Spirit of the Silk Road lives on in Xi'an

Balanced trade

As the efficient transportation options bridge the 3,000 kilometers between China and Kazakhstan, a growing number of Chinese companies are expanding their business horizons beyond national borders.

Xi'an Aiju Grain and Oil Industrial Group, an enterprise established in 1934, completed construction of Kazakhstan's largest oil processing plant with an annual capacity of 300,000 tons, in the north of the country in late 2016. The group has also secured 100,000 hectares of land for transnational contract farming in the area.

With the China-Europe Railway Express, the group can now transport wheat or flour from Russia or Kazakhstan in seven days, a significant improvement from two months by sea, said Ye Xiayun, director of the group's general office.

Xia Dong, deputy director of the office, said, "Thanks to the freight train, our company can now import a more diverse range of products, from grains to snacks." He noted that the service facilitates point-to-point transportation between the group's warehouses in Kazakhstan to their storage facilities at the Xi'an station, where rail tracks have been built to the door of their warehouses.

In a significant shift, the Chang'an trains, which once departed with full loads and returned empty, have achieved a more balanced dynamic between exports and imports.

This pivotal transformation occurred in March 2016, when the Aiju group for the first time filled a train for the return trip from Kazakhstan with 2,000 tons of oil.

Last year, the total number of trips made by the Chang'an trains was 4,639, with outbound and inbound trips being nearly equal.

Jumekenova's company also made strides toward achieving a similar balance. In March last year, it celebrated a milestone as the first return train, fully laden with animal feed from Kazakhstan, arrived at the Xi'an station.