New China-Europe freight train route passes through Kazakhstan

A new China-Europe sea-rail freight train route was launched in Xi’an, the capital of northwest China’s Shaanxi province, on March 25, Xinhua news agency reported with reference to China Railway Xi’an Group Co., Ltd.

The first freight train on the route, loaded with cables, gears and other cargo, departed from Xi’an and will pass through Kazakhstan, Belarus and Russia. The cargo will be shipped to the port of Rostock in Germany and transported to Italy’s Verona and Sweden’s Gothenburg and Stockholm.

As of March 25, Xi’an has launched 13 freight train routes linking Kazakhstan, Belgium, Germany, Poland and other countries.

Since the beginning of this year, the Chinese city has launched 593 freight trains, 2.3 times that of the same period last year.

Kazakhstan’s national railways company earlier reported that during the first ten months of 2019, the volume of cargo transportation by rail between China and Kazakhstan amounted to 14.2 million tons, which is 13.4% higher than the plan and 23.8% more than in the same period of the previous year. In 2019, the volume of traffic was to reach 16.5 million tons, to exceed the agreed plan by 1.5 million tons and the indicators of 2018 by 2.5 million tons.

Source: TCA