The Global Supply Chain Expert

Since 2020, International logistics has been seriously challenged, global ocean and air freight capacity has been hampered by the outbreak of the pandemic worldwide, resulting in a surge in ocean freight rates. Also, in March 2021, the Suez Canal was blocked for six days after the grounding of Ever Given, a 20,000 TEU container ship, which caused the shortage of shipping container positions between China and Europe, along with the increase in shipping costs by 5 to 10 times in the past year.



Besides that, before the epidemic, average price of China-Europe freight shipping was around 2,000 US dollars/40-foot container. After the epidemic, even if the price went up all the way up to $10,000/40-foot box, shipping container positions have still been in short supply. And then, China-Europe Railway Express has become a new favorite in international freight services because freight can be transported in different routes and sections and the crew does not need to be quarantined, which greatly speeds up the overall efficiency. From January to May 2021, China-Europe Express made a total of 5,991 trips and sent 573,000 freight containers, a year-on-year increase of 58%.

China-Europe Railway Express refers to the freight container trains that run between China and Europe as well as the countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative with fixed train times, routes, and shifts, which is a new and increasingly popular route for China's freight exports to Europe in addition to ocean and air shipping services.

In order to strengthen the commercial and trade exchanges with European countries, the Chinese government and China State Railway Group have cooperated with the railway systems of Central Asia and European countries. The railway system started from Chongqing to Duisburg in Germany in the beginning, and then it gradually penetrated to the connections of 82 domestic Chinese cities and 160 foreign cities in Europe and Asia. It has formed five export ports of Alashankou, Horgos, Erenhot, Manzhouli and Suifenhe as well as six assembly centers in Jiangmen, Chongqing, Chengdu, Xi'an, Zhengzhou and Urumqi, running the international freight container trains from mainland China to places as far away as London and Hamburg, it’s also the world's longest freight rail line.



Recently, Ingredients4U also launched a direct railway service to Europe to better serve our overseas customers. Compared with the conventional logistics methods, railway express is more efficient, with less error rate and lower cost. China-Europe express takes a quarter of the time by sea, and the price is about one-fifth of that by air, which enables more convenient and efficient transportation of bulk e-commerce products with specific delivery time constraints.

Compared with ocean shipping, China-Europe Express is more eco-friendly. For each 40-foot (about 12 meters) long container shipped, trains produce only 4% of the CO2 emissions of ocean shipping.

Ingredient4U has a professional team that can provide comprehensive supply chain services. As an international enterprise, Ingredients4U has always been very devoted to keep track of the efficiency and accuracy of global logistics. Since international shipping was seriously affected, we have been very actively exploring various new logistics methods to provide services to overseas customers faster and more accurately. If you need any assistance, we are more than happy to answer any of your questions. For more information , welcome to www.ingredients4u.com