A Chongqing cross-border highway regular lorry loaded with mechanical equipment set off from Chongqing Nanpeng Highway Bonded Logistics Center on January 3, a, marking the first departure in 2021. This was also the 5,001st departure of Chongqing cross-border highway regular lorry.

The Area B of Chongqing Nanpeng Highway Logistics Park. (iChongqing/ Wang Jieyu)

Data shows that since the launch on April 28, 2016, the number of Chongqing cross-border highway regular lorry departures has exceeded 5,000, shipping 11,252 TEUs with a total weight of about 75,100 tons and a total value of about 2.9 billion yuan (about 449.12 million U.S. dollars). In 2020, there were 2,824 departures and 6,354 TEUs, weighing about 50,000 tons and valuing about 1.4 billion yuan.

In recent years, in addition to vigorously developing rail- and water-borne open passages, Chongqing has also made great efforts to construct road-borne passages.

"Compared with rail-, air- and water-borne logistics, road-borne logistics is more flexible for providing door-to-door and non-stop customized services. Especially for ASEAN regions without access to large-scale logistical infrastructure, the road is an effective means to overcome the final key hurdles in ensuring smooth logistics," a person in charge said.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic impact in 2020, the Chongqing cross-border highway regular lorry has shown an upward trend in operation. Compared with 2019, the year-on-year growth of the number of departures in 2020 was about 126%, the number of shipped TEUs was 126%, the cargo weight was about 204%, and the cargo value was about 117%.

Meanwhile, the Chongqing Highway Logistics Base is actively expanding its transportation network. Based on the original six ASEAN lorry routes, another two to Central Asia were successfully opened in 2020, constituting an economic and trade channel between Chongqing and Central Asian countries.

"With more than four years efforts, the Chongqing cross-border highway regular lorry has now opened eight routes, fully covering the cross-border highway transportation of the Indo-China Peninsula, and effectively linking European market with the China Railway Express," said the person in charge.

(Fan Xingyan, as an intern, also contributed to this report.)