North China's Shanxi province has launched nine normalized international rail freight routes to 27 cities in 12 countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative since it first opened express freight train services to Europe and Central Asia in 2017. 

Over the past five years, Shanxi has operated 596 trains between the province and Europe and Central Asia carrying a total of 564,600 metric tons of cargo worth 7.84 billion yuan ($1.23 billion). In 2021 alone, 223 China-Europe and Central Asia trains set out from the province. 

Shanxi Jinou Logistics Co is the only operating platform for freight train services in Shanxi. 

With the help of the China-Europe Railway Express, the company has managed to build a timber field and bring in timber management customers from Russia, Belarus, Czech Republic and Germany, which has alleviated the shortage of raw materials in Shanxi's timber industry and helped integrate timber imports, processing and sales. 

The timber field encompasses timber storage, transportation, processing, and manufacturing. It extends the industrial chain of trains, broadens the product line of cargo transportation, and helps promote the establishment of a regional international logistics hub in Shanxi. 

Zhou Yong, deputy general manager of Shanxi Jinou Logistics Co, said that in 2022 the company will continue to optimize and innovate its operations and introduce more international logistics routes and services, so as to serve Shanxi's high-quality development.