COSCO Shipping Ports has opened a direct automated sea-rail connection at Xiamen Ocean Gate Container Terminal in China’s Fujian province.
The 1,586-metre railway extends into the terminal’s operating area and ends around 70 metres from the waterfront. Its location allows containers to move between vessels and trains without passing through a separate intermediate storage area.
The first freight train to use the line departed carrying 35 containers. The facility has an annual design capacity of 250,000 TEU and is intended to connect Xiamen’s maritime services more closely with inland rail corridors.
Unlike conventional port railways positioned around the edge of a terminal, the new line enters the central operating area at Xiamen Ocean Gate. The layout replaces the traditional train-to-yard-to-vessel process with a shorter connection between the railway and quayside operations.
The facility includes four automated rail-mounted gantry cranes and three parallel loading tracks. These are integrated with the terminal’s automated operations, including driverless container trucks moving between vessels, the container yard and the railway area.
A shared data interface and intelligent dispatch system are used to coordinate rail, terminal and vessel operations. The system is intended to manage equipment allocation and container movements across the different stages of the transport process.
COSCO reported that containers can be transferred between the terminal and railway in around nine minutes. The operator also expects the new arrangement to reduce logistics costs per container by more than 15 per cent and shorten overall transit times by between two and three days.
These figures represent the operator’s projected performance for the facility and have not been independently validated.
The line is designed to support import and export cargo moving between Xiamen and inland areas including Jiangxi, Hunan and Hubei provinces. It links the terminal’s international maritime network with more than 20 inland railway channels.
Lin Ji, President of China COSCO Shipping Corporation, said: “Through a unified data interface and intelligent dispatch system, the railway line clears import and export channels for inland hinterlands such as Jiangxi, Hunan and Hubei provinces.”
The railway is available to different market users and operates under a transparent pricing system, according to the project announcement.
COSCO Shipping Ports acquired full ownership of Xiamen Ocean Gate Container Terminal in 2023. The facility had previously introduced automated and 5G-enabled container-handling technology, including trials involving driverless terminal vehicles.
