Photo shows the storage yard of Zhangzhou CIMC Container Co., Ltd. (Photo/Chinanews.com)

Thanks to the Belt and Road Initiative, containers that were initially only used in sea transportation are now also being used in railway transportation, Chinanews.com reported on Dec. 16.

On Dec. 16, Zhangzhou CIMC Container Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China International Marine Containers (Group) Ltd. (CIMC), handed over more than 10,000 railway containers to its clients.

Thousands of the new containers will be directly put into use on China-Europe freight trains, according to Zhang Tao, general manager of Zhangzhou CIMC Container Co., Ltd.

With the launch of the China-Europe freight trains, the increasing international cooperation along the Belt and Road route has spurred the development of multimodal transportation, which has offered a brand new market for container manufacturers.

Aerial photo of the containers produced by Zhangzhou CIMC Container Co., Ltd. (Photo/Chinanews.com)

Realizing this new market demand, CIMC set up a dedicated team to research containers for railway transportation this February, and has now independently developed multiple types of such containers.

As the largest designer, manufacturer, and production base of containers in east China’s Fujian province, Zhangzhou CIMC Container Co., Ltd. has realized an output value of 250 million yuan ($36.2 million) from railway containers, while injecting vitality into the connectivity between the countries and regions along the Belt and Road.

Storage yard of the railway containers. (Photo/Chinanews.com)

“Under the Belt and Road Initiative, countries along the Belt and Road have shown increasing demand for containers. We are paying a lot of attention to this market demand, especially the demand of small and medium enterprises,” said Li Zhongpeng, a manager of Zhangzhou CIMC Container Co., Ltd., disclosing that he is currently busy opening up overseas markets further.

According to Li, his company has already carried out cooperation with e-commerce platforms to attract smaller and retail clients, and many companies from countries including India, the Philippines, Spain, the Netherlands, and Belgium have made inquiries about their products.