Containers are piled up at the railway port in Shapingba district, Southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality, on April 17, 2025. Photo: VCG
The value of goods handled by cross-border highway freight transport via China’s New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor surged 4.5-fold year-on-year to more than 15 billion yuan ($2.11 billion) in the first 10 months of the year, highlighting a major boost in efficiency, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Wednesday.
Analysts said that the progress underscores the resilience and diversification potential of China’s foreign trade, particularly amid rising global unilateralism and protectionism.
Cross-border truck trips under the corridor, a key logistics network linking China’s western regions to global markets, exceeded 11,000 from January to October, doubling from a year earlier, Xinhua reported, citing data revealed at the China-ASEAN logistics industry cooperation conference in Southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality.
Since its launch in 2016, there have been about 35,000 trips on the route, one of the three main transportation modes of the corridor, carrying goods with a total value of about 30 billion yuan, the Xinhua report said.
The service has 12 main transport routes, establishing comprehensive coverage of the Indochina Peninsula and expanding into Central and South Asia. It has formed an extensive network utilizing 25 border ports, with 39 overseas distribution warehouses, Xinhua reported.
“Even amid growing trade protectionism, the corridor’s role as a logistics hub is being reinforced through an optimized, multimodal network, clearly showing the resilience of China’s economy and foreign trade,” Song Ding, a research fellow at the China Development Institute, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
Song said that the corridor provides businesses in western China with more efficient maritime access, which reduces logistics expenses, improves transport efficiency, fosters trade liberalization, and significantly boosts the foreign trade potential of central and western regions.
With an operational hub based in Chongqing, this trade corridor connects global ports via railways, sea routes and highways through southern Chinese regions such as Guangxi and Yunnan, significantly reducing transit times compared with traditional sea routes along China’s eastern coast.
Operating from its hub in Chongqing, the cross-border road freight service of the corridor is strengthening the corridor’s industrial framework. The city’s highway logistics base is building a comprehensive supply chain that integrates bonded warehousing, international distribution, and trade services.
The corridor’s reach has expanded dramatically in recent years. Official data showed that from January to October, cargo volume shipped via the corridor from Chongqing rose 33 percent year-on-year, while its value increased 27 percent to 48.962 billion yuan.
Driven by this improved synergy, the corridor now connects to 581 ports across 127 countries and regions worldwide, according to the Chongqing municipal government on Wednesday.
A rail-sea intermodal train set off on November 4 from Chongqing’s Guoyuan Port, the largest port on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, bound for transfer at Qinzhou Port in South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region before arriving the Chancay Port in Peru, the Chongqing Daily reported.
This inaugural run fully implemented Chongqing’s seamless “one-bill” multimodal system, achieving direct intercontinental reach to South America for the first time, cutting transit time by about 15 days and container costs by about 25 percent compared with traditional river-sea routes, the report said.
By meeting the strong demand in Belt and Road partner countries and facilitating balanced trade, the new corridor provides a stable and reliable channel for global commerce, Song said, adding that this will deliver essential momentum for upholding a normal international trade order and ensuring stable global growth.
A series of events for the trade corridor’s 2025 development forum kicked off in Chongqing on Wednesday, with the China-ASEAN logistics industry cooperation conference featured as one of the key sessions, according to the municipal government.