Li Mingzhong, Assistant to the General Manager of Guangzhou Port Co., Ltd., attended the launch event of the train and introduced in his speech that the launched China-Europe freight train in the Nansha Port Area of Guangzhou Port, as an important route of the newly opened “Belt and Road” countries-Nansha Port-Europe/Central Asia routes, is the specific action of Guangzhou Port Co., Ltd. to fully implement the provincial and municipal governments’ strategy of building a modern comprehensive transportation and logistics system in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area; meanwhile, it also plays an important role in the construction of a national logistics hub in Guangzhou, and helps Guangzhou to obtain new space and achieve new development in the use of global resources.

The Nansha Port Area of Guangzhou Port is the geographic and geometric center of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. It is currently a world-class hub port area with the largest scale. In the port area, there is the largest integrated logistics park in South China, with a supporting railway station. The launch of the China-Europe freight train in Nansha Port has brought good news to import and export enterprises with the huge advantage of sea-rail multimodal transport. “The potash fertilizer produced in Uzbekistan is transported to Indonesia through the Central Asia train returning to Nansha Port, which saves more than one third of the time compared to the past, and greatly reduces the customers' capital cost.” The customer representative of the first China-Europe freight train service Liu Luxiang, Commercial Director of Shanghai Tuotie International Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd., said, “With the two-way operation of the China-Europe-Central Asia train in Nansha Port in the future, we will take advantage of the proximity of Nansha Port to Southeast Asian countries and the intensive round-trip routes to focus on attracting the goods of Southeast Asia to/from Europe and Central Asia to be gathered and transited in Nansha Port.”

Based in Nansha, Guangdong Top Ideal Group is a leading enterprise engaged in the cross-border e-commerce business. Li Heng, Assistant to the President of the Company, said, “In recent years, the cross-border e-commerce business in Nansha has grown rapidly. At present, in view that the global epidemic situation is still serious and the international transportation time is unpredictable, the traditional logistics methods can no longer meet the needs of the rapid development of the cross-border e-commerce business. Top Ideal Group currently imports a large number of cross-border e-commerce goods such as milk powder and red wine from Europe to the Nansha Bonded Port Area, and is looking forward to Nansha Port to launch the China-Europe return train as soon as possible. By then, Top Ideal Group will be the first to take the train, providing more efficient and convenient logistics channels for e-commerce customers, and helping the new round of development of Nansha’s cross-border e-commerce industry.”

Liu Heshun, Assistant to the General Manager of Guangzhou Port Logistics Co., Ltd., introduced that the China-Europe freight train is the second direct service from the port area jointly operated by Guangzhou Port and Guangdong Province China-Europe Railway Express Platform Guangwu International Logistics Co., Ltd. on the basis of the normal operation of China-Europe Railway Express in the Huangpu Port Area, marking the launch of the new operation model of “international trains + ports + parks + industries” in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Then, Guangzhou Port will take advantage of the dense Asian routes of the Nansha Port Area to further attract goods of Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asian countries to/from Europe and Central Asia to be gathered and transited in Nansha Port, and to provide more convenient and efficient new Asia-Europe international logistics channels for corporate customers.

“In the past, if the goods gathered in Nansha Port were to be carried by the China-Europe freight train, they had to be transferred to Dalang Station and other China-Europe freight train stations. At present, the companies go through customs clearance procedures in Nansha, and the goods are loaded on the China-Europe freight train at Nansha Port Railway South Station, which reduces the link of customs transit and saves the time and cost of container reposition and storage.” He Wang, General Manager of Guangzhou Baochang International Logistics Co., Ltd., expressed that after the launch of the freight train service at the Nansha Port Railway South Station, the overall logistics time is 2 days shorter than the previous detour from the exit of the Railway Station.

The successful launch of this freight train is inseparable from the strong support of Guangzhou Customs. Its subordinate departments made concerted efforts to overcome the impact of epidemic prevention and control, adopted the form of online video conferences to jointly discuss about supervision plans, and organized system tests two weeks in advance to check for omissions and remove deficiencies to ensure accurate connection and circulation of data. Guangzhou Nansha Customs specially provided policy guidance for the construction of the supervision workplace for the first freight train, designed the precise declaration process, and gave active guidance in many links such as declaration, seal verification, cargo inspection, transfer and truck loading, which greatly reduces customs declaration errors and omissions, actively guide rapid customs clearance, maximize customs clearance efficiency, and help with the high-quality development of China-Europe freight trains in the Greater Bay Area. In addition, the provincial, municipal and district commercial port departments, as well as Guangzhou Railway Group and China Railway International Multimodal Transport Co., Ltd., also contributed greatly to the successful launch of the China-Europe freight train in Nansha Port.

Since its successful trial operation of the first Central Asia return train “Uzbekistan-Dalang-Nansha Port-Southeast Asia” in 2020, up to now, Guangzhou Port has launched a total of 21 round-trip trains to/from Central Europe and Central Asia, with routes connecting to Poland, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, Germany and other places; the customs models involve local customs declaration, district-port cooperation and transit transport; and the shipped goods include electronic products produced in South Korea and Vietnam, as well as household appliances and clothing produced in the Greater Bay Area. (Text by Zou Jingqi, Yu Wen, and Zhao Dezhi; Picture by Zhu Junkun, Huang Yongan, and Li Qijun)