Looking at the development of cross border e-commerce at border stations through figures

In the northwest corner of China, two railway border stations are famous, one is Horgos border station, the other is Alashankou border station. They are all subordinate to China Railway Urumqi Bureau Group Co., Ltd.

From the border station to the modern frontier station, a train of China Europe trains leave for European countries through these two border stations. International passenger trains from Urumqi, Xinjiang, to Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, and Almaty, the second largest city, also pass through these two border stations. Today, the two frontier stations have developed passenger and freight transportation, and have played an important role in serving the "belt and road" construction.

The number of China Europe express trains has increased, and the volume of cross-border e-commerce parcel transportation has increased. According to the data provided by Urumqi customs, on January 21, 2020, Alashankou port took the lead in opening export cross-border e-commerce retail business. By April 11, the number of cross-border e-commerce packages exceeded 1 million; by May 19, the number of cross-border e-commerce packages increased to 10 million; by June 30, the number of cross-border e-commerce packages exceeded 20 million.

Nowadays, in the Alashankou Comprehensive Bonded Zone, the export cross-border e-commerce retail business shows a rapid growth trend. More and more cross-border e-commerce packages take the China Europe express through the Alashankou border station to European countries, serving the people of countries along the belt and road.

Why is Alashankou cross border e-commerce business developing rapidly?

At present, the belt and road initiative has been widely recognized and supported by all countries in the world. China National Railway Group Co., Ltd. resolutely implements the central decision-making and deployment, gives full play to the backbone role of the railway in the comprehensive transportation system, makes every effort to run the China Europe train, serves the "belt and road" construction, and contributes to the national development.

Alashankou is located in the core area of the Silk Road Economic Belt, where the western section of Lanzhou Xinjiang railway connects with Kazakhstan railway, and is located in an important position of the Golden Corridor of international railway transport. With the advantages of large number of trains, large traffic volume, low energy consumption, many lines, high operation efficiency, low operation cost and rich variety of goods, China Europe train can be exported to European countries via Alataw pass.

It has been 30 years since the station was built in 1990. There are 2 standard gauge yards, 1 wide gauge yard, 26 arrival departure tracks, 40 shunting tracks, 21 loading and unloading operation lines and 9 dedicated lines. The annual cargo carrying capacity of the station is about 27 million tons, and the annual loading and unloading capacity is about 20 million tons. The loading capacity is strong and the transportation capacity of marshalling station is strong.

Alashankou City, adjacent to the border station of Alashankou, has complete infrastructure and a national level comprehensive bonded zone. In recent years, with the rapid development of railway, the economic development of Alashankou city has increased significantly. Alashankou city will give full play to the policy and location advantages, upgrade infrastructure and supporting services, optimize the industrial layout, and realize the agglomeration of bonded import and export processing industry. The Alashankou comprehensive bonded zone has now built dozens of special railway lines, hundreds of thousands of square meters of standardized workshop and storage facilities, open storage yard, international mail exchange station, cross-border e-commerce supervision center. It has the functions of railway organization, international logistics, bonded logistics, etc., and its material flow covers the whole country. At present, Alibaba and other well-known e-commerce enterprises have been established in Alashankou Comprehensive Bonded Zone, which has laid a good foundation for the development of cross-border e-commerce business.

Through the golden channel of railway international intermodal transport, cross-border e-commerce goods from all over China are transported to Europe in 10-15 days via Alashankou border station, which is more than half of the time of sea transportation, while the freight rate is only about 20% of that of air transportation, which saves time and reduces costs, and is welcomed by users. Therefore, there are significant advantages in developing cross-border e-commerce business in Alashankou.

In order to adapt to the new situation and better meet the development needs of domestic and foreign enterprises and individuals' cross-border e-commerce business, on January 21, this year, Alashankou Comprehensive Bonded Zone opened cross-border e-commerce retail export business for the first time, mainly exporting toys, furniture, clothing, etc. The goods are sent to Belgium, Germany and other countries by rail, and then transferred to local post or express for distribution. At present, there are 12 China Europe trains running at Alataw mountain pass border station.

In order to boost the development of cross-border e-commerce business, Alashankou city continuously innovates the customs declaration work of Alashankou cross-border e-commerce trains in advance, optimizes the comprehensive customs clearance environment at the port, improves the information level, and builds a comprehensive cross-border e-commerce service platform. Alashankou customs actively reformed and optimized the cross-border e-commerce customs clearance mode, implemented the "list inspection and release, summary declaration" mode, opened a fast channel for cross-border e-commerce business at the port, relying on the railway transportation and container multimodal transport logistics channel, making the cross-border e-commerce industry full of vitality.

At 20:00 on July 21, with the whistling of the bagpipes, the 2003 China Europe train carrying communication equipment, laptops and epidemic prevention materials left the country via the Alashankou border station, heading west to malasevich, Poland.

Since the beginning of this year, Urumqi Bureau Group has overcome the adverse effects of the epidemic situation. While focusing on the prevention and control of the epidemic situation, it has focused on the target and task of "five guarantees and five results", vigorously promoted the work of increasing freight transportation and revenue, strengthened freight organization, unblocked the logistics supply chain, made great efforts to open the China Europe train, helped enterprises to resume work and production in an orderly manner, and did a good job in the "six stability" work Fully implement the task of "six guarantees" and make positive contributions.

The rapid development of cross-border e-commerce business is inseparable from the close cooperation of all units at Alashankou port. The railway plays an important role in it, which promotes the development of cross-border e-commerce industry.

"It is an important practice for the railway to serve the construction of the belt and road initiative, serve the national development strategy, and promote the high-quality development of the railway." Gao Qiang, deputy director of the cargo loading workshop of Alashankou border station, said, "the station has taken measures such as priority marshalling, priority of hanging, priority of departure and optimization of transportation organization for China EU trains, strengthened communication and coordination with customs, border inspection departments and Kazakhstan railway departments, implemented the 24-hour customs clearance system, and accelerated the customs clearance efficiency of China EU trains. Since March, the number of import and export trains at Alashankou border station has further increased, of which the average daily outbound trains to China and Europe has reached 14, a substantial increase over the same period last year

In recent years, Urumqi Bureau Group Co., Ltd. adheres to the concept of high-quality development, actively serves the "belt and road" construction, constantly renovates the infrastructure, strengthens the capacity expansion and reconstruction of border stations, and optimizes the transportation organization, so as to ensure that more cross-border e-commerce packages can travel to Europe on the China Europe Express while the traffic volume of Alashankou border station is increasing.

As a new trade mode of "Internet + foreign trade", cross-border e-commerce provides new impetus for the transformation and upgrading of foreign trade, and railway freight transport shows responsibility. According to the latest figures provided by Urumqi customs, as of July 23, the total number of cross-border e-commerce packages transported by Alashankou port this year amounted to more than 23 million pieces, with a value of 1.26 billion yuan, ranking among the top ports in China.