Transport of goods to China by train: an attractive option?

At the end of March, the Port of Rotterdam Authority organised the seminar One Belt, One Road (OBOR) for shippers and operators. What is the plan exactly for the ‘new Silk Road’ per train to and from China? Which obstacles would be met, and what are the advantages? At the start of June, several parties got round the table once again to exchange experiences and to look at the potential of the railway.

Several companies are already transporting their goods via rail intercontinentally, others only just started doing so and some are still in doubt. Considering between sea, air and rail has become much more interesting, especially rail transport between Europe and Asia. Since 2013, the Chinese government has invested tens of billions in better Eurasian rail connections and facilities, and Rotterdam, in turn, is also actively working on the railways. The city would therefore be a logical starting and end point of an Eurasian route, especially because of its connection to the port.

Combining forces

By now, more companies are interested in railway connections, for example, export company G&D Europe from Rotterdam, which was founded in 2010 by Jan-Paul Vegt and his Chinese business partner Yonggao Liu. This summer the company will send its first container to China by train. “We have been looking at the possibilities of railway transportation for about a year now. In the autumn of last year we even went on a trade mission to China, where an OBOR seminar had been organised. In light of this meeting we understood good steps are being taken from China, but also, definitely, from the Netherlands,” says Vegt. “In July, we want to send one test container to China by train, preferably from Rotterdam.”

To Vegt and Liu, Eurasian railway transport is an attractive transportation option. “To us, railway transport would be a good alternative to air freight in several cases. It is much cheaper, and containers would still travel from A to B fairly quickly. It would become even more interesting if more parties would ship their products to China per train. Then you could have packed trains, rather than half empty ones, lowering costs.”

Reliable and fast

Hewlett Packard has been transporting goods between Europe and China by train for a while now, and encourages other shippers to also try it. Another company that has been transporting containers from China for some time is Ricoh Europe. Mia Craeghs is Manager European Transport for Rico, and she is positive about the railway connection. “We are a Japanese company, and a large part of our production comes from China. In recent months we have been testing trains as an alternative to air freight, in particular because of the costs we could be saving,” Craeghs says. “Besides, when planned properly, trains are just as good and quick as a mode of transportation. Additionally, we are also pleasantly surprised by the throughput times. By now, we have put 75 containers on trains in China, and when they tell us in advance that transportation will take twenty days, it actually does take twenty days. Sometimes nineteen or eighteen, but we have not yet had a single delay.”

To be sure of a good transaction of the containers, Ricoh has executed extensive container tests. “Beforehand we were naturally curious how the whole process would proceed. What about, for example, documentation, the preliminary stages, how reliable is the transportation? To test that we equipped a number of containers with track-and-trace equipment. We kept track of things such as temperature, atmospheric humidity, vibrations and location. On the basis of this information we could conclude that it is all neatly dealt with,” says Craeghs. “Another large advantage for us is the fact that containers are transported to their final destination in one go. When comparing that to air freight, during which shipments are sometimes transferred two or three times, it is good to know the chances of damage are substantially reduced. Besides, trains emit far less CO2 than planes, which is also important to us,” says Craeghs. “There is no stopping railway transportation, so to speak.”

Source: Port of Rotterdam