Companies move from sea to rail with China Railway Express

China Railway Express's Skyworth Express held a grand departure ceremony in the Chengdu International Railway Port in Sichuan province on Friday.

The Skyworth Express, with 41 full containers of television display screens, main boards and accessories from Shenzhen, Guangdong province, will arrive in Lodz, Poland in about 14 days.

Around 20,000 television sets will be assembled from this cargo and sold in Europe, said Tony Wang, chairman of Shenzhen Chuangwei-RGB Electronics Co., Ltd which makes Skyworth television sets.

Friday marked the first time that Wang's company used China Railway Express to transport its products to Europe.

It was also the first time China Railway Express used the name of a company for one of its expresses.

While the company had previously relied on sea shipping before, the costs of shipping via China Railway Express are almost the same.

The latter, however, takes much less time to reach Lodz – 14 days versus 28 days – said Xie Zhuoxun, an official with the brand management department of the company.

The Skyworth Express will run between two and four times at fixed times each month and may increase this frequency.

Starting from Chengdu, the Skyworth Express leaves China in Alataw, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, passes Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus, before reaching Lodz. The journey covers a total distance of 9,965 kilometers.

The company plans to export 1.5 million television sets to Europe in 2019 and 2.1 million sets in 2021.

It will establish supply chain centers in Germany, Poland, Russia and Belarus, Wang said.

Speaking at the departure ceremony on Friday, Katarzyna Wikowiecka, consul general of Poland in Chengdu said that the China Railway Express has boosted trade between Poland and China.

That the Skyworth Express has chosen Poland as its destination will further boost the development of the Polish railway transport and logistics. It is hoped that more Chinese companies and goods will enter Poland, she said.

Since its debut in 2013, China Railway Express has left Chengdu for Europe 3,300 times.

Chengdu has provided the highest frequency of train service to Europe from China and sent the most freight trains to Europe, including 1,591 trains in 2018.

Other cities in Sichuan have also cashed in on China Railway Express, through which the province has witnessed nearly 20.4 billion yuan ($3 billion) of imports and exports.

The express at first primarily transported electronic products and home electronic appliances.

The goods it transports have now expanded to automobiles and accessories, mechanical products, computers and semi-finished products, clothing and footwear, furniture and building materials, catering products, flowers, trees and fruits.

With Chengdu as the center, BMW, Volvo, Dell and other world-leading companies ship their products abroad via China Railway Express, said Zheng Quanfengt, head of the administrative committee of the Chengdu International Railway Port.