The Yujiaping Marshalling Station, which had been out of service for years, has been renovated to connect the Hunan-Guangdong-Africa Rail-sea Intermodal Corridor; the railway dedicated line for the Sany Intelligent Steel City was put into operation at the end of April, linking to Zhuzhou North Station. In recent days, reporters have observed that Zhuzhou is rapidly shaping a new railway logistics landscape.

A spokesperson for the Zhuzhou Transportation Bureau noted that by constructing and upgrading 15.4 kilometers of feeder railways and completing a 276,000-square-meter integrated freight hub project, Zhuzhou is establishing three multimodal transport hubs--Zhuzhou North Station, Jinshan Industrial Park, and Liling South Station. The city is building an integrated rail-road-water transport system centered on Zhuzhou Port and Zhuzhou North Station, with 21 dedicated railway sidings totaling 112.4 kilometers as its backbone. This initiative aims to ensure "railways reach factories, industrial parks, and ports, and that goods circulate within these facilities without detours."

The new transportation system provides a stable and efficient rail-sea corridor for goods manufactured in Zhuzhou to reach international markets. Zhuzhou has become a key starting point for the Hunan-Guangdong-Africa Rail-sea International Corridor. Goods can be transported by rail from locations such as Zhuzhou North Station directly to core ports in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, such as Nansha Port in Guangzhou and Yantian Port in Shenzhen, and then shipped by sea to Africa, Southeast Asia, and the rest of the world. Since its launch in September 2021, the Hunan-Guangdong-Africa Rail-sea Intermodal Corridor has handled a cumulative total of 2,147 train trips, covering over 80 countries and more than 170 ports.

As a pioneering city in Hunan Province actively integrating into the pilot program for domestic and foreign trade integration, Zhuzhou has established the Hunan-Guangdong-Africa Rail-sea Intermodal Corridor, the Tongtangwan Bonded Logistics Center (Type B), and the Comprehensive Pilot Zone for Cross-border E-commerce, forming an open development platform system of "One Corridor, One Center, and One Pilot Zone," and building trade relations with over 190 countries and regions globally.

Over the past two years, Zhuzhou has successively hosted events such as the China-Ethiopia Coffee Economic and Trade Cooperation Conference and the Domestic and Foreign Trade Integration Expo, and organized activities like the China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo-Zhuzhou Inland Port Cooperation and Exchange Event and a series of activities in Africa, continuously deepening economic and trade exchanges with African nations.

Last year, Zhuzhou's trade volume with Africa reached 1.5 billion CNY, a year-on-year increase of 107%,  doubling from the previous year. 

This article is from Hunan Provincial Government. www.enghunan.gov.cn.  

Translator: Xiao Juan

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn