The China-Europe freight-train service in Jiangsu Province recorded 700 trips in the first half of the year, with the transported goods valued at $1.548 billion, up 42.84% year on year, according to the province’s Department of Transport on July 12.

Early in the year, the province issued a guideline over the freight-train service and established a supervision and evaluation system. The month of June saw 129 trips between the province and destinations in Europe and Central Asia, including six temporary trips. Then 90 trips were approved in July, making Jiangsu home to the largest business expansion of China Railway Shanghai Group. Cargos exported through the trade route include electronic products, auto and machinery parts, and daily necessities.

It also saw the opening of two new routes linking Nanjing and Tilburg, the Netherlands, and Suzhou and Helsinki, Finland, respectively. Xuzhou also debuted trains specially for Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group, China's leading construction machinery manufacturer. A freight train for cross-border e-commerce departed from Suzhou, and Nanjing launched a freight train service for products of LG.

The freight train service also played an important role in the global fight against COVID-19. In response to the request of the Embassy of Kazakhstan in China, more than 3 million bottles of COVID-19 reagent were transported from the China-Kazakhstan logistics base in Lianyungang City on March 6, a mission fully supported by the Ministry of Transport and China Railway.

The transnational freight-train service departing from Jiangsu has sent about 50 million masks and other COVID-19 prevention materials to European and Central Asian countries.