BEIJING, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- The number of China-Europe freight trains hit 1,165 in January, up 66 percent year on year, data from the China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. showed.

This was the ninth straight month that China-Europe freight train trips exceeded 1,000, according to the company.

The freight trains carried 109,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit containers of goods last month, surging 73 percent from a year earlier.

The freight trains have played a crucial role in stabilizing the international logistics supply chain, promoting Sino-European trade and helping with the global fight against the COVID-19 epidemic.

Some 9.97 million pieces of anti-epidemic supplies, weighing 80,000 tonnes, have been sent to European countries including Germany, Poland and Belgium by the trains since the epidemic outbreak, the company said.