The New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, a key logistics network linking China's western regions to global markets, has transported over 1 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of cargo this year as of Thursday, a record high, according to China Railway Nanning Group.
Cargo volume along the corridor totaled 1,001,455 TEUs as of Thursday, up 72.5 percent year on year and marking the first time that annual freight volume has exceeded 1 million TEUs since the corridor began operations in 2017.
As an important project under the Belt and Road Initiative, the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor plays a vital role in driving socio-economic development in the country's western regions and supporting their opening to global markets.
Railway operators are expanding train services along the corridor, with 24 fixed routes now in operation. Fourteen of them link Beibu Gulf Port in Guangxi and Zhanjiang Port in neighboring Guangdong to major inland hubs in western China, including Chongqing and Chengdu.
Since its launch in 2017, the corridor has handled 4.7 million TEUs of cargo, with volumes growing at double-digit rates each year, official data show.
Goods moved through its rail-sea intermodal services include electronics, vehicles and auto parts, machinery, household appliances and food.
China's land-sea trade corridor sees freight exceed 1 mln TEUs in 2025
The European Commission's autumn 2025 economic forecast shows that driven by a surge in exports in anticipation of U.S. tariff increases, the European Union's (EU) economy maintained growth in the third quarter of this year, and it is expected to continue expanding at a moderate pace over the forecast horizon.
In the report released on Monday, the Commission said the gross domestic product (GDP) of the EU is expected to grow 1.4 percent in 2025, with the eurozone expanding 1.3 percent. Growth in 2026 is forecast at 1.4 percent for the EU and 1.2 percent for the eurozone, both slightly lower than projections made in May.
Eurozone headline inflation is projected to ease to 2.1 percent this year from 2.4 percent in 2024. Inflation across the EU is seen declining from 2.6 percent in 2024 to 2.2 percent in 2027, remaining slightly above the eurozone rate.
Due to the increase in defence spending, the EU's fiscal deficit is expected to rise to 3.4 percent of GDP in 2027 from 3.1 percent in 2024. The EU debt-to-GDP ratio is projected to rise from 84.5 percent in 2024 to 85 percent in 2027, with the eurozone ratio set to rise from around 88 percent to 90.4 percent.
The forecast noted that globally, trade barriers have reached historic highs, and the EU now faces higher average tariffs on exports to the U.S. compared with the spring forecast. Persistent trade policy uncertainty continues to weigh on economic activity, with tariffs and non-tariff restrictions potentially constraining EU growth more than expected. Any escalation in geopolitical tensions could intensify supply shocks, it noted.
EU expects economy to expand moderately
