On the morning of October 13, a freight train of China Railway Express (CRE) with 82 containers of export goods left Guangzhou Dalang Railway Station for Russia, as the 81st CRE train dispatched from Guangzhou this year.

Over the first three quarters, Guangzhou dispatched a total of 79 CRE trains for Europe with 7,412 containers and 38,557 tons of goods, exceeding the corresponding quantities in full 2019. At present, CRE dispatch from Guangzhou is 4-5 trains per week, increased from 1-2 trains, hitting a new high since 2016. 

The CRE freight, covering the countries/regions along the “Belt and Road”, presents bigger capacity, less cost, less time, and smaller influence by weather. Thus, in recent years, household appliances made around the Pearl River Delta are being delivered by CRE from Guangzhou to Europe.  

In support of CRE international freight, Guangzhou Customs has rolled out 15 measures such as optimizing the logistics chains, reconstructing the goods yard, coordinating transport hubs involved, simplifying declaration procedures, and promoting customs bond policies to increase CRE operational routes, scopes and shifts at higher efficiency.  

This year, with the customs support, Guangzhou-based CRE has achieved the first return freight of imports, the first freight of cross-border e-commerce parcels, the first export of used cars, the first bonded import of potash fertilizer, and the first opening of “Central Asia-Guangzhou-Southeast Asia” logistics corridor in “railway-highway-waterway” combined transportation; additionally, it has increased 4 new export routes (“Guangzhou-Alataw Pass-Malaszewicze, Poland”; “Guangzhou-Horgos-Tashkent, Uzbekistan”; “Guangzhou-Manzhouli-Vorsino, Russia”; “Guangzhou-Erenhot-Selyatino, Russia”) and 2 new import routes (“Segezha, Russia-Manzhouli-Guangzhou”, “Tashkent, Uzbekistan-Horgos-Guangzhou”), further facilitating the international trade with Europe and Central Asia under the “Belt and Road” initiative.