Data sources: Ministry of Commerce, China Railway Kunming Bureau, etc
This year marks the end of the 14th Five Year Plan. During the 14th Five Year Plan period, all regions and departments firmly grasped the strategic positioning in the overall development of the country, took the initiative and strived to be the first, ensuring the high-quality completion of the goals and tasks of the 14th Five Year Plan and creating a new situation for economic and social development.
Starting from today, this edition will launch a series of reports on "Big Data Observation and Point Reading of the 14th Five Year Plan", focusing on the stories of grassroots struggles, exploring development momentum from different levels of data growth, and presenting vivid practices that promote high-quality development from point to surface.
——Editor's note:
Starting from Kunming, Yunnan, China in the north, and ending in Vientiane, Laos in the south, the 1035 km long China Laos railway has become the "golden passage" for China and ASEAN to travel in both directions, radiating and driving the economic development of the surrounding areas.
Since its opening in December 2021, the freight volume has achieved double-digit growth for three consecutive years, and the number of inbound and outbound passengers has increased from 300 per day to a maximum of 1300. The China Laos railway, once suspected of "no goods to pull" and feared of "no passengers", is now particularly busy. By the end of August this year, the cumulative freight volume of the China Laos railway had exceeded 66.5 million tons, and the types of cross-border transportation goods had exceeded 3000.
How did the cross-border freight transport of China Laos Railway become popular? Perhaps a glimpse can be seen from the story of a cross-border freight forwarder.
In order to open up the market, I bought a container of durian
The durian transportation season is the busiest months for Zhang Dehuan every year. Engaging in the cross-border freight transport industry of China Laos railway in Yunnan, he did not expect that this line would be so popular - there was often no goods available at the beginning of 2023, and now it has become a hard to find "sweet cake".
At the end of 2022, Zhang Dehuan had an opportunity to travel to Laos with a business delegation, which made Zhang Dehuan optimistic about the Sino Laos railway freight market, rented 100 new cold chain containers in the railway sector at one time, and entered the Sino Laos railway cross-border freight industry.
At first, things didn't go smoothly. Zhang Dehuan went to Kunming Jinma Zhengchang Fruit Wholesale Market to place his business card. When he saw the fruit wholesaler, he approached to introduce the company's business. However, he was busy for many days and didn't sign a single order.
This is not about the shipping cost, "said a durian importer, which made Zhang Dehuan suddenly realize: a container of durian is worth 1 million yuan, and the shipping cost is 40000 yuan. If the transportation quality cannot be guaranteed, no one will risk losing millions of yuan of goods just to save on shipping costs.
Zhang Dehuan heard that at the beginning of the opening of the China Laos Railway, some people used old cold chain containers to transport Durian for several times, but the whole container of Durian was damaged due to inaccurate temperature control. Therefore, there is a saying that 'railway transportation of durian is unreliable'. However, road transportation is not as smooth either. Not only does it take a long time, but the durian is also on the market during the rainy season, which can easily cause road interruptions due to landslides and rockfalls; Even if they successfully arrive at the border ports of China and Laos, they may still encounter road congestion caused by concentrated freight, and many shippers can only watch the durian ripen on the road, with a high risk of cargo damage.
No shipper is willing to take risks, so Zhang Dehuan decided to buy a batch of durian himself and let the shipper see and believe.
Durian is on the road, and Zhang Dehuan needs to confirm the location and temperature of the container almost every three to four hours. Twenty six hours later, Durian arrived in Kunming smoothly through the new cold chain container transportation of the China Laos railway, and was immediately snapped up by the merchants who heard the news. The two companies immediately discussed with Zhang Dehuan, and a shipper decided on the spot to hand over six containers of durian to the company where Zhang Dehuan works for transportation.
"The cold chain transportation of durian by China Laos railway is more reliable", which soon spread to the trade circle of durian in Yunnan. Zhang Dehuan's company is busy. At the same time, in 2023, the import and export freight volume of the China Laos railway will be 4.217 million tons, an increase of nearly 95% year on year.
In order to improve transportation capacity, there are more shifts and faster customs clearance
Pan Lining, General Manager of Guangxi Xiannong International Trade Co., Ltd., has been engaged in cross-border durian trade for 10 years. Before the opening of the China Laos Railway, cross-border transportation mainly relied on land transportation. Due to the use of old highway containers, the maturity of durian at the head and the tail of the containers differed significantly, and there were even openings at the tail. "Once you arrive at the store, it is easy to be depressed." Pan Lining said that after the opening of the China Laos railway, the new railway cold chain containers can be positioned for monitoring and remote temperature regulation. In the case of little difference in freight rates, the transportation time is greatly shortened, and the cargo damage rate is also significantly reduced. "There are significantly more repeat customers."
"The guarantee of China Laos railway cold chain patents for the timeliness and quality of fresh goods transportation is our company's biggest advantage." Zhang Dehuan said that with public praise, we will not worry about customers. Nowadays, the company's containers can run three round trips per month, and the three-month peak season for durian transportation has brought the main revenue to the company.
2024 is the 'harvest year' for Zhang Dehuan Company. In the summer of that year, Thailand suffered from drought, and durians were already bursting from the trees, so they had to be harvested in advance. The three-month peak season for durians was compressed into one month. At that time, as long as the goods were brought in, there was money to be made, "Zhang Dehuan said. During that time, whether by road or railway, durian transportation was" hard to find in a container ", and he and the staff were almost busy day and night.
In the off-season, Typhoon "Capricorn" hit Southeast Asia last November, almost paralyzing shipping and roads, and all kinds of fresh goods poured into the China Laos railway. The cold chain trains depart and arrive on time, and the China Laos Railway has become the only stable cross-border transportation channel. New customers are calling one after another, adding another half month of peak season.
The concentrated listing of fresh goods not only poses a challenge to cross-border transporters like Zhang Dehuan, but also tests the customs clearance capabilities. During peak hours, nearly 300 containers flooded into Vientiane South Station in Laos, but the inspection capacity was only over 100 containers. What should I do? Smooth customs clearance is necessary to ensure smooth freight transportation.
In order to improve transportation capacity, the customs have innovated the railway early declaration mode, compressing the clearance time of goods to 2 to 5 hours, "said Su Ming, head of the Railway Port Supervision Department of Mengla Customs. Enterprises declare in advance, and the customs receives the declaration data before the goods enter the country. If there is no inspection requirement after entry, there is no need to stay to clear the customs. At the same time, the railway department has formulated a plan for the operation of the "Lancang Mekong Express" international freight trains, increasing the maximum frequency of train operation to 6 trains per day. At present, there are 18 cross-border freight trains running fast on the China Laos railway every day, greatly improving the transport capacity.
According to statistics from Kunming Customs, the import and export volume of agricultural products from Yunnan to ASEAN reached 18.62 billion yuan in the first half of this year, a year-on-year increase of 23.5%. Among them, more than half of the railway goods are transported through the China Laos Railway.
Hot fruits heading north and cloud vegetables heading south still have a lot of potential to explore
The booming freight transportation of China Laos railway has created many jobs. As soon as the container arrives, durian quality inspector Miao Chennan is responsible for conducting quality inspections on the durians that are about to be shipped to various parts of the country - smelling the aroma, tapping the sound, opening the container for tasting, and distinguishing between raw and ripe according to the color of the flesh and skin. During peak season, one person can inspect nearly 10 containers per day. In order to facilitate work, he simply moved his home near the freight station.
"The booming freight traffic is due to the booming domestic demand." Zhu Jiang, head of freight transportation of China Railway Kunming Bureau Group Co., Ltd., said that Durian, mangosteen and other Southeast Asian fruits are popular with the public. In addition, the transportation capacity of China Laos railway has improved, and overseas planting, transportation and other related industries have developed rapidly. In recent years, durian production has expanded significantly in Thailand and other places, with over 90% of durians exported to the Chinese market. By the end of August this year, the transportation volume of Durian on the China Laos Railway had exceeded 155000 tons, an increase of more than 90% over the same period last year.
At the same time, Yunnan vegetables have also been put on the supermarket shelves in Vientiane, Laos through the China Laos Railway. Zhu Jiang introduced that Yunnan vegetables can arrive in Vientiane in 26 hours and be transported to Thailand the next day, saving nearly half of the time compared to car transportation. Yunnan Lehui Agricultural Products Co., Ltd. has taken the "express train" of the China Laos Railway. In recent years, the export volume of vegetables has kept rising. It not only buys vegetables in all parts of Yunnan, but also has 6000 mu of planting bases in Qujing, Wenshan and Chuxiong. The company sends over 10 containers filled with broccoli and cauliflower to Southeast Asia every day, "said Zhong Hualin, the company's general manager.
At present, the "Luliang Vegetable" cold chain train of China Laos Railway has been opened, and a two-way transportation channel for fruits and vegetables has been built. Qu Wei, the head of the Second Supervision Department of the Central Yunnan Customs, introduced that Kunming Customs has continuously deepened the application of the "centralized inspection+railway rapid clearance" model to help enterprises reduce waiting time and logistics costs, and actively support the construction of a "warm and hot return" cross-border corridor for fruits and vegetables.
In addition to fruits and vegetables, clothing, new energy vehicles, and photovoltaic products produced in our country are also popular in Southeast Asia. Today, the types of cross-border transport goods of the China Laos railway have expanded from more than 500 at the beginning of its opening to more than 3000 now. Mohan railway port has become the largest railway port connecting ASEAN, with its customs clearance efficiency ranking among the forefront of national railway ports. In the first half of this year, the total import and export volume of goods trade in Yunnan Province reached 127.39 billion yuan.
"From channel economy, port economy to industrial economy, changes are taking place along the China Laos railway." Xiong Bin, vice president of the China Laos Institute of Engineering and Technology of Kunming University of Technology and director of the ASEAN Research Center, said that Mohan in China, Boten and Vientiane in Laos are turning from traditional agricultural towns to hub cities. The China Laos Mohan Moding Economic Cooperation Zone has attracted over 300 enterprises, with upstream and downstream industries such as cold chain warehousing, sorting and processing, and cross-border e-commerce gathering. From connecting the two countries to the Indochina Peninsula, the potential of China Laos railway is still being released.
In Zhang Dehuan's opinion, there is great potential for 'Yuncai heading south'. After a brief rest, he plans to take advantage of the off-season for freight transportation to explore new markets.
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