In response to heavy customer demand, DHL Global Forwarding, the freight forwarding specialist of Deutsche Post DHL Group, has introduced two new rail connections from Germany to China.
A connection now runs from the KTL terminal on the BASF site in Ludwigshafen via Poland, Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan to the destination terminal in Xi’an, the capital of the Chinese province of Shaanxi. In addition, an express train connection has been deployed between Neuss and Xi’an via Kaliningrad reducing the transit time to 12 days.
DHL said that with these connections its rail network can provide customers access to faster lead times to Asia covering both less-than-container-load (LCL) and full-container-load (FCL). The implementation of complete block train routes from Europe to China reflects the growing demand for imports and speed of delivery to Asian countries, and complements DHL’s already existing block trains from Xi’an and Chengdu to Europe.
“In the last years, we observed an increasing demand for rail service products to and from China,” explained Thomas Kowitzki, head of Chinarail, Multimodal at DHL Global Forwarding Europe. “Their cost-effectiveness, short transit time, and lower CO2 emissions compared with other transport modes make them an attractive alternative.”
The new Germany-to-China rail services have been established in cooperation with long-term partner RTSB GmbH, Friedrichsdorf, Germany. The trains are loaded with goods from all over Europe and transported over 9,400 km to the central hub for train services in Xi’an, where DHL distributes the cargo within China and to neighboring countries like South Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. The new routes also shorten transit times for customers in other European countries including France and the UK as well as the Benelux and Iberian regions.