1,935 tons of grains on the first Hunan-Guangdong-Africa Rail-Sea Express train will be transferred to an oceangoing freighter to start its marine shipping journey from Nansha port at 15:00 this afternoon. The train departed from Zhuzhou on September 15 and arrived at the Nansha Port on September 20. The whole journey of the rail-sea express was livestreamed on a platform of the China Central Television (CCTV). The freighter will sail towards the South China Sea, pass through the Indian Ocean via the Malacca Strait, and arrive at Mombasa Port in Kenya on October 25.   

The train completed encasement in Zhuzhou, obtained the through B/L issued by the China COSCO Shipping Corporation Limited, and conducted customs clearance in Zhuzhou and got release approval in Nansha Port. Compared with conventional river-sea route, the rail-sea combined transport can reduce freight shortages and damages caused by loading and unloading again and again, and thus cut the transport time and costs. It can shorten the transport time from Hunan to East African base ports by 10 days, and to West African base ports by 9 days.

An innovative practice of building a China-Africa international logistics channel system, the Hunan-Guangdong-Africa Rail-sea Express provides an important logistics channel which links central and western China, even the whole country, with Africa. With Zhuzhou and Hengyang as the main and sub center respectively, it operates regular rail freight trains to and from the ports in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area; build a seamless marine connection between the ports in Greater Bay Area and Africa; and, expand its service to the inland countries of Africa, and further to the regions of Latin America, Asia-Pacific, and Middle East.

This article is from Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Pang Yuehui

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn