New freight train launched between Liuzhou, Moscow to boost Guangxi exports

The first China-Europe freight train running directly between Liuzhou and Moscow, Russia, departs from Liuzhou on May 18. [Photo by Huang Yanmei/China News Service]

The first China-Europe freight train to run directly between Liuzhou and Moscow, Russia, departed from Liuzhou on May 18 to become Guangxi's only direct China-Europe freight train.

The train, laden with 57 loading machines and four land levelers, will travel around 11,000 kilometers and arrive in Moscow in around 20 days, after crossing the border at Manzhouli in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

The new route is scheduled to operate once or twice a month. It will take high-quality products from Guangxi to serve the development of the Belt and Road Initiative and help the social and economic growth of Moscow.

Tang Guide, a staff member from China Railway Nanning Group, said that the operation of this new train route will increase the convenience of Liuzhou's outbound transport channels, enhance connections between Liuzhou's manufacturing sector and foreign trade companies and global markets, as well as boost Liuzhou's economic development. 

The new route will cut down logistics costs for companies and help them increase their competitiveness, as they no longer need to transport their cargo to other cities such as Chengdu and Xi'an for transit. Their cargo can now be declared in Liuzhou directly.

Luo Guobing, vice president of Guangxi Liugong Group, said that in 2002 the company became the first machinery company in China to explore the Russian market. The number of machinery products sold by the group in Russia has since exceeded 18,000.

Luo added that the freight train can help the company save more than two weeks in transportation, as their products used to be transported by sea from Liuzhou to St. Petersburg first and then be transported to Moscow by trucks.