A surge in European heatwaves this June, with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius, triggered an explosive demand for air conditioning, leading to a shortage of Chinese units in the local market. Appliance manufacturers like Midea and Gree responded by shifting their supply routes from sea freight to the China-Europe Railway Express, cutting transportation times from 40 days to roughly 15 days and building a "fast lane" for Sino-European trade.

This was highlighted by Liang Linchong, Director of the Open Economy Department at the National Development and Reform Commission, during a press conference on July 28th. He noted that over the past decade, the China-Europe Railway Express has become a vital bridge for international trade, growing from 1,702 trains in 2016 to 20,022 trains in 2025, an average annual growth rate exceeding 30%. Currently, a single month's volume now matches the entire year's output from 2016, demonstrating strong resilience and growth potential.

To date, the China-Europe Railway Express has surpassed 130,000 trips, transporting goods valued at over $520 billion. It has evolved into a "steel camel caravan" along the Silk Road Economic Belt, offering 96 operational routes that connect 236 cities across 26 European countries through a multi-corridor network of northern, central, and southern pathways. The range of goods transported covers 53 major categories with over 50,000 varieties, with the value of goods as a share of total Sino-European trade steadily increasing.

Looking ahead to the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, Wu Zhaoxin, Director of the Freight Department and Logistics Center at China State Railway Group, outlined plans to enhance service quality. These focus on three core objectives: higher quality, better efficiency, and greater safety. The company will innovate operational and management models, deepen domestic and international cooperation, and promote diversified corridor development, while strengthening mechanisms for transport, security, and pricing to boost market vitality and support high-level opening-up.

Wu Zhaoxin also revealed that to maintain the railway's competitive edge, China State Railway Group will work with railway companies, vehicle operators, and freight forwarders to propose competitive pricing strategies. This includes implementing price coordination to preserve the cost-performance advantage of the China-Europe Railway Express over other transport modes.

The "Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development" outlines a blueprint for China's future, emphasizing the need to improve the connectivity network for high-quality Belt and Road cooperation. This includes elevating the development level of the China-Europe Railway Express. Liang Linchong stated that the National Development and Reform Commission will effectively integrate rail, road, sea, and air transport, actively opening new multimodal transport routes to further enhance the network.

Zhang Tao, Deputy Director of the Supervision Department at the General Administration of Customs, added that the agency will closely monitor the application of export rail-road intermodal transport models. Once these models are stable, the system will be gradually refined and expanded to cover other types of import and export intermodal transport supervision.