On Aug 26, two "first-of-their-kind in China" freight train services departed simultaneously from Zhengzhou International Land Port—one bound for Absheron, Baku, Azerbaijan, and the other running direct to Laem Chabang, Thailand.
The first was the Southern Corridor China–Europe freight train (Zhengzhou–Baku), which operated as a bill-of-lading (B/L) service. It carried 55 containers loaded with export goods such as auto parts and home appliances, valued at about USD 2.36 million and weighing roughly 370 tonnes. The second was China's first scheduled express freight service on the China–Laos–Thailand route, transporting auto parts from SAIC Motor's Zhengzhou base. The end-to-end journey takes only 5–6 days—nearly half the time of traditional sea shipping. The synchronized inaugural departures not only improve corridor efficiency, but also mark a key breakthrough in multimodal transport documentation rules.
For years, cargo moving along the Trans-Caspian "rail–sea–rail" corridor has relied on traditional railway consignment notes across multiple transfer legs. The resulting paperwork complexity has constrained the development of trade finance along the route, becoming a bottleneck for scaling up the Middle Corridor.
The Zhengzhou–Baku B/L service integrates the CIFA (China International Freight Forwarders Association) international multimodal transport bill of lading with railway freight documentation and provides a practical application scenario aligned with NCD (the United Nations Convention on Negotiable Cargo Documents). This helps address a long-standing shortfall in property-rights/title documentation for overland international trade, enabling "one document for the whole journey," end-to-end traceability, and enhanced financial services across road–rail–sea multimodal transport. The move is expected to raise the standardization, internationalization, and market orientation of cross-border supply chains for international rail services.
The train service bound for Laem Chabang leverages cargo generated by SAIC Motor's Zhengzhou base, located less than 50 kilometers from the Zhengzhou hub for China–Europe freight trains—about an hour away by road—enabling rapid cargo collection and seamless transfers and fully realizing "factory–port linkage" synergies.
Departing from Zhengzhou, the train exits China via the Mohan border port, runs through Laos, and continues directly to Laem Chabang, Thailand. The full trip takes just 5–6 days, 2–3 days faster than earlier regular services. Compared with sea shipping that typically takes 15–18 days, the time savings are close to half. The service also offers strong schedule reliability, less weather disruption, and end-to-end supply-chain visibility and control—providing exporters to Southeast Asia with a more efficient, high-quality, and flexible logistics option.
As an overseas logistics representative long involved in China–Europe freight train operations, Szymon Kurzajewski, China director of Poland-based Q4RAIL, told this reporter that Zhengzhou has consistently been at the center of the company's China strategy.
"We've been closely following the development of the Zhengzhou, China–Europe freight trains. Zhengzhou was among the earliest cities in China to launch services to Europe, and we've worked very closely with partners here. Today, Zhengzhou has become a strategic focus of our development in China," he said.
Commenting on the local business environment, Kurzajewski noted that Zhengzhou's infrastructure has improved significantly recently and that the city's pace of development has impressed him. "I've just spoken with several partners, and everyone agrees Zhengzhou has changed a lot. We're very optimistic about the opportunities ahead," he said. With more Chinese companies expanding into European markets, he added, the range of goods shipped from Zhengzhou to Europe is becoming increasingly diverse. "We hope to ship more product categories from Zhengzhou in the future, further increasing volumes."
He also outlined Q4RAIL's overseas service capabilities: "We provide end-to-end logistics services for Chinese companies on the overseas side, including station-to-door delivery, transshipment, and warehousing—full-chain services. We hope to expand cooperation with more Chinese companies."
According to information provided, since the first service began operations in 2013, Henan's China–Europe freight trains have built an international logistics network linking 29 overseas direct stations and 10 border crossings. The network now serves more than 40 countries and 140 cities, with cumulative departures exceeding 19,000 trains and total cargo value nearing USD 50 billion.
(Reported by Liu Rui, with intern Yang Bohan, Henan)
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