Railways in China delivered 4.066 billion tons of freight in 2025, logging a 2.1-percent year-on-year increase and marking the ninth consecutive year of growth, China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. said on Sunday.
In 2025, China-Europe/Asia freight trains operated 34,000 trips, delivering 3.17 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), representing year-on-year increases of 9.8 percent and 7.6 percent, respectively.
Among them, the number of China-Europe freight train trips exceeded 20,000. The New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor freight trains transported 1.42 million TEUs, marking a 47.5-percent year-on-year surge.
In northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, both the Horgos and Alashankou ports maintained steady growth in import and export freight volumes.
"The integration of smart railway ports and local rapid customs clearance has reduced import clearance time to less than 16 hours and local export processing time to just one hour," said He Dongliang, president of the Horgos Branch of Xinjiang Zhonglian Haitong International Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd.
The efforts to reduce logistics costs have deepened in 2025, with total railway logistics volume reaching 1.12 billion tons, 20.6 percentage points more year on year, effectively promoting the shift from road to rail transport.
In 2025, major railway clients accounted for nearly 92 percent of commercial vehicle transport volume, with automobile shipments exceeding 8 million units, setting a new historical record.
Logistics product offerings upgraded further in 2025.
In 2025, containers transported by railway reached 41.883 million TEUs, up 14.2 percent year on year. The multi-modal transport continued to expand, with rail-water intermodal transport volume reaching 17.38 million TEUs, up 15.1 percent year on year.
Railway freight volume grows for nine consecutive years
Railway freight volume grows for nine consecutive years
