Guilin, Beibu Gulf launch new sea-rail link

The first train on the new sea-rail intermodal train route that links Guilin and Beibu Gulf ports departs from Guilin. [Photo by Feng Rongquan/Guangxi Daily]

A train loaded with around 280 metric tons of talcum powder in 12 containers departed from Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region on July 26, marking the start of a new sea-rail intermodal train route linking Guilin and Beibu Gulf ports.

The cargo will then leave the border at Qinzhou Port to Bangkok, Thailand by ship, and the containers will be directly loaded onto another ship without repackaging. 

A Guilin company staff member who is in charge of exporting the batch of talcum powder said the company used to transport products by trucks to ports in Guangdong province and then load their products on ships for further transportation to countries and regions, such as Southeast Asia. The multiple transit transport can easily damage products.

The operation of this new train route has opened up a new passage on the New Western Land-Sea Corridor. It is expected to not only drive the growth of container shipments to and from Beibu Gulf ports, but also enhance connections between Guilin and logistic nodes on the land-sea trade corridor, helping Guangxi to better develop and construct the land-sea trade corridor.  

At present, a total of 54 container shipping routes and 61 sea-rail intermodal train stations have started operations on the land-sea trade corridor, allowing cargos to reach more than 300 ports in over 100 countries and regions, including Singapore and Germany.