On June 20, a sea-rail intermodal train carrying a full load of chinaware and other commodities left the CRRC Zhuzhou Logistics Park for Africa after a transshipment at Guangzhou's Nansha Port. Since its launch in 2021, this was the 1000th journey of the Hunan-Guangdong-Africa rail-sea intermodal train service.
The Hunan-Guangdong-Africa rail-sea intermodal train service is China's international logistics gateway for goods bound for Africa. The trains will travel from the CRRC Zhuzhou Logistics Park along the Beijing-Guangzhou railway to the ports of Nansha, Yantian and Shekou in Guangzhou. From these ports, goods are shipped to destinations in the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.
Over the past three years, the service has grown. In its first few months, from September to December 2021, the service operated only 10 trips. In 2022, the number of trips increased to 242 and in 2023 the number almost doubled to 460 trips. In the first half of 2024 alone, the service has already made 288 trips, and projections suggest that a total of 500 trips will be made by the end of the year. Since 2022, the service has broadened the range of goods it carries, increasingly moving high-value items.
