Yantian starts intermodal shuttle to Dongguan
Yantian International Container Terminal said Monday a new intermodal rail service started over the weekend, connecting the terminal to Changping, a region in the factory-laden city of Dongguan.
It's the latest rail service connecting YICT to inland points in Guangdong province as well as cities in three landlocked provinces.
The service allows export cargo to be shuttled to YICT in 100 minutes, alleviating the need to truck containers from Dongguan through Shenzhen. YICT, the largest individual terminal complex in the Port of Shenzhen, is located east of the city while Dongguan is northwest of the city.
Other Shenzhen terminals — like Nansha, Shekou and Chiwan — are geographically closer to Dongguan than Yantian, so the service is a way for YICT to better compete for export cargo in a time when demand is drying up.
The Changping-Yantian Express Service is a joint venture between China Railway Container Transport, China Railway International Multimodal Transport and YICT. The service runs five times a day, seven days a week, with fixed services and train timetables that guarantee on-time arrival and door-to-door logistics services. The shuttle has capacity for 25 40-foot containers on each run.
In recent years, YICT extended rail service to Guangzhou, and Shaoguan in Guangdong province, as well as services to cities in Jiangxi, Hunan and Yunnan provinces.