In the first two months, the sea rail intermodal container volume at Qingdao Port exceeded 500000 TEUs

On March 24th, a sea rail direct freight train loaded with water pump accessories and automotive parts was transported directly from Zhengzhou Inland Port to Qingdao Port in Shandong Province via railway. Thanks to the "land sea linkage and sea rail direct transportation" supervision mode of Qingdao Customs, the goods have completed customs clearance procedures in advance at the Zhengzhou railway port, and will be directly loaded onto ships and shipped to Europe after arriving at Qingdao Port.

Data shows that in the first two months of this year, Qingdao Customs supervised 512000 TEUs of sea rail intermodal transport at Qingdao Port, a year-on-year increase of 10.6%, indicating strong momentum in international logistics channels.

Under the sea rail intermodal transportation mode, import and export goods are seamlessly connected with coastal port ship transportation through railway transportation, achieving "one declaration, one inspection, and one release". As the core transportation mode of international logistics, it saves more than 30% in cost compared to intermodal transportation in scenarios with a distance of over 600 kilometers, shortens transportation cycle by nearly one-third, reduces cargo damage rate by 80%, and also avoids the cumbersome process of multiple document circulation in segmented transportation.

In addition to cost savings, the stability of sea rail intermodal transportation is also a key advantage, "said Dai Xuechao, the business manager of the sea rail intermodal transportation center at Qingdao Port International Logistics Co., Ltd. of Shandong Port Logistics Group. Traditional road transportation is greatly affected by road conditions, and procedures such as port entry cut-off and weight drop are complicated. Customs and ports have jointly created a" direct in and direct out "operation mode, and the average loading and unloading of goods can be completed within 2 hours after arrival at the port, with a punctuality rate of over 99% for trains.

In order to accelerate the construction of international logistics channels, Qingdao Customs has taken the lead in carrying out normalized cooperation in all business areas of the "11+1" customs in the Yellow River Basin. Based on the sea rail intermodal transportation model, it has tailored a logistics supervision model of "land sea linkage and sea rail direct transportation" for inland enterprises, extending the frontier functions of port cargo collection and loading to inland areas, and further achieving seamless integration and integrated operation between inland ports and port ports.

Now, through the sea rail intermodal transportation 'one order to the end' service, the entire process can be reached with one commission and one settlement, reducing the logistics cost of a single box by 15%. Last year, we exported more than 120 TEUs of goods through this channel, saving more than 360000 yuan in costs, "said Zhao Qiang, General Manager of Shandong Road and Bridge International Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd.

On the same day that the sea rail direct transport train arrived, a transit train loaded with South Korean cars, excavators, and cosmetics departed from Qingdao Port and will depart for Kyrgyzstan at the Turgat Port.

With the increasingly close trade between China and Central Asia, convenient international logistics is attracting more and more goods heading to Central Asia to use Qingdao Port as a transit channel.

In response to the characteristics of "port station linkage and multimodal connection" in sea rail intermodal transportation, Huangdao Customs under Qingdao Customs has innovatively implemented the "two pictures, one review" non-invasive supervision mode. When the goods enter the port and are unloaded, the machine inspection is completed accordingly. When leaving the country, the comparison and judgment of the front and back two machine inspection images are carried out to achieve "one declaration, one order to the end, and inter customs mutual recognition" for fast customs clearance. Each box compresses the waiting time at the port of entry by about 6 days, saving logistics costs of 400 yuan.

We have built an integrated information system of 'customs, ports, stations, containers, and goods', deeply connected with the' land sea communication 'and' customs port communication 'platforms, and achieved paperless declaration of customs declaration forms and full process electronic data review, "said Liu Hongbo, Deputy Director of the Supervision Department of Huangdao Customs Port Supervision." By establishing an inter customs cooperation mechanism with 16 ports and transit customs, we have worked together in information sharing, abnormal handling, and other aspects to create a fast track for sea rail transit logistics

In the whole year of 2025, Qingdao completed a sea rail intermodal container volume of 2.829 million TEUs, a year-on-year increase of 11%, ranking first in the national sea rail intermodal volume for 11 consecutive years. Lai Fan, director of the Port Supervision Department of Huangdao Customs, said that the customs would increase the density of sea rail intermodal trains in the next step, improve the supervision scheme for the transport of special goods such as cold chain and dangerous chemicals, and provide safer, more efficient and economic logistics support for the trade between the Yellow River basin and the countries jointly building the "the Belt and Road". (Bi Wenbo/Wen)