DHL Global Forwarding has launched daily rail services from Beijing and Shanghai to Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and back.
The service links 14 cities in China with seven CIS countries and Russia. Ocean freight through the China ports of Lianyungang, Tianjin and Qingdao can be directly loaded onto the rail network or taken by road and consolidated before taking to the tracks in Beijing or Shanghai.
DHL said the “China land bridge” cut transit time from an average of 35 to 42 days by sea to 19 to 25 days by rail and cost 90 per cent less than air freight. It was 30 per cent faster than ocean freight and cut CO2 emissions by 95 per cent compared to air freight on certain routes.