South China's economic hub Shenzhen has handled 516 China-Europe freight train trips since the service was launched in August 2020, carrying 361,100 tonnes of export goods with a value of 10.8 billion yuan (about 1.5 billion U.S. dollars), Shenzhen Customs said on Thursday.

Since its opening three years ago, the service has covered 41 countries, including Germany, France, Italy and Belarus, transporting cargo from more than 4,000 enterprises, said the customs office.

The cargo can reach Germany's Duisburg from Shenzhen in 16 days by freight train, about 15 days quicker than by sea.

In recent years, Shenzhen has seen the export structure of the China-Europe freight trains continuously optimized. In addition to the high growth of the export of traditional commodities, such as household appliances, clothing, shoes and hats, the export of high value-added products, such as electronic equipment, machinery and equipment, new energy vehicles and fuel vehicles, has also shown a significant growth trend.