At around 10 a.m. on November 24th, as the 19012 freight train departed from the west marshalling station of Huaihua, Huaihua International Land Port has launched 900 ASEAN freight-train this year, nearly twice the total of 455 trains from the previous year, with a year-on-year increase of 197.8%. Among them, 296 are China-Laos freight trains, keeping the largest number of China-Laos freight trains in central China.
The role of the China Laos Railway as the golden channel for international freight transportation is increasingly prominent with the import and export of the regular train transportation booming at both ends. In 2024, there has been a new breakthrough in the transporting mode of Huaihua International Land Port, with the number of scheduled trains between China and Laos keeping rising from one train per week to three trains per week, greatly increasing transportation capacity via the “Hunan-Yunnan and Lancang-Mekong Line”.
In addition, inter provincial cooperation promotes the rise of the central regions of the country. The cooperation among Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi provinces has become increasingly close, bringing agglomeration effect of advantageous goods and geometrical growth of siphon effect. For example, chemicals produced in Hubei province have become the top cargo of China-Laos international freight train. Ammonium sulfate and ammonium bicarbonate produced in Ezhou, Hubei Province and transported to Laos via Huaihua International Land Port save nearly 50% of transportation costs and improve transportation efficiency by 20%, significantly reducing costs and increasing efficiency. By November 24th, chemical products transported to Laos via Huaihua International Land Port under the cooperation mechanism of Hunan, Hubei, and Jiangxi provinces has reached 33000 tons, a year-on-year increase of 146%.
The import volume of cassava starch, ore and other goods imported from Laos and Thailand in Southeast Asia keeps a steady increase too. In 2024, the import of cassava starch has reached 3734 TEUs, a year-on-year increase of 356%, with a value of about 150 million yuan and a weight of nearly 50000 tons, making Huaihua a cassava starch distribution center.
What’s more, 5000 tons of high-quality chromite ore imported from South Africa by Yiyatong Supply Chain Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Huaihua International Land Port Development Co., Ltd., has been unloaded at Qinzhou Port and will soon be transported to various smelting enterprises in Huaihua and Guizhou province by trains. This not only initially realizes the comprehensive foreign trade pattern of "buying goods around the globe and selling goods from Huaihua", but also becomes a new increase for the company's train transportation.
Huaihua International Land Port strives to help local products expand overseas markets through land and sea intermodal transportation. High quality products such as luggage from port-related Industrial Park, bamboo and wood products from Huitong county, and oranges from Mayang county have become popular export products, sharply increasing export volume of the land port. Since July, 2024, Huitong Rongjing Bamboo Industry Co., Ltd., has transformed bamboo and wood resources into export products with a monthly export increment of 20 TEUs. All these products are sold well in ASEAN countries such as Thailand and Vietnam, setting a local example for promoting rural revitalization.
Huaihua International Land Port keeps strengthening logistics by organizing transportation to improve turnover efficiency and enhance cargo distribution capacity, thus greatly promoting the high-level opening and high-quality development of Huaihua. In the future, based on the smart cold chain logistics park, Huaihua International Land Port will build an model international land port featuring cold chain logistics, continue to improve capacity of the international cold chain transportation on the China-Laos railway and to develop the source of import and export goods by making good use of the intelligent equipment of the cold chain, so as to achieve high-quality development of export-oriented economy.
(Translated by Chen Min)