A freight train carrying electrical tools starts its trip from Jinhua, East China's Zhejiang Province on Thursday. The yixiou service, which runs the longest line of the China-Europe international freight train, is running its 1,000th China-EU freight train. Photo: cnsphoto

In-demand imported products carried by China-EU cargo trains are backing up at a major rail port in Northwest China as customs strengthens inspections to snuff out coronavirus infections. 

Many shipments of imported goods have been held up at Alashankou Port, in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region - one of the major rail ports linking China and Europe, logistics sources and agents said. 

"Around 2,000 containers have been stranded at the port as the inspection yard has not reopened yet. It was a devastating hit for imported goods at the port," Tan Guangming, a veteran agent of China-EU freight trains, told the Global Times on Wednesday. 

The congestion has also hit logistics firms. Shaanxi Further Strategy Supply Chain Management Co said that disinfection and inspection work on agricultural imports at the port are "extremely strict." 

"That leads to backlogs of imported wheat, barley, mung beans and soybeans from five countries in Central Asia at the port," the company told the Global Times, adding that it failed to deliver the products to large grain and fodder companies in China in time. 

Khorgas Port in the Ili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang is experiencing problems with exports, an employee of Khorgas Hightime International Logistics told the Global Times, speaking on condition of anonymity. 

"Exports of e-commerce products, equipment and life necessities have been affected," the person said.

China Railway, which supervises the China-EU freight trains, didn't respond to the Global Times' inquiry on Wednesday. 

However, the backlogs have not spread to a larger area. Manzhouli Port in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, another major port on China's border, is running as normal, Tan said.

As the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted global shipping, demand for China-EU freight transport has risen dramatically. The number of China-Europe freight train trips so far exceeded 10,000 as of the end of August, two months earlier than last year.

The achievement of the China-Europe rail link underscored the efficiency of such a transport mode and the massive shared trade interests of the two sides, which have delivered large amounts of lifesaving medical supplies amid the pandemic.

Official customs statistics released on Tuesday showed that China's trade with its second-largest trade partner, the EU, grew 32.4 percent year-on-year from January to August to $528.9 billion.