Recently, a Hunan-Guangdong-Africa rail-sea intermodal train carrying goods such as auto parts departed from the Zhuzhou Inland Port for China-Africa economic and trade cooperation. After the goods arrived at Nansha Port in Guangzhou, they were transferred to ocean-going freighters for export to South Africa. According to statistics, in the first three quarters of this year, the Hunan-Guangdong-Africa Rail-Sea Intermodal Corridor handled a total of 1,072 freight train trips carrying 87,877 containers, with a cargo value of 14.298 billion CNY, up 25.09%, 25.19%, and 39.25% year on year respectively.

As a distinctive logistics corridor for Hunan's trade with Africa, the Hunan-Guangdong-Africa rail-sea intermodal train service uses Zhuzhou as its main assembly center. Foreign trade goods from within Hunan Province and surrounding areas are assembled there, then transported by rail to coastal ports in Guangdong before being shipped to global markets in Asia, Africa, and elsewhere. Major export goods include ceramics, auto parts, construction machinery, daily necessities, and agricultural products, while imported goods include cassava starch and glass products.

The head of auto parts rail-sea intermodal transport business at Zhejiang Jisu Logistics Co., Ltd, a subsidiary of Geely Automobile Group, noted that the company's auto parts and other goods exported to Africa are transported via the Hunan-Guangdong-Africa Rail-Sea Intermodal Corridor. Compared with the traditional road-to-port export model, this approach reduces overall logistics costs by 25%, shortens the total transit time by 15 days, and offers greater reliability.

To improve the operational efficiency of the corridor, Changsha Customs Authority, together with commerce authorities, has promoted measures such as advance declaration and all-weather appointment booking, and deepened customs clearance cooperation with Guangzhou Customs Authority to facilitate the implementation of a rail-sea intermodal transport supervision model. Export enterprises can complete all customs clearance procedures for their goods in a one-stop manner within the province, book space on international cargo ships, and have their goods loaded directly onto ships upon arrival at coastal ports. This reduces port transshipment time by approximately 50% and lowers logistics costs by nearly 30%.

Currently, the efficiency of the Hunan-Guangdong-Africa rail-sea intermodal train service has been greatly improved. The transport time from Zhuzhou to Nansha Port in Guangzhou has been reduced to within 20 hours, and the average transport time to Mombasa Port in East Africa has been shortened to 23 days.

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

Translator: Xiao Juan

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn