China-Laos Railway's foreign trade value tops 100 billion yuan

UNMING, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- The China-Laos Railway has handled over 20.77 million tonnes of import and export goods worth more than 100.4 billion yuan (about 14.9 billion U.S. dollars) since it began operation in 2021, Kunming Customs in southwest China said on Thursday.

Aerial photo shows a Fuxing bullet train running through Nanxihe grand bridge on the China-Laos Railway in southwest China's Yunnan Province, June 2, 2022. (Photo: Xinhua)

The railway, which has operated over 25,000 international freight trains, has seen its annual import and export cargo volume grow by more than 24 percent on average.

Its reach now extends to 19 countries and regions, including Laos and Thailand. The railway handles more than 3,900 categories of import and export commodities and serves over 7,000 enterprises across China, according to the customs.

In the first eight months of 2026, the value of Southeast Asian tropical fruits imported via the railway, such as durians, mangosteens and longans, reached 5.26 billion yuan, up 12.3 percent year on year. Cumulative imports of Southeast Asian tropical fruits by way of this railway had exceeded 16 billion yuan in value as of Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the export share of high-value-added, high-tech products like smartphones, industrial robots, and new energy vehicles and their components has continued to rise. In the first eight months of this year, the value of mechanical and electrical products exported via the railway totaled 7.42 billion yuan, a surge of 58.4 percent year on year.

The regular operation of specialized cold-chain trains has greatly enhanced the timely delivery and freshness of imported fruits including fresh Thai durians, said Ren Zhengwei, deputy general manager of the Kunming branch of China Railway Container Transport Corp., Ltd.

Customs authorities have implemented a special campaign to facilitate cross-border trade, advancing the deep integration of smart customs and smart port construction to continuously improve customs clearance facilitation measures, according to the customs authority.

The China-Laos Railway, which opened in December 2021 and links Kunming in Yunnan Province with the Lao capital Vientiane, has grown from a regional transport corridor into an international logistics artery.