The freight volume of China’s national railways continued to maintain a high level. In the first half of the year, the cumulative amount of goods sent exceeded 1.9 billion tons, reaching 1.946 billion tons, a year-on-year increase of 5.5%. hereinafter referred to as the “National Railway Group”) and its predecessor China Railway Corporation since the establishment of the highest record in the same period.
In June, China’s railways sent 328 million tons of goods, an increase of 8.61% year-on-year. Since the beginning of this year, China’s railway freight volume has not only continued to grow, but the growth rate has continued to increase, and many freight indicators have hit record highs. In the first quarter, the first four months and the first five months of 2022, the growth rates were 2.71%, 4.50% and 4.86% respectively. In the first half of the year, the year-on-year growth rate of national railway freight volume reached a new high in 10 months.
In the first half of the year, the national railway freight volume has completed 49.90% of the new target plan, and the actual growth rate has been higher than the target growth rate.
In the first half of the year, the national railways completed an average of 178,000 vehicles per day, a year-on-year increase of 5.9%. A number of indicators such as the daily cargo delivery volume, freight turnover, the number of vehicles loaded, and the number of vehicles unloaded repeatedly refreshed historical records; the national railways sent grain and fertilizers. 88.26 million tons of agricultural-related materials, a year-on-year increase of 15.9%.
In the first half of the year, China-Europe freight trains operated 7,473 trains and sent 720,000 TEUs, an increase of 2% and 2.6% year-on-year respectively, and the comprehensive heavy container rate reached 98%. A total of 379,000 TEUs of goods were sent through the new western land-sea channel, a year-on-year increase of 33.4%; the average daily container loading of the national railway was 41,700 vehicles and 15.08 million TEUs were sent, an increase of 19.9% and 19.7% year-on-year respectively; the rail-water combined transport completed 5.69 million TEUs, A year-on-year increase of 31.1%.
Comparing the railway freight volume data in the past five years, it shows that although the railway freight volume is increasing, the growth rate is constantly narrowing. From 2017 to 2021, the national railway freight increase was 10.1%, 9.3%, 7.8%, 4.07% and 4.0% respectively, and the railway freight increase in 2021 was the lowest in the past five years. In other words, after 2020, the growth rate of railway freight will no longer exceed 5%, and the growth rate of railway freight this year is expected to end the downward trend.