North China border ports see record-high freight throughput

HOHHOT, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- The freight volume passing through land checkpoints in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, which borders Mongolia and Russia, has surpassed 100 million tonnes this year, with the annual throughput breaking the benchmark for the first time, according to the region's commerce department.

Inner Mongolia has a border line that stretches over 4,200 km and boasts 14 land ports. These ports handle more than 90 percent of the land transport between China and Mongolia, as well as over 65 percent of the land transport between China and Russia.

By Dec. 8, the railway freight via the ports had reached 35.8 million tonnes and that of road transport amounted to 64.3 million tonnes so far this year.

Among them, cargo trade with Russia logged 21.4 million tonnes, and that with Mongolia reached 78.7 million tonnes.

Cao Junpei, an official with the regional administration of customs, said the regional government has been committed to supporting upgrades in infrastructure and facilities on the land ports, especially major ports such as Manzhouli and Erenhot.

He said the China-Europe freight train service through the land ports provides convenient land routes for international economic and trade exchanges, and has given a strong impetus to the growth of freight trade in Inner Mongolia.

According to the customs data, there are 57 China-Europe freight train service lines passing through the port of Manzhouli, and 63 lines via the port of Erenhot. Combined, these lines account for about 40 percent of the total number of China-Europe freight train lines.

In the first 11 months of this year, 7,708 China-Europe freight trains passed through the land ports in Inner Mongolia, with the number surging by 14.8 percent year on year.