ANKARA, 18 December, 2020, (TON): A China-Europe freight train from Turkey entered China Thursday via Horgos Port in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the local customs said.

The cargo train is Turkey's first for exports to China, which departed Istanbul on December 4 and is bound for the northwestern Chinese city of Xi'an. It is scheduled to arrive at its final destination on Saturday. The train is carrying 1,383 refrigerators worth about 10.4 million yuan (about 1.59 million U.S. dollars).

While international shipping and air transport logistics have been held back by the COVID-19 epidemic, China-Europe freight trains have buttressed the stability of the global industrial and supply chains, according to Horgos customs on the China-Kazakhstan border.

It is also the first return China-Europe freight train that passed through the "southern corridor," a transport network that includes the trans-Caspian corridor and the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway, said the customs.

"The successful launch of this train will bring more logistics and freight resources into the 'southern corridor,' turn the advantages of the route into market benefits, and inject new momentum into the joint construction of the Belt and Road and the building of an open economy," said Chen Fang with the customs.

The train, entering Georgia through eastern Kars province, is scheduled to stop at the southern town of Akhalkalaki, then traveling across Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan before delivering cargo to China’s Xi’an province.

The Iron Silk Road connectivity program, spanning 8,693 km and five countries, reduces freight duration between Turkey and China from a month to 12 days by following the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, also known as the Middle Corridor, via the BTK railway.

Turkish authorities consider BTK a vital segment of the "Iron Silk Road" stretching from China to Turkey and further into Europe.