Cosco in railfreight venture with Japanese operator

<p>Cosco has secured a deal with the Japan Freight Railway Company to transport goods between Japan and China, </p> <p>The Japanese newspaper <em>Nihon Keizai Shimbun</em> reported that the two companies planned to combine their ship and rail transport networks to offer to electronic parts manufacturers a distribution service that was faster than ordinary container shipping and cheaper than air freight.</p> <p>The fee for the new service was expected to be about 60-70% less than the air freight charge and about 50% more than container vessel rate, the report said.</p> <p>The two companies will initially make one shipment per week, with a capacity of about 500-750 tonnes a month, transporting mainly home electronics and clothing to Japan and automobiles and electronic parts to China.</p> <p>In shipments from Chinese plants to Japan, Cosco is to collect the goods from firms there, gather them and transport them by sea from Shanghai to the Moji port in Fukuoka. The goods are then to be transported by rail to destinations in Japan.</p> <p>Shipments from Shanghai to Tokyo are expected to take about four days, compared with about three days by air and roughly six days by container ship. </p> <br />