Smooth "double circulation", Jiangsu "hot metal combined transport" enters the fast lane
Jiangsu Tongjiang reaches the sea and is endowed with unique water transport resources. The total length of railways built in the province has exceeded 4,500 kilometers, and the comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network has been improved day by day. Both railways and waterways have the characteristics of large capacity, low cost, green and low carbon. In recent years, focusing on building a transportation pattern of "iron is suitable for iron, water is suitable for water, and public is suitable for public", Jiangsu has continuously promoted the adjustment of transportation structure, developed multimodal transport, improved comprehensive transportation efficiency, and reduced social logistics costs. Hot metal combined transport is an important type of multimodal transport. According to the latest statistics, in 2023, the province’s waterway and railway freight volume totaled 1.26 billion tons, a year-on-year increase of 6.5%. The container multimodal transport volume and inland container transport volume were 2.32 million and 1.455 million TEUs, up by 15.2% and 19.9% year-on-year. The volume of "iron-water combined transport" has been rising all the way.
Convenient and efficient, the railway reaches the port and is connected with a huge ship.
Recently, a sea-rail intermodal train loaded with photovoltaic modules blew its whistle from Yancheng North Railway Freight Yard, headed for Shanghai Port, and then transferred to Europe by sea.
"The’ Yancheng North-Shanghai Port’ sea-rail intermodal train runs regularly every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. When the goods exported by enterprises get on the train, it is equivalent to arriving at Shanghai Port, which is fast and efficient. This train can reduce the logistics cost of 1000 yuan for enterprises." Xi Peng, deputy general manager of Xinchang Company of Provincial Railway Group, said that in the freight volume of Yancheng North Freight Yard last year, the sea-rail combined transport volume accounted for more than 90% of the total shipments. Up to now, the company has opened more than 10 sea-rail combined transport lines, including Hai ‘an-Luchao Port, Yuanbei-Beilun Port and Wuxi West-Guangzhou International Port. A total of 51,775 vehicles, accounting for 1,400,143.2 tons, were delivered by sea-rail combined transport, with the number of vehicles delivered increasing by 78% and the tonnage increasing by 79% year-on-year. The opening of these classes has greatly boosted the local economic extroversion.
In 2023, Changzhou’s sea-rail combined transport operation was in good condition. In the first 10 months, 65,166 TEUs of heavy containers were delivered, a year-on-year increase of 33.7%, and the annual plan of 60,000 TEUs was completed ahead of schedule.
"In 2018 and 2019, Changzhou-Ningbo Port and Changzhou-Shanghai Port sea-rail intermodal trains were opened one after another. The sea-rail intermodal trains have developed from the initial one train per week to the current 17 trains per week, and the delivery volume has also increased from the original 12,000 TEUs per year to 77,000 TEUs in 2023, saving transportation costs for enterprises by over 100 million yuan." Shi Zelin, General Transportation Department of Changzhou Municipal Transportation Bureau, introduced that since 2020, the Changzhou-Shanghai Port sea-rail train has become the train line with the largest volume and the most stable operation among all the sea-rail trains in Shanghai Port, and was awarded the "Shanghai Port Sea-rail Intermodal Transport Demonstration Base" by Shanghai Port.
On January 12, Lianyungang Port Terminal. Looking around, the container yard is very spectacular. The railway leading to the port is connected with a huge ship, and the efficient hot metal combined transport system sends containers to their destinations between the sea and the sky.
"In 2023, Lianyungang completed a total of 854,012 TEUs of container hot metal combined transport, an increase of 8.1% year-on-year." Xu Yue, director of the container train in the container division of Lianyungang Port Holding Group, said that since last year, Lianyungang Port has accelerated its integration into the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, and provided competitive "one-price" products for the majority of enterprises in the central and western regions, gradually achieving the goal of combined transportation of hot metal and water.
"Relying on the seamless connection between the Yaohuamen Station of China Railway and Nanjing longtan port Railway, the company has launched three excellent multimodal transport lines, including Nanjing-Shanghai and Huainan-Nanjing, which have realized the fixed-point, fixed-line, fixed-train, timed, priced and scheduled operation of intermodal transport lines, ensured the stability and timeliness of logistics transport channels, and actively served key enterprises in Nanjing and surrounding areas, such as Nanjing LG, Chuzhou Jingke Photovoltaic and Longji Photovoltaic." Shi Qingsong, general manager of Nanjing Shenghai Multimodal Transport Co., Ltd., introduced that in 2023, Nanjing Port completed 156,800 TEUs of container multimodal transport, up 49.8% year-on-year, maintaining the number one inland port, and achieving remarkable results in reducing comprehensive logistics costs and carbon reduction targets of enterprises.

Nanjing Longtan port hot metal combined transport site. Photo by Zhang Yue
Rich in goods, think what the enterprise wants and what the enterprise wants.
In 2019, Changzhou established a professional sea-rail combined transport company, which was guided by the supply chain thinking, thought about what enterprises thought and what enterprises were anxious about, standardized various modes of transport and set reasonable transport prices.
"At the beginning of the operation of the sea-rail intermodal train, the supply of goods included diesel engines, syringes, cables, tractor accessories, intelligent sensing equipment, pharmaceutical products, traffic track accessories and other traditional advantageous industrial products in Changzhou." Shi Zelin said that in recent years, with the construction of Changzhou’s new energy capital, the transportation volume of products in the new energy industry has risen sharply, and the sea-rail combined transport has been continuously adjusted. In February 2023, the first sea-rail combined transport train for new energy vehicles was opened. Last year, more than 17,000 vehicles were sent, which became an important channel for the export of new energy vehicles in Changzhou.
Photovoltaic industry is another business card of Changzhou’s new energy industry. In the Science and Technology Warehouse of Trina Solar Changzhou Base, boxes of finished photovoltaic modules are waiting to be loaded and sent to all parts of the world. As the main chain enterprise of photovoltaic industry, Trina Solar’s sales area has expanded to more than 150 countries and regions around the world, and the shipment volume has increased by more than 10 times compared with 10 years ago. The stable delivery channel is the lifeline to ensure the development of enterprises.
"Highway transportation is basically about 300 kilometers. For transportation over 300 kilometers, we will use multimodal transportation, such as railway and waterway connection, which makes the transportation capacity more flexible and abundant, and the transportation cost is reduced by about 10%." Su Huizhong, head of Trina Solar’s global logistics, said that the sea-rail intermodal trains actively connect with photovoltaic enterprises and provide stable delivery channels for enterprises by expanding transportation capacity. At present, single photovoltaic products have exceeded 10% of the total transportation volume.
Yan Peng introduced that in order to better meet the strong transportation demand of photovoltaic enterprises, on the basis of the normal operation of photovoltaic trains such as Yancheng North-Karamay North and Yancheng North-Golmud, a number of photovoltaic trains such as Yangzhou North-Jinta, Yangzhou North-Jiuquan and Taizhou West-Baotou West were successively added. The company promoted the implementation of the "more active and closer" "sinking" service measures, sent employees to take root in the front line, helped the transportation of photovoltaic modules to continue to increase, and ensured the stable delivery of photovoltaic modules. Last year, the company sent a total of 12,837 vehicles and 367,938.68 tons of photoelectric plates, an increase of 11,994 vehicles and 344,369.98 tons respectively.
"The goods of Lianyungang Port’s hot metal combined transport mainly include Xuzhou construction machinery parts, tires, Henan pebbles, Hefei white goods, cassava starch in Southeast Asia, and tiles in South China." Xu Yue analyzed the rapid growth of freight volume since last year, saying that the first reason is to set up 11 overseas container office outlets and Henan marketing centers at important nodes such as Sulu, Henan, Anhui, etc., focusing on "connecting goods and transportation" and the hinterland market along the Longhai, and newly opening trains from Pangu Temple to Lianyungang, Hefei to Lianyungang and Lianyungang to Zhengzhou and Xinxiang westbound to help the goods in the central and western regions go to sea in an all-round way. The second is to pilot the business process of "multimodal transport+direct loading in Hong Kong" in Lianxu, and quickly realize the high-quality development of the train operation of Xulianhai railway combined transport. Third, actively integrate into the construction of "Lianhuaixu" combined hub, cooperate with Xuzhou dry port to operate the digital platform of multimodal transport, and jointly develop market supply.

Lianyungang port. Image source: vision china
"Thanks to the rapid development of export-oriented economy in Nanjing and its surrounding metropolitan areas, there is a strong demand for logistics products exported to Europe and the United States. With key enterprises such as LG Electric, Jingke Photovoltaic, Longji Photovoltaic and Jiangsu Sumeida as representatives, the main foreign trade export products include washing machines, refrigerators, solar module, monitors, auto parts, furniture and daily necessities, which provide excellent basic conditions for the operation of sea-rail trains along the Yangtze River." Shi Qingsong said that by continuously strengthening the efficient serial port and railway, the company provides "one-stop" service to foreign trade enterprises within the radiation range of Nanjing metropolitan area, and the supply of goods is still increasing.
Optimize the passage, break through the blocking point and build the hub adjustment structure
With the continuous construction and improvement of Jiangsu high-speed rail network, the freight capacity of trunk railways such as Beijing-Shanghai, Longhai, Xinchang and Ningwu has been effectively released, and more than 110 multimodal transport demonstration lines and 24 China-Europe train lines have been expanded, supporting the growth rate of railway freight volume.
Pei Jianping, deputy chief planner of Huashe Design Group, said that although railway freight has developed rapidly in recent years, the backbone role of railway freight in Jiangsu’s comprehensive transportation system has not been fully exerted, and the railway freight volume and turnover are only about 3%; The railway transportation of bulk materials such as mining construction, bulk groceries, oil, natural gas and products is also less than 6%. In short, Jiangsu’s freight structure still has a lot of room for optimization and adjustment, and the freight volume of railway and water transport needs to be further accelerated.

Nanjing longtan port Image Source: vision china
"Under the current background, around the deployment of the Implementation Plan for Promoting High-quality Development of Iron-water Intermodal Transport in Jiangsu Province (2023-2025), to further enhance the railway freight volume and promote the development of iron-water intermodal transport, it is necessary to speed up the improvement of the’ three vertical and three horizontal’ railway freight passages, especially the construction of railway passages behind the port." Pei Jianping believes that in view of the bottleneck problems such as saturated transportation capacity of railway freight corridors in our province, low standards of some lines, and insufficient cross-river freight capacity, we can speed up the improvement of the functions of coastal freight corridors by expanding the capacity of new lines and opening the freight functions of green salt and salt. Through the construction of high-speed railway along the river in the north and the expansion and transformation of Ningwu, the westward radiation capacity of the channel along the river will be accelerated. Relying on the capacity building of freight channels and inland terminals, we will focus on building hot metal combined transport channels along the new Eurasian continental bridge, along the river and along the coast.
At the same time, it is particularly critical to smooth the "last mile" of railway transportation. According to the survey, at present, the coverage rate of special railway lines in the whole province is insufficient and the utilization level is not high, which is about 55%. The railway entry rate of 20 key port areas along the Yangtze River and the coast is only 40%. "It is necessary to focus on resource-rich areas, major ports and logistics parks, speed up the construction of railway special branch lines, form a modern railway collection and distribution system with effective connection of trunk and branch lines and multimodal and efficient intermodal transport, and realize full coverage of railway special lines in key port areas along the Yangtze River." Yan Jianping said.
At present, there are eight special railway branches under construction in the province. According to the plan, the special railway line of Lianyungang Economic Development Zone Processing and Assembly Park, Binhai Port Railway Line and Canal Suqian Port Railway Line will be built this year.
Zhao Guobin, general manager of Nantong Yanglu Railway Company, said that Yanglu Railway is a key project for the construction of a new international first-class port in tongzhou bay, connecting four ports and connecting with Ningqi and Haiyang Railway. It is a special railway line integrating the combined transport of iron, sea and molten iron. Since the first bid section was officially put into operation last year, it has mainly transported coal for Zhongtian Iron and Steel, and now it has transported 37 trains, totaling 73,000 tons. The future prospect of Yanglu Railway can be expected.
"Synchronization should further improve the multimodal transport hub system and improve the service level of freight nodes." Pei Jianping said that while further improving the functions of existing multimodal transport freight hubs such as Nanjing longtan port, Suzhou International Railway Logistics Center and Lianyungang SCO International Logistics Park, it is necessary to accelerate the construction of a number of multimodal transport freight hubs such as Xuzhou land port Logistics Base, Lujiabang Freight Yard and Xinyi Public Railway Logistics Base. Make full use of Jiangsu’s "six vertical and six horizontal" high-speed rail network resources, study the layout of high-speed rail logistics nodes and air-rail intermodal hubs, and build an efficient and convenient high-speed rail logistics channel with internal communication and external communication. In addition, it is necessary to enrich the connotation of China-Europe trains and expand the radiation range of trains; We should actively innovate the freight mode and improve the efficiency of intermodal service.
Xi Peng said that the company is actively docking local logistics development planning, accelerating the expansion and transformation of key freight yards such as Taizhou West and Yancheng North, promoting the integrated development of modern railway parks, logistics parks and industrial parks, and comprehensively improving freight capacity and logistics service level. At present, relevant strategic cooperation framework agreements and project agent construction agreements have been signed with Yancheng City and Taizhou City to promote the implementation of the capacity expansion and reconstruction project of the railway freight yard in Yancheng North and Taizhou West Station, and jointly build a regional railway logistics park.
Xu Yue introduced that this year, it is planned to promote the inclusion of classes in Xuzhou and Zhengzhou, develop classes in important nodes such as Hefei, speed up the construction of empty container centers in Xuzhou and other regions, promote the pre-positioning of empty containers and the establishment of container return points by shipping companies, and carry out domestic trade business in combination with the "one-single system", and strive to complete 850,000 TEUs by sea-rail combined transport and 25,000 TEUs by water tank loading and unloading.
"Around the sea-rail combined transport, Changzhou will continue to exert its efforts on the development of" one single system "and" one box ",promote platform construction, break through information barriers, form a high-energy logistics hub network, and let resource elements gather in Changzhou on their own initiative. Accelerate the construction of the empty container circulation center to make the import and export logistics and transportation channels smoother. " Shi Zelin said.
Xinhua Daily Meeting Point reporter Mei Jianfei Tian Mochi made a wish





