NANNING, Aug. 3 -- China's rail-sea intermodal trains are expected to make over 9,000 trips along the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor this year, according to a press conference held by south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Thursday.

The rail-sea intermodal trains made over 8,820 trips in 2022. The autonomous region plans to further boost the efficiency and connectivity of the corridor through building new infrastructure, among other measures.

According to the press conference, in recent years, there has been rapid growth in cargo throughput along the corridor. From 2019 to 2022, the comprehensive cargo throughput capacity of the Beibu Bay port in Guangxi jumped from 260 million tonnes to 315 million tonnes. At present, there are 75 container routes linking over 200 ports in more than 100 countries and regions.

In the first half of this year, the cargo throughput of Beibu Bay port surged by 14 percent year on year, and the number of trips made by rail-sea intermodal trains increased by 9 percent year on year, according to figures released at the press conference.

Meanwhile, in 2022, the trade volume generated by provincial-level regions along the corridor from imports and exports through ports in Guangxi totaled over 500 billion yuan (69.93 billion U.S. dollars), a record high. In the first half of this year, it had already surpassed 290 billion yuan, a surge of almost 50 percent year on year.

Launched in 2017, the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor is a trade and logistics passage jointly built by provincial-level regions in western China and ASEAN members.