A bird's-eye view of Wuxi West Station Logistics Park, where the China-Europe intermodal freight trains depart and arrive in Wuxi. [Photo/WeChat account: news-wuxixinwen]
Wuxi has operated over 170 China-Europe intermodal freight trains as of July this year, transporting more than 10,000 twenty-foot equivalent units of goods with a total value exceeding 2 billion yuan ($278.75 million), marking a tenfold increase compared to the entire year of 2022.
This growth has facilitated the continued expansion of Wuxi-made products like washing machines and polyester chips in the Central Asian market, reducing logistics costs for local enterprises by nearly 15 million yuan in just the first half of 2025.
The launch of the first Wuxi-Lianyungang-Uzbekistan train on Aug 13, 2022, marked the beginning of the large-scale development of Wuxi's China-Europe intermodal trains. At that time, only 15.8 trains were operated annually, transporting less than 1,300 TEUs of goods. However, with a speed that is twice as fast as sea freight and a cost that is half that of air freight, it opened up new possibilities for westward exports for Wuxi's foreign trade enterprises.
The China-Europe train is a successful example of international cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative. Today, Wuxi's China-Europe intermodal freight trains have achieved a leap in volume.
Over the past three years, through cooperation with cities like Xuzhou, Nanjing, and Suzhou, the Wuxi West Station Logistics Park has opened five China-Europe intermodal train routes: Wuxi to Russia, Wuxi to Central Asia, Wuxi to Poland, Russia returning to Wuxi, and Central Asia returning to Wuxi, covering more than 10 overseas stations including Moscow, Minsk, and Hamburg.
In the future, with the advancement of measures such as exploring cross-border e-commerce plus less-than-container-load trains and establishing overseas container return points, the China-Europe train services are set to further energize Wuxi's development as a hub of international trade and cooperation.
