Jiangsu sees booming China-Europe freight train service in 2020

A total of 1,273 China-Europe cargo train trips from or to east China's Jiangsu Province were made in 2020, a rise of 36.4 percent compared with the previous year, Nanjing customs said Friday.

The trains carried cargo worth 12.31 billion yuan (about 1.9 billion U.S. dollars), surging 53.8 percent from 2019, said Zhang Yaping, deputy head of the customs.

In 2020, three new routes were launched, bringing the number of China-Europe cargo train routes to 12. Hamburg in Germany and Ulan Bator in Mongolia were among the new destinations.

As one of China's main regions for the manufacture of medical devices, Suzhou, a city in Jiangsu, transported anti-epidemic supplies to destinations across Eurasia via the China-Europe cargo train service.

Suzhou customs said over 278 million masks and nearly 2.2 million medical protective suits were exported via China-Europe cargo trains in 2020.

China saw a record 12,400 China-Europe freight train trips in 2020, up 50 percent from the previous year, said the China State Railway Group Co. Ltd.