Freight volume on Chengdu-Russia railway sees explosive growth

Since the start of 2019, the freight railway linking Chengdu and Vorsino Station in Moscow has tripled its train frequency and saw an explosive growth in freight value.

In the first four months of this year, the railway express made 105 trips between Chengdu and the destination in Russia, a year-on-year growth of about 209%. The value of transported cargo during that time reached US$160 million, a year-on-year rise of 1,348%.

To meet the needs of Chinese and Russian trade enterprises, Chengdu's international railway port arranged customized trains for transport and trade in lumber, assembled vehicles, etc. The trains brought fruits and vegetables of Sichuan province, "Made in Chengdu" vehicles, clothing, shoes, hats, and handbags to Russia, and they returned with Russian timber, candy, pulp, and other goods to China.

On April 27, a set of Sino-Russian pilot financial settlement and financing rules for international railway intermodal transport was agreed upon at the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.

The rules were first piloted at Qingbaijiang Area of the Sichuan Pilot Free Trade Zone starting from Dec. 24, 2018. This "one-bill system" is meant to meet the financial needs of enterprises importing timber from Russian, issuing the first international letter of credit to use international rail transport waybill as voucher for negotiation and settlement in RMB. It helped to address the most acute bottlenecks and pressing difficulties in trade, such as the non-uniformity, the lack of property rights, and financial functions of railway waybill rules.