Nanchang International Land Port in East China's Jiangxi province has surpassed 10,000 sea-rail intermodal freight train trips, marking a significant milestone in the inland province's push to strengthen its international logistics connectivity. For landlocked Jiangxi, which lacks direct coastal port access, sea-rail intermodal service has become a critical mechanism for integrating inland manufacturers into global supply chains by bridging rail freight to major seaports.

According to local authorities, the port had recorded 10,061 such trips as of July 31. The achievement follows nearly a decade of continuous network expansion.

The first sea-rail intermodal freight service began operation on February 15, 2017, linking Xiangtang town in Nanchang county with Yantian Port in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. On November 29, 2021, Nanchang's land port was included in the first group of national logistics hubs designated for development during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021–25), making it the first facility of its kind in Jiangxi. The designation reflected Beijing's broader policy of elevating inland logistics nodes to spread trade-led growth beyond coastal regions.

Since then, the port has established 12 sea-rail routes and 13 China-Europe and China-Central Asia freight routes. Its services now reach 134 countries and regions, supported by regular sea-rail connections to ports in Ningbo (Zhejiang province), Xiamen and Fuzhou (Fujian province), and Guangzhou and Shenzhen (Guangdong province). The combination of sea-rail links to southern and eastern seaports alongside overland China-Europe and China-Central Asia corridors gives Jiangxi-based exporters access to both maritime and continental trade channels.

As of July, the port had handled a total of 10,563 foreign trade train trips, encompassing both sea-rail services and China-Europe and China-Central Asia trains. These trips carried 695,800 loaded containers and goods valued at $18.09 billion.

From January to July this year, the port processed 1,212 foreign trade freight train trips, representing an 8.03 percent year-on-year increase and the highest total recorded in Jiangxi.

Network growth has been paired with efficiency improvements. In January, the port dispatched Jiangxi's first train under a new customs supervision model for the multimodal transport of export goods, part of the country's inaugural group of such services. The model reduces logistics time by one to three days. The proportion of sea-rail shipments processed under a single-document system reached 17.2 percent this year.

The port also maintains close coordination with Nanchang Xiaolan Economic and Technological Development Zone, a major automobile manufacturing base. In the first seven months of this year, 82,100 finished vehicles and vehicle kits were exported through the port, a year-on-year increase of 43.17 percent. The surge in vehicle exports through Nanchang parallels China's broader rise as the world's largest auto exporter, a trend that has increased demand for inland logistics capacity capable of handling finished vehicles.

Source: China Daily