The 1,000th sea-rail transport train departs Yongkangdong Railway Station in Jinhua, Zhejiang province, on Sept 4. [Photo/Tide News]

Yongkang, a county-level city in Jinhua, Zhejiang province, saw a remarkable 60.17 percent year-on-year increase in its sea-rail intermodal transportation service in November, with 10,264 twenty-foot equivalent units of goods transported.

This is a monthly record high for Yongkang Landport International Logistics Co.

Yongkang, renowned as the "Capital of Hardware", boasts strong demand for overseas cargo transportation. Since the opening of the sea-rail intermodal train connecting Yongkangdong Railway Station to Ningbo-Zhoushan Port in 2021, the city has been establishing a new multimodal transportation model, aiming to foster a transport network covering surrounding cities and even extending toward the Eurasia continent.

"Sea-rail intermodal transportation offers advantages such as increased transport capacity, enhanced speed, reduced costs, and heightened safety compared to road transport," explained Cao Zhengtao, director of the company's operation department. 

This mode of transportation has significantly lowered costs for enterprises. "We can not only benefit from discounts in sea and rail transport prices simultaneously but also eliminate the need for container switching between the two modes, boosting logistics efficiency," said Cheng Xiaoyan of the Haers Vacuum Ware Company in Yongkang.

Through sea-rail intermodal transportation, around 300 yuan (about $41) can be saved per container on average, and the company has reduced transport costs by more than 150,000 yuan, according to Cheng.

From January to November, Yongkang's foreign trade reached 37.962 billion yuan, with exports hitting 36.63 billion yuan, an 18.7 percent increase. The sea-rail intermodal transportation service operated 391 trains, transporting 84,000 TEUs and reducing logistics expenses by about 20 million yuan for local enterprises.