6 years on, cargo service between China's Harbin and Russia transports over 75,000 TEUs

Aerial photo taken on March 31, 2021 shows Suifenhe Railway Port in Suifenhe, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. (Xinhua/Wang Jianwei)

Cargo train service between Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province and Russia has transported over 36,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers in 2021 and over 75,000 TEUs since it was launched in February 2016, according to HAO International Logistics Co., Ltd., operator of the service.

The company also operates a cargo service linking Harbin with Germany's Hamburg, which was first launched in June 2015. The two routes combined have seen more than 100,000 TEUs of containers transported by the end of 2021, with the value of goods adding up to more than 20 billion yuan (about 3.16 billion U.S. dollars).

The Harbin-Russia route has become an important channel for cross-border logistics between China and Russia, as well as for transporting anti-pandemic supplies since the year 2020.

Exporting goods through the route include mechanical and electrical products, chemical products, automobile and accessories, general merchandise, light industrial products, textiles, raw materials, etc., and importing goods mainly include sheets and plates, coal, paper pulp, grain, fodder, agricultural products, etc.

Entering Russia either from China's land port of Manzhouli or Suifenhe, regular freight trains are set off each week bounding for major Russian cities such as Moscow and Ekaterinburg.