Goods packed in shipping containers are ready to be delivered via freight train service at the Huaihua International Land Port. (Photo by Zhang Zhuo and Chen Jie/Huaihua Daily)
It was learned on June 25 from the Land-Sea New Corridor Operation (Hunan) Co., Ltd. that the Huaihua International Land Port achieved remarkable results from January to May this year. A total of 481 freight trains were operated during the period, a year-on-year increase of 45%. The import and export trade presented a mutually prosperous trend, showing strong development momentum.
Staff in the main port area operated forklifts to load 500 tons of ammonium sulfate from Hubei Province into containers. This shipment will be transported via the China-Vietnam freight train to ASEAN countries, with an expected delivery time of just three days to Vietnam, which reflects the highly efficient operation of Huaihua International Land Port.
According to data, in the first five months of this year, Huaihua International Land Port operated 481 freight trains, with 24,030 shipping containers delivered, weighing about 400,000 tons and worth around 3.3 billion CNY. Among these, 10 cold chain trains carried 510 TEUs, achieving 85% of the annual target. The outbound cargo includes luggage, general merchandise, and ammonium sulfate, while inbound goods mainly consist of cassava starch, longan fruits, bananas, and other products.
Ran Yunfang, director of the Operations Department of the Land-Sea New Corridor Operation (Hunan) Co., Ltd., stated that transported goods cover 17 categories with 406 product types. The proportion of low-value goods such as ores has declined, with the value per container rising from 120,000 yuan at the end of last year to 140,000 yuan now, indicating a significant improvement in cargo quality.
By 2025, Huaihua International Land Port will add six new routes, bringing the total to 161 routes, a 3.87% increase, with the transport network covers 158 ports and stations in 52 countries and regions around the world. Leveraging the powerful radiating role of the international land port, Huaihua’s foreign trade has continued to rise steadily. In the first five months of this year, Huaihua’s foreign trade import and export value reached 6 billion yuan, an 8% year-on-year increase, with the growth rate ranking among the top three in Hunan Province.
From the perspective of route composition, there are 161 iron-sea trains, 142 China-Laos trains, 17 China-Vietnam trains, and 161 domestic trains, with the freight trains head for ASEAN countries playing a particularly important role. In terms of cargo sourcing, Huaihua has actively implemented the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi cooperation agreement, to promote the ASEAN-oriented cargoes of the cities along the Jiaozuo-Liuzhou and Shanghai-Kunming railways to gather in Huaihua. Cargoes such as ammonium sulfate, luggage and bags, groceries, medium-sized buses, sodium metabisulfite, and thermoplastic rubber from Hubei, Jiangxi, Yunnan, and Jiangsu can be transported directly to ASEAN.
The government of Huaihua City has offered preferential policies and services for the development of the Huaihua International Land Port. An innovative subsidy mode has been adopted at the port, to reduce the logistics cost of enterprises. Meanwhile, the policies of cargo concentration in port have been coordinated with the preferential rail freight fares, decreasing the railway costs by up to 52%, which provided a solid guarantee for the enterprises to expand production and increase efficiency. For example, Hunan Wanxiang New Materials Technology Company has utilized the land-sea new corridor to import natural rubber latex, cutting transportation costs by about 60% compared to previous methods.
(Translated by Yang Hong)