Items filtered by date: Tuesday, 02 December 2014

The potential for upgrading and expanding rail north of Auckland will be investigated, as part of a package of improvements to help Northland’s growth, Transport Minister Phil Twyford and Associate Transport Minister Shane Jones have announced.

It’s an oldie but a goodie – Tip Top’s Boysenberry Ripple has taken out the supreme award at the New Zealand Ice Cream awards for the fourth time.

Technical experts in ventilation and geotechnical engineering will gather again in Greymouth soon to further refine concept plans for recovering the Pike River Mine drift access tunnel.

Air New Zealand and Qantas have today announced plans for a reciprocal codeshare agreement that leverages the strengths of each carrier’s domestic networks, making travel within Australia and New Zealand easier.

Experienced business, marketing and e-commerce specialist Ryan Jennings has joined the BusinessNZ team as Executive Director of the Buy New Zealand Made Campaign.

McLean Park returf project schedule and Napier City Council is pleased that the complex and large-scale redevelopment remains on track with next week marking the halfway point in the project.

Synlait Milk’s (NZX: SML; ASX: SM1) forecast base milk price for the 2017 / 2018 season has increased from $6.50 kgMS to $6.65 kgMS.

For the first time in the syndicate's history, Emirates Team New Zealand will build their own America’s Cup yachts writes Suzanne McFadden for Newsroom

Fletcher Building's Laminex NZ unit has exited a 10-year investment in a Southland medium density fibreboard plant with Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed Daiken getting clearance to buy the 124ha site at Mataura, Southland

On May 12, the first Silk Road train exclusively destined for Antwerp has arrived.

The freight train, which had left the Chinese port of Tangshan on 26 April, was officially welcomed in the port of Antwerp. This direct railway link between China and Antwerp is part of the transnational Chinese ‘Belt and Road Initiative’, with which China seeks to revive the trade routes of the old Silk Road from Asia to Europe.

‘Belt and Road Initiative’

The train is part of the 'Belt & Road Initiative' (BRI), the ambitious development programme of Chinese President Xi Jinping. The initiative provides for enhanced Eurasian connectivity through major infrastructure projects and restoration of the Silk Road, the historic trade route between Europe and the Far East which, in addition to the traditional maritime link, an efficient land bridge link.

First ever direct train from China to Antwerp

The train left the Chinese port of Tangshan on 26 April and travelled via the border crossing of Alashankou, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Poland and Germany to reach its final destination, the port of Antwerp, after 16 days and having covered a distance of 11,000 km. It is the fist ever direct train from China to Antwerp.

The service is an initiative of Tangshan City & Tangshan Port, in collaboration with the Chinese state-owned shipping company Cosco Shipping Lines and the Chinese Railways (CRCT).

The consignee is Cosco Shipping Belgium, which will ensure the forwarding to the end customers. The train is loaded with a total of 34 containers, containing industrial minerals for use in various industries and productions such as paper and ceramics, toothpaste and cosmetics. They are unloaded at Euroports, which will transport them to their bulk terminal for subsequent distribution in Europe.

Luc Arnouts, Director International Networks, Antwerp Port Authority:“This direct train link puts our port on the BRI map and will further strengthen our ties with China. We have long been working on this project, which represents an important milestone in our trade relations with China."

Marc Van Peel, port alderman, adds:“China is the fourth biggest partner country for Antwerp, with an annual traffic volume of nearly 14 million tonnes of goods. Antwerp is ideally located on both the maritime route and the rail route between Europe and China, and our port is perfectly capable of acting as a transhipment port for trade between China and Africa via rail link.”

Geert Gekiere, Managing Director Euroports Belgium:“We are proud and honoured to have the privilege of unloading and further handling the majority of the load of this first direct train between China and Antwerp. We encourage our customers to optimise their supply chain, which is why virtually all of our terminals support both road, rail and water connections. Transport from the Tangshan region via conventional container ships on average takes +35 days, but this train manages to do it in a record time of 16-20 days, and at relatively low costs."

Future cooperation

The local Chinese government is planning to run a direct train to Antwerp once or twice per month. To this end, Tangshan City is striving for closer cooperation with the Port of Antwerp and intends to sign an MOU/Sisterhood Agreement with the City of Antwerp. CRCT (Chinese Railways) is currently investigating the feasibility of setting up a commercial office in Europe.