BAKU, Azerbaijan, Sept. 10
By Jalya Gasimova – Trend:
A freight train consisting of 100 standard containers with export goods departed from Jinhua city in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang to Azerbaijan’s Baku city on Sept. 10, Trend reports citing the Xinhua News Agency.
This marked the opening of the 12th China-Europe (including Central Asia) freight train route starting in Jinhua.
Along the new route, the train, loaded mainly with hardware and essential goods, will cross the state border through the Khorgos checkpoint (Xinjiang, Uighur Autonomous Region), Northwest China, and arrive at the Caspian port of Aktau in Kazakhstan’s Aktau city. Afterward, these goods will be supplied to the new Baku port of Alat by ferry and then to the Baku Heybat station.
It is assumed that the transportation period via this multimodal route will reach 15-18 days, which is about a third faster than via the previous routes.
So far, there is only a one-way trip from Jinhua to Baku, but after the number of train departures and the sources of cargo via this route becomes stable, the possibility of opening a return trip will be considered.
Following the statistics obtained from the local railway company, since early 2020 till September 10, despite the COVID-19 epidemic, 210 trains consisting of 17,286 standard containers were sent from Jinhua as part of the China-Europe freight train route (including Central Asia). In particular, 54 trains consisting of 4,710 standard containers were sent in August, which is a 585 percent increase in cargo transportation compared to the previous month.