China to Europe express rail freight

[tongxinpete]

I found an article in an old newspaper concerning a rail freight line running fortnightly from Chengdu to Lodz in Poland. Chengdu is near to Shenzen where much ebike stuff is made & the Lodz hub offers onward surface distribution within Europe. UPS, TNT & DHL are involved, the containers are temperature controlled as the return journey takes back food products. Costs are said to be a quarter to an eighth of air shipping. I wondered if we could get our suppliers such as Bmsbatt & Greenbikekit on board. Also I thought if Li cells could arrive this way for ongoing distribution & self assembly, then this could bring the price of a decent battery down. I have taken the plunge recently & built a LiPo4 batt from pouch cells & a BMS, it has been a real step change in performance & rideability. Others have said that no one should have to use SLA on cost grounds Half of the cost of a decent batt is air shipping as it is classed by air lines as hazardous. Maybe they might consider Lipo4 if not LiCoMn. info here http://www.lloydsloadinglist.com/freight-directory/rail/new-china-europe-rail-freight-service-makes-promising-start/20018049292.htm;jsessionid=D4D

 

[Oxygen Bicycles]

all the stuff that comes to Poland will have to be VAT taxed at 23% + all nightmare of customs clearance makes it a poor option imho

 

[tongxinpete]

As far as I can see it would not be imported into Poland, that is just a transhipping point, ie where the china train terminates, via DHL etc it could be shipped on to its final destination, so probably 20% vat if you get stung, luckily many times I have not.