routes from similar domestic regions to major European regions. The duplicate routes lead to the intersection of the hinterland of return cargo, insufficient return cargo, and the overseas end is not in the same station or city, so it is difficult to achieve point-to-point round trips. The phenomenon of returning empty boxes is serious. In addition, the overseas railway tolls are high, and the cost remains high. The return cargo is mainly various consumer goods, complete vehicles, auto parts and wood. If the temperature and humidity during the transportation process can be guaranteed, and the imported quality of milk powder and fresh food can be guaranteed, the import demand of e-commerce will be further released. At present, many cross-border traders do not have the corresponding import qualifications abroad. From the perspective of customs supervision, many cross-border logistics are difficult to transport by rail. In the long run, the policy level will continue to promote the development of trains, strive for preferential international freight rates and convenience of port customs clearance.
Among the emerging channels of cross-border transportation, China has joined the Transport International Routier (TIR), and China-Europe international road drop-and-hook transportation has been opened. TIR documents provide tariff guarantees for transit goods, and there is no need to pay a transit deposit. The goods are sealed throughout the journey, and the transit country does not need to open the box for inspection when verifying the information on the TIR document. TIR is suitable for neighboring countries as pilot border trade ports. For example, in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Guangxi, outbound trucks can reach Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and other countries through land ports. For example, the advantages of Singapore’s airport free trade can be used to adopt cross-border land multimodal transport when exporting to the Malaysian Peninsula. The proportion of multimodal transport in China’s transportation is less than 2%, and the containerized transportation volume is very small, but Guangdong-Hong Kong transportation is an exception. The volume of goods transferred from port to air is large and has been very busy.