Kerry Logistics Network participated in the commencement ceremony of the first eastbound freight train from London to Yiwu with the support of a long-standing customer for this service. The project is not only a significant step forward in the Group’s development strategy in line with the ‘One Belt One Road’ Initiative, but also a strategic move advancing the Group’s further expansion into the rail freight and multimodal services.
The train, which departed on 10 April 2017 from London, is scheduled to arrive eastern China’s Yiwu in around 18 days. The 7,500-mile journey will pass through nine countries, including France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan. The freight cost is lower than that of air and ocean freight, while it is twice as fast as ocean transport.
In August 2016, Kerry Logistics delivered a rail freight shipment of over 80 containers from Yiwu to Madrid, Spain, passing through eight countries in 19 days.
London is the 15th European city and the latest destination added to the China-Europe rail network under the Belt and Road Initiative. The first freight train from Yiwu to London launched on 1 January 2017 took 18 days. It was mainly for carrying clothes, shoes and other consumer goods made in China.
William Ma, group managing director of Kerry Logistics, said, “We are extremely excited to be the first Asia-based global 3PL to move eastbound freight from Europe along the One Belt One Road trade route, turning part of the roadmap into reality. We are committed to developing an overland transportation network for road, rail and multimodal freight services in China to Central Asia and Europe. We will leverage our global international freight forwarding network to provide end-to-end and cost-effective logistics solutions to connect China with Europe and Asia via air, road, rail and sea.”
Kerry Logistics will continue to develop under the Belt and Road Initiative to create new form of transportation models, offering more options to customers across various industry segments.