Yu'Xin'Ou Railway (渝新欧) is a freight rail route linking the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing with Duisburg, Germany. It passes through the Alataw Pass into Kazakhstan, and moves through Russia, Belarus and Poland before arriving in Duisburg. The railway is part of a growing rail network connecting China and Europe along the New Silk Road.
Contents
Background
According to the European Commission, as of March 2014, the EU is China's biggest trading partner. Rail transport is becoming increasingly important for trade between Europe and China as the latter promotes industrial hubs in cities further inland in its territory.
Route in China
The name 渝新欧 is an acronym, consisting of Yu 渝 (Chongqing), Xin 新 (Xinjiang), Ou 欧 Europe.
Operators
The Yuxinou train is operated by Trans Eurasia Logistics, a joint venture between Deutsche Bahn and Russian Railways.
Customers and Usage
Most goods transported via this route are from multinational IT companies in Chongqing. One of these is technological giant Foxconn who supplies Hewlett-Packard, Acer Inc. and Apple Inc..
Statistics
The 11,179 km route takes 13 to 16 days to reach Duisburg from Chongqing, compared to the 36-day container ship transport time as well as being safer and less expensive, according to Chongqing authorities.
From January to November, 2012, a total of 40 freight trains ran on the Yuxinou Railway, transporting 1747 containers with 21,000 tons cargo, and worth of 1.15 billion USD. The freight included 3.062 million laptops and 564,000 liquid crystal display screens.
In 2012, the train, "roughly eight football fields [800 yards or meters] long", ran weekly. In early 2014 it runs three times weekly and, "to accommodate a sevenfold increase volume since 2012 -- soon will go daily". By 2020 trade with China could top that Germany has with the Netherlands and France, in 2014 the top two German trade partners.