NX China launches cross-border transport service with ASEAN countries using China-Laos Railway

Nippon Express (China) Co., Ltd. (NX China), a Group company of Nippon Express Holdings, Inc., on Friday, April 1 launched a new multimodal transport service linking up China and neighboring ASEAN countries via truck transport that utilizes an international railway connecting China and Laos.

Service features

This service is a multimodal service for transporting cargo by rail between Kunming, China and Vientiane, Laos and then by truck from Vientiane to Thailand and other neighboring ASEAN countries across the international border with Thailand’s Nong Khai Province.

This service provides a reliable lead time of five days.

*Figure derived from trial transport conducted between Kunming and Ayutthaya, Thailand

This eco-friendly express transport service reduces CO2 emissions by using rail transport and shortens lead time by 0.5 days compared to conventional transport by cross-border trucks only.

This service can be used as a BCP transport mode when ocean cargo transport is disrupted.

Background to service development

Following the successful launch of a Nanning-Hanoi railway, a new China-Laos railway connecting Kunming and Vientiane was opened on December 3, 2021. Cross-border trucking had theretofore constituted the mainstream of ground transport connecting China and ASEAN, but Nippon Express has developed a multimodal transport service using rail transport that avoids congestion on the China-Laos border, shortens lead times and enables bulk transport by using the new connecting railway to Vientiane. Trial transport has already been carried out from Kunming to Ayutthaya, Thailand.

The NX Group, formerly the Nippon Express Group which renamed its corporate group name following transition to a holding company system in January, will continue meeting the diversifying logistics needs of customers and creating new ideas and value that expand the field of logistics, as advocated in its Corporate Philosophy.