Yiwu (Suxi) International Hub, an inland rail-sea port described as creating a "sea in the interior," has seen its sea-rail shuttle services hit a record daily loading and unloading volume of more than eight pairs of trains, according to a report published on August 26, 2026.
Since officially opening in June last year as the core carrier of Ningbo-Zhoushan Port's "Sixth Port Area," the hub has connected the inland dry port directly with the seaport through the Yong-Jin railway. By the end of July, cumulative container arrivals and departures exceeded 250,000 TEU, freeing Yiwu's goods from geographic limitations.
The hub operates an integrated model covering port affairs, customs, shipping, information and management. As one of the General Administration of Customs' multimodal transport pilots, it links data across customs, railway, yard and shipping companies, allowing enterprises to complete logistics and clearance procedures with a single declaration. Goods inspected at the origin need no repeated transshipment, cutting clearance time by 50% and reducing comprehensive logistics costs per container by 20%.
The hub is also China's first mixed-mode pilot zone for autonomous railway yard operations. Driverless internal container trucks use 5G and BeiDou navigation for centimeter-level positioning, working with rail-mounted gantry cranes to raise loading efficiency by 61% and compress single-train handling time to under two hours, with a transshipment rate above 90%. Around-the-clock customs clearance lets enterprises move goods "any time they arrive."
Image: Yiwu International Trading Town, global small commodity hub. Source: Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
