Qingdao Daily/Guanhai News, January 12th – In 2025, the China-Europe Railway Express in the SCO Demonstration Area delivered another impressive performance. On January 12th, Guanhai News reporters learned from the SCO Demonstration Area Management Committee that throughout 2025, the area handled 1,225 inbound and outbound China-Europe Railway Express trains, with a total of 840,000 tons of import and export goods. Both the number of train services and the freight volume saw a growth of over 20%.
Recently, two "Japan-Korea Land-Sea Express" trains, part of the Shandong China-Europe Railway Express coordinated and operated by Shandong High-Speed Group, departed from the Multimodal Transport Center of the SCO Demonstration Area. These trains, fully loaded with commercial vehicles, tires, and air conditioning parts, were shipped by sea from Incheon Port in South Korea to Huangdao Port. After being unloaded, the cargo was consolidated and dispatched by the Jiao-Huang freight train service. The trains are set to exit through the Horgos Port and are expected to arrive at the Shandong China-Europe Railway Express consolidation center in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in about 7 days.
To date, the SCO Demonstration Area has established 3,222 regular domestic and international train routes, connecting to 54 cities in 23 countries within the SCO and along the "Belt and Road" initiative. This has created an international logistics corridor that connects Japan and South Korea to the east, Eurasia to the west, Mongolia and Russia to the north, and ASEAN to the south. The total number of inbound and outbound China-Europe Railway Express trains has surpassed 5,400. Specialized trains for home appliances, tires, commercial vehicles, and grain have been running regularly. Customized supply chain trains have also been launched for companies like Haier, Hisense, Linglong, and Chery, serving over 7,000 foreign trade enterprises.
To build an efficient cross-border logistics and trade system, the SCO Demonstration Area has been expanding its network of domestic and international logistics nodes. It has supported Shandong High-Speed Group in establishing overseas consolidation centers in places like Belgrade, Almaty, Moscow, and Vientiane, covering Central Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and Southeast Asia, thereby deepening cooperation in key regions. The Moscow consolidation center, operational since 2025, has linked with Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk Oblast, the Far East region, and the China-Belarus Industrial Park. It has established a circular train route, exporting parts to Haier's Russian factory and carrying Tatar petroleum coke on the return journey, further reducing overseas logistics and warehousing costs for businesses.
The construction of the Qingdao hub of the China-Europe Railway Express (Jinan-Qingdao) National Consolidation Center has also brought new opportunities for the high-quality development of the China-Europe Railway Express in the SCO Demonstration Area. In January 2025, the National Development and Reform Commission issued a document to optimize the layout of 14 national China-Europe Railway Express consolidation centers across the country, and the joint Jinan-Qingdao center was approved. In July, at the Logistics and Transportation International Cooperation Dialogue of the SCO Industrial and Supply Chain Qingdao Conference, the Qingdao hub was officially unveiled and established in the SCO Demonstration Area. Currently, the hub has pioneered the "Warehouse-Transport-Trade Integration" model, handling over 38,000 tons of feed-grade wheat flour as a single commodity. It has completed the first "Warehouse-Transport-Trade Integration" business for the Shandong China-Europe Railway Express. Warehousing for goods such as Russian pulp, Central Asian grain, and Southeast Asian rubber has become a regular operation, with an international trade volume exceeding 400 million yuan.
Fu Zhonghua, a member of the Party Working Committee and Deputy Director of the Management Committee of the SCO Demonstration Area, stated that they will continue to deepen the construction of the international logistics corridor. By launching premium routes and enhancing diversified service capabilities, they aim to continuously improve the efficiency and quality of the China-Europe Railway Express. They will accelerate the construction of the SCO International Hub Port, integrate and optimize the "sea-land-air-rail" international logistics service network, and promote effective linkages between Qingdao Port, the SCO Demonstration Area's Multimodal Transport Center, and Qingdao Jiaodong International Airport. This will constantly upgrade the "hub" function for economic and trade cooperation, boost the development of Qingdao as an international shipping center, and accelerate the creation of a "seaport gateway" for SCO countries to access the Asia-Pacific market. (Qingdao Daily/Guanhai News reporters Wang Meng, Wang Shan; Correspondent Yu Zhou)
Editor: Yuan Ruichen
