A seminar was held recently in Chongqing to promote shipper awareness of the possibility of regular, two-way commercial rail freight services between Chongqing and the Belgian port of Antwerp.

Karin Duivenvoorden, head of marketing and promotion for Antwerp Port Authority, said Antwerp would look to exploit its cluster of chemical industry activities to help generate sufficient eastbound traffic to balance anticipated westbound container flows out of Chongqing.

According to Cargonews Asia, the new Chongqing service would involve using established daily rail services from Antwerp to Slawkow in Poland, with onward connections to Moscow. From there, the train will connect with the Tran-Siberian rail system to Beijing, with onward movement of individual wagons from there to Chongqing via the Chinese rail network.

The service will be provided by European intermodal operator Hupac in conjunction with partners Russkaya Troyka in Russia and Eurasia Good Transport in China.