A Review Over Sinotrans Development Of International Land Bridge Multimodal Transport

Land bridge transport is a one-ticket trans-continent multimodal container transport form mainly based on railways and through a combination of different transport methods such as transport by sea, land, air, highway, river and pipe etc.
The new land bridge starts from the Chinese Lianyungang on the west coast of the Pacific Ocean, extends first through Longhai Railway, Lanxin Railway and Ala Mountain Opening of Xinjiang in China, and then Central Asia, West Asia and Europe to Rotterdam Port of Holland on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, forming a Eurasia railway that totals 10900 kilometers in length. It is a new railway connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic that was opened after the Russian Siberia land bridge. The new Eurasia land bridge extends west about 4131 kilometers in China through six provinces like Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan, Sha anxi, Gansu, and Xinjiang autonomous region, which neighbors respectively with Shandong Province, Shanxi Province, Hubei Province, Sichuan Province, Qinghai Province, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and Inner Mongolia etc, covering about 360,000 square kilometers, which accounts for 37% of the total land space of China. About 400 million people live in the areas, which accounts for 30% of the total population of the country. Outside of China, the land bridge covers over 40 countries and regions in both Asia and Europe, and is particularly important for the countries in Central and West Asia that do not have sea outlets.

The Chinese government pays great attention to the construction of the new Eurasia land bridge, the economic development in the regions along the land bridge and has formed development plans that are based on the support of communication arteries such as the new Eurasia land bridge, give full play to the role of central cities and stress emphasized development of the vitally important points and aspects.

With implementation of the Western China Development strategy, the strategic role played by the new Eurasia land bridge, as extends from the east to the west of China and connects the economic regions of Central Asia and the Pacific, has become increasingly obvious; meanwhile, the business has become increasingly consolidated and developed and has caused increasingly extensive attention from well known domestic and foreign enterprises that are engaged in modern logistics service.

Lianyungang is the east buttress of the new Eurasia land bridge. Transit containers that enter China at Lianyungang Port and are transported through the domestic stretch of the Eurasia land bridge, which ends at the Ala Mountain Opening of Xinjiang, to countries in Central Asia and Europe. This distance of travel is more than 2000 kilometers shorter than the distance of transport from ports in the east part of Russia through the Siberia land bridge to the same destinations in Central Asia and Europe.

As far as transport of exports from countries and regions in East and Southeast Asia are concerned, which are to be carried over land bridges and by sea to countries and regions in Central Asia and Europe, Lianyungang has the greatest advantages.

Lianyungang Land Bridge Transit Transport Corporation of Sinotrans is the major operator and carrier of the new Eurasia land bridge for transit goods transport. It was established in 1992 with the approval of the Ministry of Foreign Trade & Economic Cooperation. Since December 1, 1992, when the first containers were transported, container transport over the new Eurasia land bridge had experienced great progress from the first dozens of TEUs to 34000 TEUs in 1997, thanks to the direction of State policies, the positioning of Lianyungang as the buttress by various levels of government, the implementation of the strategy of invigorating the city through the port and strengthened organization etc.

Accordingly, the branch company had developed from being initially the major operator of the land bridge at Lianyungang port to becoming a prop product of the major business of the Lianyungang Branch of Sinotrans and to further becoming the famous land bridge transport brand of Sinotrans, making super contributions to the development, operation and advancement of the new Eurasia land bridge.

Over the past 10 years, with its business progress, network perfecting and service quality improvement, the Lianyungang Branch of Sinotrans has greatly promoted the continual development of transport over the new Eurasia land bridge. Currently, countries and regions that uses the new Eurasia land bridge for transit transport have been expanded to include more than 10 countries and regions such as the United States, South Korea, the Democratic People s Republic of Korea, Japan, Belgium, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan etc. The multimodal transport has expanded from pure container transit transport to include bulk transport and transport of over-dimensional pieces. The goods that are transported enclose entire autos, auto parts, household electric appliances, daily necessities, construction materials, foodstuff, textile products, cotton, half-finished cowhide products, electrolyte copper and petrochemical machinery etc. Since 1977, when two-way transport was achieved, the entire international land bridge multimodal transport has been developing in double ways from the east to the west, from near areas to remote areas and from small quantities to large quantities.
As the major operator, the Lianyungang Branch of Sinotrans did much for the activation of the land bridge transport and its normal operation.
It was the first to establish a professional company and container depot. As early as in the 1990s,when the Chinese Beijiang Railway was connected with the Tuxi Railway of the former Soviet Union, the Lianyungang Branch of Sinotrans seized the opportunity to set up the Sinotrans Lianyungang Land Bridge Transit Goods Transport Corporation under the care and support of the parent corporation and the municipal government of Lianyungang. With the swift development of business, it grew stronger and stronger, was granted the ISO9002 certificate by the British SGS and ensured the independent and highly efficient operation of its land bridge transport.
Preparation for and participation in the first train operation over the land bridge. In the summer and autumn of 1992, the Lianyungang Branch of Sinotrans fully participated in the first train transport over the new Eurasia land bridge under the organization of the Production Office of the State Council at Lianyungang. In the early period, it had on the one hand sent people to Japan, Hong Kong and other areas for cargo canvassing and discussion of cooperation, while on the other hand had sent people for professional training on land bridge business processing. Meanwhile its agency service related to land bridge container transport took 75% of the total related agency service in the country, which ensured the timely operation of the first container unit train over the new Eurasia land bridge on December 1 of the year.
Organization of a full-train transport over the new Eurasia land bridge. In December 1995, the Lianyungang Branch of Sinotrans organized a transit transport by a full container unit train from Lianyungang to Uzbekistan, and accumulated experience for land bridge operation in cargo unloading from ships at port, loading cargoes unto trucks, cargo delivery, operation time, information tracking, decision of transport charge, change of transport vehicles at the border etc, laying a sound foundation for the stable development and large-scale transport of the land bridge.
Promoting the service of the five-definite trains. In April 1997, with the active cooperation of the Lianyungang Branch of Sinotrans, the Ministry of Railways started the operation of a five-definite trains from Lianyungang to Ala Mountain Opening of Xinjiang. The five definites refer to definite place, definite service line, definite time, definite price and definite train number. This has shortened container transport between the two places from the former 15-20 days to mere 6.5 days, thus greatly reducing the operation time of land bridge transport within the Chinese stretch and fully revealing the obvious advantages of the new Eurasia land bridge.
Establishing a two-way cargo canvassing network. Since 1992, when the new land bridge was opened, the Lianyungang Branch of Sinotrans had dispatched resident representatives to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and other countries and regions and set up business offices and container goods distribution points in Ala Mountain Opening, Lanzhou and Zhengzhou etc, which had strengthened the east-west interactive, connective and cooperative canvassing and information system along the land bridge.
Input of according transport equipment. Over the past 10 years, the Lianyungang Branch of Sinotrans had put in over 13000 containers for the land bridge transport, had operated such container trains Xinfeng , Xingda , Yunlong and Yunxiang which are either self-owned or jointly owned or chartered for marine transport from Lianyungang to South Korea and Hong Kong and thus ensured the normal operation of transit transport over the new Eurasia land bridge.
Adoption of a one-ticket through freight service. Through many years of probe and operation, the Lianyungang Brach of Sinotrans can now conduct formalities processing for customs clearance, transshipment and border crossing once a customer has faxed the consignment note, seaway bill, through-transport B/L, invoice, packing list, numerical container list, and can then deliver goods to the consignee safely, swiftly and accurately. Meanwhile, the branch can also during the process of transport notice the shipper on the situation of his goods on the way through information tracking service.
Implementing the cooperative memorandum and overcoming the influence of operation crisis brought on due to the decline of container goods from Japan and South Korea. For a long time, transit containers from Japan, South Korea and countries in Southeast Asia took above 90% of the total containers transported over the new land bridge. By the end of 1998, due to the financial storm of Southeast Asia, transport to countries in Central Asia such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan plummeted from the 34000 TEUs of 1997 to a few thousands of TEUs some years earlier. This, combined with competition from the Siberia land bridge, charge for transport over the new Eurasia land bridge had been frequently lowered, and this had seriously affected the development of international multimodal transport there. To consolidate and develop this transport, Sinotrans Head Corporation and the Municipal Government of Lianyungang singed a Cooperative Memorandum On Consolidating And Developing The New Eurasia Land Bridge International Multimodal Transport on January 8, 2002. The Lianyungang Branch of Sinotrans established a special Land Bridge Business Leadership Group , and through its highly efficient work, obtained the support and cooperation of the Ministry of Railways, Zhongtie Center, other coordinating units and the railways departments of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan etc. The land bridge transit transport corporation under it also made effort to develop new freight sources and new customers in South Korea and other countries and regions in Central Asia, carrying out relatively well a major part of the work concerned in the cooperative memorandum , and thus effectively overcome the influence of the crisis on the land bridge operation.

Recently, Sinotrans Head Corporation again signed with Zhongtie Center a jointly naming agreement for the Lianyungang-Ala Mountain Opening container unit train according to the central points of the cooperative memorandum in order to increase the competitiveness of the new Eurasia land bridge against the Siberia land bridge and to create favorable conditions for intensifying its transport and logistics operation.

From now on, the Lianyungang Branch of Sinotrans will continue to actively organize intensified and large-scale operation with the strong support of the Sinotrans Head Corporation and government at different levels as well as on the strength of the advantageous geographical position of Lianyungang as the east buttress of the land bridge; will plan concentrated canvassing of east-bound goods and goods from the east ports of the bridge to further improve the fame of Lianyungang as the east bridge buttress and the operation scale of Sinotrans; will play well the card of bridge , actively push forward the five-important logistics strategy, strengthen marketing ability, develop large customers both at home and abroad and make the new land bridge business a new bright point; will use the networks of Sinotrans developed abroad and on both ends of the new land bridge for integrated and networked operation and standard service; will continually expand operation scale and the corporate influence; and will make new achievements and new grand contributions for the continual development of the new Eurasia land bridge transport cause and the economic prosperity of Lianyungang port.