China's largest land port sees record H1 railway freight

Foreign trade volume by railway through Manzhouli, China's largest land port, set a new record at 10 million tons in the first half of this year, up 46 percent year on year, official data showed.

Located on the border with Russia, the port in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is a crucial hub for China's trade with Eastern Europe.

Railway freight via Manzhouli has been hitting new highs this year, with up to 28 trains passing through the land port a day, according to the China Railway Harbin Group.

To ensure smooth and orderly customs clearance for the freight trains, railway authorities have doubled the daily reloading of containers for international intermodal trains by introducing a new container yard, increasing the reload rate from 420 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) to 840 TEUs.

Currently, 57 China-Europe freight train routes pass through the Manzhouli land port, reaching 28 cities in 11 European countries and carrying about 30 percent of the total freight volume of China-Europe freight train services.