Multimodal rail-sea lines are increasingly transforming China’s trade with Europe and Africa. This week a train laden with Chinese products departed Chengdu in China’s Sichuan province, bound for Casablanca in Morocco. A second hybrid line is taking Chinese apple juice concentrate from Gansu province to Qingdao port, from where it will leave for Cape Town, South Africa.
These hybrid logistics links allow China to bypass chokepoints along traditional shipping routes while speeding up trade. Their rise comes with provincial governments’ efforts to build rural provinces like Gansu and Hunan into agricultural trade hubs, which feeds into China’s commitments to increase African agricultural imports at last year’s FOCAC summit.
