October 22, 2007 (LPAC)--China's Shipping Container Lines (CSCL) and the state-owned China Railway Container company are cooperating to create the first inter-modal container railway transport service along the "Euro-Asian Continental Bridge" railroad, from China's Yellow Sea port of Lianyungang, via Xinjiang, western China, to Kazakhstan and Russia. This route was first opened in 1992 when the last rail link was opened between China and Kazakhstan, but container traffic has not been growing as rapidly as planned, although using the "Continental Bridge" cuts transport time from eastern China to Russia and Europe by 50%, to just 26 days. China Shipping, the sixth-largest container shipping line in the world, began the first inter-modal container transport service China-Russia on Oct. 8, Marshall Cavendish Business Information of Hong Kong, reports today. The company will expand its shipping, since Russian imports of Chinese and Japanese products has risen 37% and 54% each in the first half of 2007, as domestic shipping, from Shanghai to the northeastern cities of Dalian, Harbin and Hefei have grown 70% this year. China's containerized rail cargo, at 3 million TEUs, is still only 3% of national rail cargo, in contrast to 20% in the US and 30% in Europe.

On Oct. 20, a delegation from the border city of Tumen, in China's northeastern Jilin Province, went to Partizansk, Primorye, far eastern Russia, to sign a cooperation agreement on joint investment in coal and lumber production, the Vladivostok Times reported. The Chinese delegation then went to Khabarovsk, Russia, to discuss with the Far Eastern Railway authorities, the potential for opening a direct rail connection from Tumen to Khasan, Russia - both are stations, east and west, on the North Korean border. A potential rail link across North Korea would cut 200-300 km of distance from southern Primorye, on the Pacific coast, and China, from the current border link Suifenhe-Grodekovo. The new rail link would create new economic potential for the seaports southern Primorye. Freight traffic has been increasing by 1 million tons a year at the Suifenhe-Grodenkovo border crossing.