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(Containers are neatly stacked in the main area of Huaihua International Land Port, ready to be loaded for shipment. Photo by: Zhang Zhuo, omnimedia reporter from Huaihua Daily; correspondent: Chen Jie)

On June 25, the reporter learned from Land-Sea Corridor Operation (Hunan) Co., Ltd. that between January and May this year, Huaihua International Land Port delivered an outstanding result by handling 481 train trips, a year-on-year increase of 45%. The land port witnessed import and export boom and demonstrated strong development momentum.

In the main area of Huaihua International Land Port, workers are operating forklifts in an orderly manner to load 500 metric tons of ammonium sulfate from Hubei into containers. The ammonium sulfate will be sold to ASEAN countries via the China-Vietnam train service, which is expected to arrive in Vietnam in three days. This is just one aspect of the efficient operation of Huaihua International Land Port.

Data shows that in the first five months of this year, Huaihua International Land Port handled 481 trips. A total of 24,030 TEUs of goods were transported, weighing about 400,000 metric tons and worth about RMB3.3 billion. Among them, 10 trips were made by cold chain trains, transporting a total of 510 TEUs and completing 85% of the annual objective. The exported goods included bags, suitcases, general merchandise, and ammonium sulfate, while the imported goods were mainly tapioca, longan, and bananas.

The transported goods currently cover 406 goods in 17 categories, according to Ran Yunfang, head of the Operations Department of Land-Sea Corridor Operation (Hunan) Co., Ltd. The proportion of low-value goods such as ore has decreased, the value of goods per TEU has increased from RMB120,000 at the end of last year to RMB140,000, and the quality of goods has been significantly enhanced.

In terms of channel development, Huaihua International Land Port added six new routes in 2025, bringing the total number of routes to 161, with an increase of 3.87%. Its transportation network covers 158 ports and stations in 52 countries and regions around the globe. By giving play to the role of its international land port as a growth engine, Huaihua has continuously gained momentum in foreign trade. In the first five months of this year, Huaihua’s foreign trade imports and exports reached RMB6 billion, an increase of 8% year-on-year, and the growth rate ranked among the top three in Hunan Province.

In terms of train structure, there were 161 rail-sea train trips, 142 China-Laos freight train trips, 17 China-Vietnam train trips, and 161 domestic train trips, among which ASEAN train trips occupied an important position. In terms of goods supply organization, Huaihua actively implemented the cooperation agreement between Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi and worked to concentrate supplies of goods for ASEAN from cities along the Jiaozuo-Liuzhou Railway and Shanghai Kunming Railway in Huaihua. Ammonium sulfate, bags, suitcases, general merchandise, medium-sized buses, sodium metabisulfite, thermoplastic rubber and other goods from Hubei, Jiangxi, Yunnan and Jiangsu were directly transported to ASEAN.

In terms of policy and service support, Huaihua International Land Port has received strong support. The innovative direct subsidy model has reduced the logistics costs of enterprises. In addition, the port collection policy and railway rate discounts have been coordinated to reduce the railway rate by up to 52%. Take Hunan Wanxiang New Material Technology Co., Ltd. as an example. Compared with traditional transportation methods, the land-sea corridor has reduced the costs of importing natural rubber latex by about 60%, providing strong support for the enterprise to expand production and improve efficiency.

(Translated by Professor Yu Jie)