China–Europe freight trains hit record volume — more corridors to Europe

China–Europe freight train numbers kept climbing this year, with routes densified at multiple ports. For the cross-border e-commerce industry, the significance is not how much cargo rail itself took, but a shift in perception — logistics corridors between China and Europe can be increased.

Before this, the industry assumed there were only two roads: air freight, fast but expensive, and sea freight, slow but cheap. Rail proved there is still room between the two, and that room is real demand.

Looking a few years ahead, the rise of China–Europe road freight (truck express) is an extension of the same logic — between speed and cost, there is always a gap to be filled.

At the time we were doing air first mile and welcomed this trend. The more corridors there are, the more flexible clients' inventory mix becomes: urgent goods by air, regular restock by rail, big-promotion stock by sea. A forwarder's value also shifted from "having a lane" to "helping you combine several lanes".