A China-Europe freight train, loaded with goods for cross-border e-commerce business departed on Wednesday from Guangzhou, capital city of south China's Guangdong Province, marking the launch of the city's first dedicated China-Europe e-commerce express line.
The goods carried by the train include daily necessities produced in multiple cities of east China's Guangdong Province, such as clothing from Guangzhou, small home appliances from Foshan, and kitchenware from Zhongshan.
The train is set to exit China via Xinjiang's Horgos in the northwest of the country and arrive in Italy in 13 days.
This cargo route features advantages including short transit time and low costs, meeting the transportation needs of cross-border e-commerce business for small but frequent shipments and tight delivery schedules.
"Previously, our cross-border e-commerce goods were mainly transported to Europe via sea or air freight. Sea freight took over 30 days, while air freight was relatively expensive. Now, with the new China-Europe e-commerce freight train service, cross-border goods can reach Europe in just 13 days -- more than twice as fast as sea transport, and at only one-fifth of the cost of air freight," said Zhang Junmei, an executive of a logistics company.
Following the launch of this route, about 40 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of cross-border e-commerce goods are expected to be exported weekly.
China adds another China-Europe freight train route for e-commerce goods
Tokyo stocks ended lower Monday, with the benchmark 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average falling around 1 percent, amid concern that the surging yen could disrupt companies' business outlooks, said an analyst.
The benchmark Nikkei stock index, the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average, ended down 607.12 points, or 0.94 percent, from Friday at 63,754.90.
The broader Topix index, meanwhile, finished 43.27 points, or 1.08 percent, lower at 3,960.03.
The Japanese yen rose sharply on Monday, briefly surging to the lower 155 yen range against the U.S. dollar, after Japan confirmed joint currency market intervention with the United States and possible further intervention.
The U.S. dollar fetched 156.76-78 yen after briefly hitting 155.20 yen, compared with 157.33-43 yen in New York and 160.20-22 yen in Tokyo at 17:00 local time Friday.
"Over in Tokyo, the big story was of course the rare joint action by Japan and the U.S. to support the yen, which had been trading near 40-year lows in recent weeks. Japan's finance ministry confirmed that coordinated intervention today and said the two countries are prepared to act on that again. The yen rose as much as 1.4 percent at one stage and the Nikkei 225 fell around 1 percent. The stronger currency was weighing on exporters. There we had Suzuki Motor down 6.7 percent. Many Japanese-listed companies earn a substantial share of their revenues overseas, and a stronger yen reduces the value of those earnings when they are translated back into the Japanese currency. AI-linked stocks also weighed on the market, with the chip-testing-equipment maker Advantest down 3.3 percent," said Timothy Pope, a Shanghai-based market analyst for China Global Television Network (CGTN).
Pope said that in the rest of the week, investors are going to watch closely the earning reports to be released by the major companies.
"Tokyo has some major earnings to watch this week as well. So, we will be following Toyota, Nintendo and SoftBank -- all of them are due to report. SoftBank's results will be watched particularly closely for further clues about the returns, the risks as well as all of those associated with the enormous sums being invested in AI at the moment," said Pope.
Tokyo stocks end lower Monday on stronger yen: analyst
