STORY: European logistics company expands business thanks to China-Europe Express Rail
SHOOTING TIME: March 19, 2024
DATELINE: March 30, 2024
LENGTH: 00:01:50
LOCATION: Bratislava
CATEGORY: ECONOMY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of China-Europe Express Rail
2. SOUNDBITE (English): MARTIN KOUBEK, Director of Silk Road and CIS division of Metrans
3. various of China-Europe Express Rail

STORYLINE:

Metrans, a major player in seaport container traffic in Europe, has expanded its rail services linking the growing markets of Asia and Europe, thanks to rapid cargo transport connections from the China-Europe Express Rail project.

The China-Europe Express Rail allows cargo to be delivered from China to Europe within 14 days, a fast transportation solution costing only slightly more than sea freight, but significantly lower than air freight.

SOUNDBITE (English): MARTIN KOUBEK, Director of Silk Road and CIS division of Metrans
"We have started with the Chinese trains in 2017.
The first train was from Zhengzhou to Hamburg, which we have been doing until now.
Then was the train from Yiwu to Prague and the most frequent currently is the train from Xi'an to Czech, Slovakia, Austria.
We see the significant importance for cargoes going from China on the rail.
We started to boost the connection to China via Malaszewicze.
That's why we also bought the terminal in Malaszewicze, which is very much connected to the Silk Road.
The cargo going to Hungary from China is very strong and will be much stronger due to the investments of Chinese companies in Hungary."
Everything, what is our long term goal is to boost up our network, to make our network more stable and reliable for the clients.
On the Silk Road, this is what we did.
And for the future we see still potential for increase."

Metrans possesses 20 container terminals across Europe, with two more under construction. They operate some 650 trains per week and delivered 1.3 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) last year.

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Bratislava.
(XHTV)