The China Europe train with epidemic prevention materials set out from Xiangtang, Jiangxi Province, and arrived in Paris, France, on June 23. This train is the first special anti epidemic material train between China and France, carrying masks, gloves, water-soluble bags, touch free disinfectant machines and other products, with a value of 10 million euros.
On June 29, the special anti epidemic goods train of "Yixin Europe" China Europe Express arrived in Madrid, bringing masks, protective clothing and other anti epidemic goods to Spain.
On July 6, the Liski freight station in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, was very busy. With a whistle blaring, the first "Wuhan Kiev" China Europe train pulled into the station slowly.
Under the circumstance that the global sea and air transportation is greatly limited due to the New Coronary Pneumonia epidemic, the China Europe Express, as the main road of land transportation, ran out of the "acceleration". In the first half of this year, the number of China Europe Express increased significantly, with a cumulative number of 5122 trains, a year-on-year increase of 36%; 1169 trains were opened in June, hitting a new record.
According to the data of China National Railway Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "China Railway Group"), from January to May this year, China Europe Railway has run 3953 trains, delivered 356000 standard containers of goods, an increase of 28% and 32% respectively year on year, delivered 12524 tons of epidemic prevention materials, and the round-trip comprehensive heavy container rate reached 98%. During the epidemic, China Europe Express not only maintained the upstream and downstream of the global industrial chain, but also became the preferred "pet" of cross-border enterprises.
"As a comprehensive logistics enterprise, we feel quite obvious. Since this year, our capacity in shipping and air transportation has been greatly reduced." Zhou Xiaoqian, Senior Manager of the Supply Chain Business Department of Sinotrans (hereinafter referred to as "Sinotrans"), pointed out at the recently held "Cloud Forum" on Sino Russian Sino European Train Cooperation. After the outbreak of Xinguan epidemic, some of the goods in her enterprise that used to be transported by sea and air were transported by rail.
"Efficient, convenient, safe and environmentally friendly", in the opinion of the Secretary General of China Association for Overseas Industry Development and Zhenwei, is the main reason why the China Europe train logistics channel has become a new highlight in the international trade field under the continuous epidemic. "The exchanges between China and Europe of the train have contributed a lot to the cooperation between China and Russia, China and Europe in the fight against the epidemic and the resumption of production".
New highlights of international trade
According to the data of China Railway Group, 979 China Europe trains were launched in April, up 46% year on year. In May, the cumulative number of banks opened exceeded 1000, reaching 1033, up 43% year on year. Among them, 93000 TEUs of goods were delivered in May, a year-on-year increase of 48%, and the number of trains opened in a single month and the delivery volume both reached a new record.
In addition to the increase of traffic volume and transportation materials, the train has also been innovating its operation mode during the epidemic. On June 4, the container shipping from Japan via Lianyungang and the scheduled train to Mongolia realized seamless connection, which shortened the time by 4 days, becoming an effective combination of shipping and scheduled train.
As for the eye-catching performance of the China EU train during the epidemic, Sergei Inushen, the Russian business representative in China, stressed that during the epidemic, at the most serious moment, everyone strictly followed the home order. Although the consumption of energy products decreased, the consumption of food was increasing, which became the power source of the train transportation.
A small commodity owner in Yiwu told the First Finance and Economics reporter that the train is similar to a regular bus, with lower freight than air, and shorter journey than sea. "The same batch of small commodities will be transported to Madrid, Spain. Taking the Central European Banlieu will save more than 60% of the shipping time, and the transportation cost will drop by nearly 30%, greatly increasing the added value of export products." At present, the overall operation time between China and Europe is generally 12~15 days, with the fastest time being 10 days, which is 20~30 days less than sea transportation.
Yang Jie, Senior Coordinator of International Affairs of the Eurasian Continental Bridge and International Train Service Center of China Communications and Transportation Association, reviewed the rapid outbreak of China Europe trains during the epidemic in an interview with China Business News. In late January 2020, the Chinese New Year holiday coincided with the outbreak of the epidemic. This superimposed impact and the accompanying epidemic prevention measures and the reduction of shipments led shipping companies and airlines to take measures such as reducing transport capacity and cancel a large number of sea and air routes between China and Europe. On the other hand, from February to mid March, foreign manufacturers relied heavily on inventory and the rationing of "bottleneck" parts.
As the international railway freight between China and Europe is less affected by the epidemic, coupled with the fast transportation efficiency of the commuter train and the flexibility and convenience of arriving in the European landlocked countries, as the main domestic China Europe train routes gradually resumed operation in early February, some export orders that have been backlog since the Spring Festival began to turn to China Europe trains for export to Europe, Russia and other places due to the shortage of shipping and air transport capacity, the role of China Europe trains as a channel began to show.
It is worth noting that while the trains are constantly traveling between China and Europe, there is also a trend of diversification in the materials transported or returned. "After China's domestic gradual resumption of work in early February, the China Europe Express has undertaken the task of transporting epidemic prevention materials and daily necessities when the sea and air transport capacity between China and Europe is affected." Yang Jie said, "This has provided strong support for helping the global war epidemic, ensuring the stability and smoothness of the international supply chain, and promoting the steady development of China's foreign trade industry."
According to incomplete statistics of China Business News, from April to June, the first China Europe train for medical and epidemic prevention materials was launched in Germany, Serbia, France, Poland and other places.
In addition, Yang Jie pointed out that some places have increased their support this year, taking the China Europe Express as an indicator of supporting measures for resuming production, such as Chongqing, Shandong, Chengdu and Xi'an. Among them, Shandong, Xi'an and other places strive to make breakthroughs in the number of banks opened throughout the year. In Yang Jie's view, the logistics support policies, such as the exemption of highway tolls at the current stage, launched in early March of this year to restore the economy affected by the epidemic, also have a certain stimulating effect on the export supply of trains.
New formats in the post subsidy era
As the epidemic situation in some areas at home and abroad becomes more and more stable, China's trade growth potential in the second half of the year mainly depends on Europe. Especially with the gradual recovery of sea transportation and air transportation, how to maintain the "acceleration" of the China Europe train in the post epidemic era has become the focus of attention of all parties.
In the post epidemic era, the decline of subsidies is the first problem that the China Europe train has to face. At the beginning of the operation of China Europe Express, it relied heavily on subsidies from local governments at all levels. The Ministry of Finance requires the local government to reduce the subsidy standard for China Europe trains from 2018: based on the whole journey freight, the subsidy will not exceed 50% of the freight in 2018, 40% in 2019 and 30% in 2020.
Yang Jie told China Business News that with the decline of subsidies, China Europe Express will further become market-oriented. All China Europe Express operators should focus on specific market segments and customer group development, product design and overseas market development.
Zhou Junbo, general manager of Chengdu International Railway Port Investment Development Co., Ltd., also agrees with this view. He said that China Europe Express has shifted from high-speed development to high-quality development. In order to meet the needs of development, both sides should also jointly integrate market resources and provide more services for the market, such as overseas warehousing.
In terms of innovative business formats, Yang Jie believes that in the post subsidy era, the cold chain transportation of China Europe Express is undoubtedly a direction, which helps to increase potential supply of goods and improve the balance between inbound and outbound travel when there are few inbound goods, and is of great significance in reducing the overall operating cost of China Europe Express.
China Europe Express also has potential in agricultural products and food transportation.
Qi Dan, the general manager of Yuxinou (Chongqing) Logistics Co., Ltd., also told the First Finance and Economics reporter that "nowadays, the demand for refrigerated container transportation is growing. However, the cost of refrigerated containers is also higher, which is a large investment. Although the transportation volume of agricultural products such as frozen chicken and frozen beef has increased, they have not yet reached the scale. Later, we need to carefully cultivate the market, and take full account of security, maintenance and monitoring issues".
In Zhou Xiaoqian's view, in the future, the new business forms of the cold chain, postal service, cross-border e-commerce and other trains are expected to mature and grow, so as to further enrich the product system of the entire China Europe train. "Now, many of our customers in the postal and cross-border e-commerce industries have started to try the China Europe Express, which provides a good time window for the future development of China Europe Express." She introduced. This year, Sinotrans launched a postal train from Shilong in Dongguan to Clepeda in Lithuania. 50% of Sinotrans's China Europe trains in Changsha are e-commerce products.
In addition, the construction of "digital train" has become the direction of interest for many logistics enterprises. In the opinion of Chongqing Xinou, Zheng Xinou and other train companies that have participated in the train transportation for many years, in the face of new business formats and new demands, they should innovate and make full use of big data, blockchain, Internet of Things and other technical advantages, promote paperless online coordination of customs and railway business, accurately control the train terminal scheduling plan, and real-time interactive sharing of information and data.
At the same time, with the successful launch of the last networking satellite of "Beidou-3" on the morning of June 23, the application of the global networking Beidou satellite navigation system in the railway is also expanding. The above logistics companies believe that relying on the Beidou satellite, they can accelerate the establishment of a positioning tracking and whole process operation quality tracking system for online trains, achieve seamless connection and barrier free access to every single cargo and every operation link, and create a new mode of train cooperation and development in the post epidemic era.
Yang Jie told China Business News that, no matter from the perspective of freight volume, value, source structure and overseas cooperation, China Europe Express is still at the primary stage of development, and its comprehensive volume is still very small. "The future development of China Europe Express still needs to return to product design, specific market development, international cooperation and other aspects".
Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission has issued a central budget investment of 200 million yuan to support Zhengzhou, Chongqing, Chengdu, Xi'an, Urumqi and other five hub cities of China Europe train to carry out the demonstration project of China Europe train assembly center.
As an important carrier of deepening practical cooperation between Asian and European countries, the National Development and Reform Commission will allocate special funds in the central budget investment in 2020 to support the construction of the demonstration project of the China Europe Train Hub in cities with superior location conditions, good infrastructure and potential operation specifications, and promote the transformation of China Europe Train from "point-to-point" to "hub to hub", Accelerate the formation of an efficient collection and distribution system of "trunk branch combination and hub distribution".