Containers stockpiled at Ningbo Zhoushan Port in East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/WeChat account: nbfb0574]

Ningbo Zhoushan Port handled 1.4 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) via the sea-rail combined transport model in 2022, official statistics show. 

The amount was second highest among domestic ports and a year-on-year uptick of over 20 percent, according to the Ningbo Municipal Bureau of Transport. 

The sea-rail combined transport model refers to the mechanism where goods are first loaded onto trains to Ningbo before being transported overseas by sea, and vice versa.

Ningbo's sea-rail combined transport business has covered 63 prefecture-level cities in 16 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions across the nation since its inception in 2009.

The shift to using freight trains instead of trucks to transport goods to ports has slashed logistics costs for enterprises located in the nation's inland cities. Freight trains are also more environmentally friendly as they consume only 25 percent the amount of fuel required for trucks.

An official at the Ningbo municipal office of sea-rail combined transport said the city aims to open two additional freight routes and launch the sea-rail combined transport business in at least two more prefecture-level cities this year.