XinHua News Agency Harbin May 11(reporter Qiang Yong) A special train for packaging machinery from Harbin to Bikiliang departed from Harbin, Capital of Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Thursday. The train, carrying 50 containers worth $7.5 million, is expected to arrive in the Russian city of Bikiliang in 18 days.
The reporter learned from the Bureau of Commerce of Harbin that this special train is the first single special train between Kazakhstan and Russia, leaving the country through the Manzhouli port and passing through major Russia cities such as Houbaikal and Irkusk, covering a distance of nearly 10.000 kilometers. The goods on the special train are packaging machinery and equipment produced by Harbin enterprises.
Since the Kazakhstan-Russia freight train opened on February 27, 2016,a total of nearly 23, 500TEU(standard unit) containers have been shipped. The Kazakh-Russia freight train has greatly shortened the transportation distance from China to Russia. Previously, domestic container cargo was mainly transported by sea, detour from Dalian and other ports to Russia ports, and the transportation time is about 40days ,and the transportation cost is high.
In recent years, Harbin has accelerated its efforts to become a center city of China-Russia cooperation. In the first quarter of this year, Harbin's total import and export value increased by 7.2％ year-on-year,28.6 percentage points higher than that of the same period last year, driven by the substantial increase in the export of electromechanical and high-tech products to Russia.
