DHL announces inaugural service on new China-Turkey rail corridor
DHL Global Forwarding has announced its inaugural service on the new Southern rail corridor between China and Turkey. The corridor occupies a juncture within the Silk Road Economic Belt, part of China’s proposed “One Belt, One Road” initiative which it estimates will generate more than US$2.5 trillion in annual trade within the next ten years.
Freight travelling via the corridor departs from Lianyungang, China and traverses three Central Asian countries – Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Georgia – as well two sea transit segments and is expected to take around 14 days, depending on travelling conditions before arriving in Istanbul, with the option for immediate forwarding by truck to any Turkish city.
The creation of the rail corridor follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between DHL and Kazakhstan Temir Zholy Express (KTZ Express), Kazakhstan’s national multimodal operator, facilitating great rail connectivity between Europe and China via Kazakhstan’s commercial hubs, including the newly-created Khorgos Special Economic Zone.
DHL reported that it also worked closely with China, Azerbaijan and Georgia Railways, Karvan Logistics and RTSB Logistics alongside the governments of all three countries of transit, as well as Lianyungang’s municipal government, garnering their full support of the rail corridor’s operation.
“Trade between China and countries along the Silk Road has grown 19% every year on average for the past decade, and the establishment of One Belt, One Road will only further ignite these already-high volumes of economic activity,” said Steve Huang, CEO, DHL Global Forwarding China. ”
Turkey already counts China as its second-largest source of imports, and the EU as its largest export market. New corridors like the Lianyungang-Istanbul link will only further boost Turkey’s strategic importance and associated economic development as a conduit for trade between China and Europe.”
Charles Kaufmann, CEO, North Asia; and Head of Value Added Services, DHL Global Forwarding Asia Pacific, added: “A flexible, comprehensive service network creates greater reliability and efficiency for our customers under all sorts of conditions, no matter the origin or destination of their freight.
“As the One Belt, One Road initiative takes shape, DHL has already begun laying down much of the infrastructure and support needed to ensure seamless trade flows between all countries along its routes.”
The rail corridor, which is also supported by a contingency trucking service between Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, complements DHL Global Forwarding’s three existing services via its North and West multimodal corridors, which most recently expanded to connect Taiwan with Europe via Mainland China.
