Rail freight between China and southeast Asia, facilitated by the China-Laos and the China-Vietnam railways, is on an upward trend. Figures from 2025 show that more freight is crossing the borders on trains. Policy agreements have stimulated trade via rail.
On the China-Laos railway, the volume of freight in 2025 grew by 18% to 5.5 million tonnes. The total volume of freight transported on the route since its inauguration reached 24.5 million tonnes, according to Chinese sources.
Similarly, freight trains from China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region moved some 37,000 TEU in 2025, which amounts to an 86% increase in comparison with 2024. The Guangxi Zhuang region, and in particular its capital city of Nanning, is a consolidation hub for various freight flows on the way to Vietnam. The trend is clear: China exchanges more and more goods with Laos and Vietnam via the railways.
That is helped by tariff reductions, driven by the so-called Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0 Upgrade Protocol, write Chinese media. These help to reduce the cost of international trade.
Connection to Europe
Due to rapidly growing trade demand, container train services on the China-Vietnam Railway have seen significant expansion since their start in 2017. The number of weekly trains has grown from 3 at the start of operations to 14 in 2025. At the same time, the towing weight for each train has risen from 1,000 tonnes to 1,300 tonnes.
Since the opening of the 1,035-kilometre long China-Laos railway in December 2021, it has carried 72.5 million tonnes of goods and 62.5 million passengers, including over 16 million tonnes of cross-border freight.
Following the footsteps of Vietnam and Laos, Thailand may soon also have a railway connection to China. Construction started in 2017, with the first phase likely opening in 2028.
The railway will link up to the China-Laos line.
While far away from Europe, these Southeast Asian rail projects are not entirely irrelevant to the European rail freight industry. For example, companies like Maersk and Yusen Logistics have previously launched rail freight services from Vietnam to Europe. As of 2024, the overland journey took around 25 days to complete.