The China-Europe Railway Express services operating from the China-Shanghai Cooperation Organization Demonstration Area (SCODA) in Qingdao, Shandong province, have seen record-breaking growth this year.

According to official data, in the first 10 months of the year, 1,042 freight trains departed from the area, a year-on-year increase of 13.8 percent, already surpassing the total for all of last year.

This strong performance is driven by the rail network's continuously expanding reach.

To date, SCODA has launched 32 international and domestic rail routes, connecting 54 cities across 23 Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states and countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative. This has established vital east-west international logistics channels. Cumulatively, over 5,000 trains have departed, including specialized and customized supply chain trains for major Shandong manufacturers like Haier and Hisense, serving more than 7,000 foreign trade companies.

Crucial to this expansion is the establishment of overseas consolidation centers in cities like Russia's Moscow and Almaty in Kazakhstan. The Moscow center, for instance, has enabled the creation of efficient round-trip routes, transporting components to a Haier factory in Russia and carrying back goods like petroleum coke, significantly reducing logistics costs for businesses.

A significant new opportunity comes from the recently approved China-Europe Railway Express (Jinan and Qingdao) national assembly center. The Qingdao hub, as part of this national project, plans to build six key centers, including one for e-commerce and another for cold chain logistics, evolving into an integrated "logistics + trade + finance" industrial zone.

According to Zang Yuanqi, an official from SCODA, the area will continue to enhance the cargo aggregation capacity of the Qingdao hub, optimize the overseas center network, and accelerate new models like "rail express + cross-border e-commerce" to solidify its role as a key gateway to the Asia-Pacific for SCO nations.

The China-Europe Railway Express services operating from the SCODA in Qingdao, Shandong province, see record-breaking growth this year. [Photo/Guanhai News]