URUMQI, April 29 (Xinhua) -- The customs of the city of Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, said Wednesday that the number of China-Europe freight trains they handled continued to rise in the first quarter.

Urumqi Customs supervised a total of 1,482 China-Europe freight trains from January to March, up 7.39 percent year on year. Together they had carried over 1.02 million tonnes of cargo, up 45.09 percent from the corresponding period of the previous year.

The customs said the China-Europe cargo train services have become an important logistics channel to ensure smooth trade as air, sea and road transportation have been severely affected by the novel coronavirus epidemic.

The customs have rolled out a slew of measures including reducing the declaration cost and optimizing the inspection of imports to raise the customs clearance efficiency.

Sitting in the core area of the Silk Road Economic Belt, Xinjiang has become an important international logistics hub. About 70 percent of all China-Europe freight trains in China pass through Xinjiang.