DB Schenker has launched a new rail freight service between Hamburg and the Port Authority of Zhengzhou in China.
A weekly service has been operating between the Chinese city and Germany since August 2013 and from this month, trains will now be travelling in the opposite direction as well.
DB Mobility Logistics board member Karl-Friedrich Rausch said regular freight services to China would allow Germany and the rest of Europe to take advantage of the increasing volume of goods making their way east.
Officials flagged off the first freight train at the DUSS Bill Werder terminal in Hamburg earlier this week.
The train will travel 10,214 kilometres in around 17 days, passing through Poland, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan before arriving in China.
DB Schenker has operated block-train services between Germany and China since 2011. The operator transported 40,000 containers between 2012 and 2014, primarily for the automotive and electronics industries.
