In October in Zhundong, the wind carries the smell of coal dust. A special open top container train filled with 3240 tons of coal slowly departed from the East Hope Railway Dedicated Line. With this, the first point-to-point circular coal transportation route in Xinjiang has officially been opened.

Empty boxes no longer run in vain

A special open top box train numbered 29013 travels from Zhundong to Mianchi Station in Sanmenxia, Henan. In the past, it wasn't coal that gave people a headache, it was boxes. The 20 foot universal container for aluminum oxide arrived in Zhundong for unloading, but there were no matching sources of goods from Xinjiang available locally, so we had to return empty; The amount of Xinjiang coal entering Henan is increasing, and there is a rush to find empty containers. Xinjiang is one of the three national bases and one channel, with a predicted total coal resource of 2.19 trillion tons, accounting for 40.6% of the country's total. Zhundong is not only a billion ton coal production base, but also a gathering place for silicon aluminum new materials. The mismatch between vehicle and container sources is like this.

One sack breaks the game

Urumqi Bureau and Zhengzhou Bureau are expanding cross bureau cooperation to Shenzhen, clarifying the source structure of goods in both places, changing packaging, and also modifying vehicle models. Zhengzhou bureau wrapped aluminum oxide in waterproof bags, bypassing the old method of relying on 20 foot universal containers for a long time. The same vehicle model can be loaded with both aluminum oxide and coal. The long-distance entry of empty vehicles into Xinjiang has become a process of loading heavy vehicles into Xinjiang. After the alumina is unloaded, the vehicles load coal nearby and leave Xinjiang, saving the process of assembling and distributing coal before loading onto trucks. Keywords: Xinjiang coal transportation, heavy import into Xinjiang

The car skin follows the goods

Since 2026, Xinjiang Railway has increased the organization of coal transportation, improved the collection and distribution system, cooperated with railways, coal mines, and power plants, ensured quantity and price during peak and off seasons, and insisted on unloading to ensure loading. As of now, the transportation volume of imported alumina into Xinjiang has reached 8.176 million tons, and 140000 empty containers have been utilized after unloading. From January to September, Xinjiang exported 78.047 million tons of coal, a year-on-year increase of 11%; On October 10th, the railway freight volume in Xinjiang exceeded 200 million tons, reaching 200.1 million tons, 12 days earlier than last year. The round-trip of one box saves the logistics costs of the whole society and tightens the backbone of the industries in both places.Editor/Min Jing