New Tianjin road cuts transportation time, cost to Mongolia, Russia

For traders and buyers in Russia or Mongolia who order fresh food from China will see soon the transit time reduced by two-thirds to three days, as the China-Mongolia-Russia international road freight route was launched in Tianjin last month, which aims to shorten cargo transportation time between Tianjin, Mongolia and Russia.

It usually took more than 10 days for goods to reach Mongolia and Russia from Tianjin by rail before the international road freight route was established, and the options were limited as mostly storage-tolerance goods could be transported to maintain the quality of the goods.

Now the situation has changed as Tianjin is accelerating the construction of China-Mongolia-Russia economic corridor by eliminating the traffic bottleneck of road transport.

So far, Tianjin has been connected to two kinds of transport routes, namely rail transport and road transport, which both directly go to Ulan Bator of Mongolia and Ulan-Ude of Russia.

"Not only the transport time but also the cost will drop significantly," said Guo Xin, general manager of Nanning Xin Jin Hang Materials Co Ltd.

Starting from Guangxi, trucks can exit to Mongolia or Russia through Tianjin port whereas previously they needed to drive extra 1,000 kilometers via Sui Fenhe port, he added." At least 10 percent cost is reduced."

"Shortly, our company will import fish produced in Lake Baikal and Russian beer that are popular with Chinese, shortening the transport time will also lead to reduction in sales price."

Jia Kefu, secretary of party branch of Tanggu dangerous goods carriage yard of Tianjin Transportation Group Binhai Co Ltd, said: "Freight can directly reach Mongolia or Russia without a double transfer." His company used to trade goods to Mongolia, and goods must be transferred to local trucks.

"Special cross-border pass and frontier office will be set up on the China-Mongolia-Russia international road freight route to save clearance time," said Zheng Ping, vice-director of Tianjin Municipal Transportation Commission.

The three regions - Tianjin, Mongolia and Russia - are forging closer economic ties as cargo transport lines are continuously being improved.

"We plan to set up a logistics park located in Tianjin to promote the trade between Tianjin and Mongolia, and design of the logistics park has already begun," said Bart Kiki G, minister-counselor of the Mongolian embassy in Beijing.

"More vegetables and fruits from Tianjin will be exported to Mongolia with a good cold-chain logistics system to form," he added.